Cycle News

BEST IN THE DESERT AMERICAN OFF-ROAD RACING SERIES VOL. 51 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2014 P85 Briefly... really enjoy it," Davis said. "I've just got to stay in shape! I started feeling it about halfway around." Justin Morgan on his first-ever race at Laughlin: "I always heard it was a technical single-track, kind of slow desert race - kind of like the second loop of a [National] hare & hound is what everybody told me. They were pretty spot-on! It's really fun and ex- actly what I want to come do." After finishing second overall at the season-opening Parker 250, Jor- dan Kundert and Blake Stouard got a new bike for Laughlin: a former Johnny Campbell Racing Honda team CRF450R. Unfortunately, it wasn't sorted as well as the older CRF450R they used at Parker, and the Speed Freaks Apparel-spon- sored duo finished fifth Open Pro and seventh overall. After a very busy January - most of which he spent being the navigator for Robby Gordon in the Dakar Rally followed by pre-running in Baja last week - Kellon Walch hadn't ridden since the Tecate Hare Scrambles in December, but he jumped at the chance to join Ty Davis at Laughlin. It paid off with the class win. Ryan Smith's string of 250cc wins just kept rolling along with his Laugh- lin result. Being a team race, he chose Nic Garvin as his teammate, with Garvin handling starting and first-loop duties. But Smith ended up riding most of the race himself. "Nic crashed on his first time out - he started - and after that I had to ride the race all by myself. It was tech- continued on next page out there. I haven't ridden desert in a while and I'm a little rusty. I just had fun today and tried to help Ricky get some points." "Usually this race is hard to navigate - it's not a normal, wide- open Best in the Desert race," Brabec said while waiting for the finish after his third and final stint. "You're out here in the sticks navigating this fresh trail. The first loop, I was blowing corners left and right. The second loop went better. The third loop, finally ev- erything was marked up, every- thing was burned in and it was good." David Pearson said, "We came off the first loop basically all the same; we were all within 10 sec- onds of being a minute away from each other, still about the same as where we started. "Matt rode really good on his loop; he brought the bike in and we were leading on adjusted time. He brought the bike in about 60 seconds behind the Beta and about a minute and 30 seconds behind the Kawi, behind N1. "So then I hopped on and I rode really good. I was able to pass Axel. I brought the bike back in only a minute behind Brabec, which meant we were a minute ahead on adjusted time because we started two minutes behind them." The Western Design Racing/ THR Motorsports/Monster En- ergy-backed pair stayed close enough to keep an eye on their THR Motorsports/Monster Ener- gy/Precision Concepts KX450F- over the undulating, dry, slick trails. Basically a last-minute replace- ment for Robby Bell, Abbatoye not only had the unenviable job of trying to lead while learning the ins and outs of his first Laughlin, this was also his first race of the year. "It was really hard; I've never been out here before," Abbatoye said. "I got a call Thursday night to come out so I was a little un- prepared, but I was excited for the challenge. "It definitely was hard to lead. I think I blew every corner that was

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