BURSON, PEARSON TOP PARKER 250
F
or all the success Nick
Burson's enjoyed over the
years, there was one place and
race that seemed to defy his
mojo and that was THR Motor-
sports Parker 250, Presented
by Polaris, the opening round of
Best in the Desert's American
Off-road Racing Series.
"I've done it since '09 except
for one year," he recalled. "A
brand-new Kawi broke one year.
Ran out of gas one year. Flat
one year and the tire came off.
It's never, never been good."
That run of bad luck fi-
nally changed for him and his
Purvines Racing Beta teammate
Axel Pearson as they took the
lead early and stayed out front
and out of trouble for the rest
of the morning to start the year
with the first of what they hope
will be many wins.
In a departure from the Parker
norm, the pair didn't switch off
at the Midway pit, opting instead
to let Burson take their FMF/
Motul/Klim-sponsored 480 RR
for a full 79-mile lap, Pearson
riding the middle lap and Burson
finishing up.
"He's pretty fast at the begin-
ning of races so we let him start
and I just rode the middle loop,"
Pearson said. "I just tried to ride
smooth and fast because he'd
opened up a two-and-a-half,
three-minute lead."
"It's nice to get back out there
and get a win, especially here,"
Burson added. They completed
the race in four hours, eight min-
utes and 50 seconds, unofficially.
New Pros Jeremy Newton
and Troy Vanscourt ran a strong
second aboard their THR Mo-
torsports/BajaDadRacePrep.
com/MSR-supported YZ450F,
finishing in an unofficial 4:19:56.
"We gave it a shot last year at
[the] Henderson [season finale
but had problems], but we're
glad to start out 2016 like this,"
IN
THE
WIND
P22
Nick Burson speeds
down a rocky road
on the first of his two
stints at Parker. He and
teammate Axel Pearson
led most of the way,
finally breaking the
Parker curse that
Burson's fought
previously.
