Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/683145
IN THE WIND P32 PEARSON, BURSON GO 1-2 AT SAW- MILL RUN WHS S ponsoring an event may get you some attention, but there's nothing like winning it to grab the headlines. So, while Purvines Racing may have been the title spon- sor of the Sawmill Run, hosted by the Silver State Trailblaz- ers—round five of the Kenda/ SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles Regional Championship Series, May 22—it was the result that warranted the most attention as Purvines Racing Beta riders Axel Pearson and Nick Burson scored a decisive 1-2 at the end of the day. SRT KTM's Cory Graffunder, the reigning series champion, put in another strong ride to grab third in terrain that's not his favorite. At first, things looked grim for the two Beta riders because they both got horrible starts. "I sat there for 20 seconds trying to start my bike!" Bur- son lamented, recalling that he looked over and his teammate was doing the same. Meanwhile, out front, it was another Pearson—Tuffy, Axel's brother—who'd grabbed the holeshot. Despite being off bikes for two years while on a church mission, Tuffy appeared to have lost little speed aboard the same TM EN 300 that was his race bike when he last raced in 2013. But his lack of seat time plus the fact that he needed to pit for fuel at the end of each 15-mile lap meant he had no realistic chance of being in front at the finish, though he did lead the entire first lap while Axel made miraculous passes in the thick dust until Tuffy was the only rider in front of him. And when Tuffy ducked into the pits at the end of that first lap, Axel swept past to take the lead for good on his Motul/Pre- cision Concepts/Klim-backed 480 RR. "I grew up here so I've ridden all these trails," Axel acknowl- edged, "and I honestly haven't had the best of luck here, really, so it's good to get out front early for once!" Other than stopping for a downed rider late in the race, Axel enjoyed a fairly uneventful Saturday afternoon. He finished with a comfortable cushion of almost four minutes over team- mate Burson who had an excit- ing first few miles. After crashing on the first downhill, Graffunder rode into him in the dust, so Burson lost even more time. "It was crazy! You couldn't see a thing!" Graffunder con- firmed. "Burson actually passed me like a mile in, then crashed in the dust and I ran over his bike. I don't even know if we were on the course, it was that dusty!" But Burson felt at home in the mostly fast going where he's done so well in the past at hare & hound nationals and he made his way to the front of the pack aboard his Kenda/FMF/6D Hel- mets 480 RR, finally passing Ian Blythe to move into third before the end of the first lap. "The Pearson boys were gone [at that point]; there was not even dust in sight," Burson said. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK KARIYA Axel Pearson ran away from the pack to record his first win of the season and lead a Purvines Racing Beta 1-2, with teammate Nick Burson almost four minutes behind.