IN
THE
WIND
P18
BRABEC BOUNCES BACK
A
fter losing round three of
the Kenda/SRT AMA Hare
& Hound National Champion-
ship Series to a large error when
he lost the course, Johnny
Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda's
Ricky Brabec vowed to mini-
mize mistakes at round four, the
Gas It Off-road Racing Series'
Rattlesnake 100, Presented by
Team R&S Racing, at the Fun
Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area
just outside of town of Espanola,
New Mexico, June 26.
After battling with holeshot
winner Jacob Argubright in the
early part of the race, Brabec
seized control and rode away
from the field for his second
triumph of the season, extend-
ing his series points lead to
33 over the Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna Factory Racing Off-
road Team ace, 110-77. Crashing
and wrenching his knee slowed
Argubright to an eventual third
for the day, with Purvines Rac-
ing Beta's Nick Burson happily
powering by for second place,
his first finish after two consecu-
tive DNFs.
Off the start, Brabec tucked
in behind Argubright and Bur-
son as they headed out for the
first of four laps around the
25-mile loop, one of several
big differences between this
and "normal" hare and hound
races where the same ground
is rarely covered twice due to
using longer loops. But since
this event came as a last-minute
replacement for the race origi-
nally scheduled for June 11 in
Utah that got cancelled, some
concessions had to be made
in order to abide by local BLM
regulations.
Despite being able to pre-run
the loop on Saturday (another
big change from the norm), Bra-
bec insisted that the pace was
milder than expected on the first
time around.
"It was basically a trail ride,"
he said. "Jake was blowing a lot
of corners on the first lap—lead-
ing a National's not easy so he
made a few mistakes. Me and
him were going back and forth;
it was cool."
But Brabec squeaked by to
lead officially at the end of the
first lap, though having to pit
forced him to hand the lead
back to Argubright, who was
able to eke out 50 miles per
tank on his FC 450.
Brabec got the lead for good
Ricky Brabec wanted
avoid making any
big mistakes and
get on top of the
podium, which he did
convincingly.