IN
THE
WIND
P36
"I knew we had a big lead
and I was just kind of riding and
doing my own thing and not re-
ally pushing," he noted. "I came
around a sweeping left and there
was a three-foot-tall green bush.
I'm standing up and as soon as I
get around the bush, there was
a rock the size of an ice chest
directly in front of me so I tagged
that with the front wheel and I
kind of went over the bars. I was
pretty mad at myself because I
need to stay off the ground."
He added, "After I crashed, the
bike wouldn't even work because
the exhaust was folded in so I had
to kind of [fix] it in the field by my-
self and kick the exhaust to open
it up [enough to run].
"I was able to ride the bike an-
other 100 miles and get it to Top
Gun [pit at mile 462]." Barreda
took it to the finish.
Farther back, solo rider Skyler
Howes found himself battling
with both the Cooper, Marshall,
Pearson, Tolman team as well
as the Next Level Fitness Wa-
ter YZ450FX of Travis Damon,
Michael Del Fante and Michael
Spaise.
Howes managed to get his
Fastheads/Lake Powell Off-road
Association CRF450X into third
in the last half, but damaging the
chain guide left him on the side
of the trail and looking at a DNF
until fellow Open Pro solo rider
Garrett Poucher stopped to give
him the Allen wrench he needed.
Howes eventually reached the
finish in 11:55:34, 10th in class
and 26th overall.
Fifth off the line, the even-
tual third-place finishers also
thought they were in for a long
day when Tolman thought their
CRF450X was running out of
fuel. Fortunately, it was simply
a case of the petcock not being
on reserve and the team went
on to claim third. "We did some
position swapping based on
where we were at," Cooper said.
"Putting Tuffy back on the bike
and picking up some time there
[helped]."
The Damon/Del Fante/
Spaise team held on for fourth in
9:51:35 while Jared Schlapie/
Taylor Stevens rounded out the
top five in 9:56:23 aboard their
Stevens Erectors Husky.
This year's Vegas to Reno saw
a fatality when Open Amateur
racer Chris Carlisle (1st SGT
USMC, Ret.) succumbed to his
injuries after a single-rider crash.
Mark Kariya
Michael Skurkis
seemingly did
nothing but pass
people all day,
coming through the
pack to not only win
Ironman Expert but
finish an impressive
ninth motorcycle.
