AMA NATIONAL H&H LUCERNE, CA–APRIL 25

25Pre-race:
We’re back on the road again heading to Glen Helen for a little mx practice. When we showed up, I felt like I was back racing some of the outdoor nationals. Just about all the factory teams were out testing. I was having a lot of fun trying to put in some solid laps. Then after that Jonny and I watched Reed, Langston and a lot of other ‘factory’ boys put in some really fast laps. From Glen Helen we took a trip up to Darryl’s house to pick up my suspension and then we drove to John Braasch’s house to spend the night.

Friday:
We got up early and went over to Kawasaki to get a couple of things done, before heading to the desert. Time was flying by and before we knew it, it was almost 3:00. I was hoping to make it out to the desert and do a little riding, but after sitting in LA traffic forever I knew I wasn’t going to have time to ride. So we ended up just heading to the hotel and calling it an early night.

Saturday:
After a nice breakfast in Victorville we took off to the race to meet my dad, who was driving the motor home out with my wife and kids. Today I had a lot of fun watching Cooper ride his 50 around while Kelsey, John Braasch, and my dad went and did the poker run. After that I went for a nice ride with Jonny, Ryan, Reid, and some of his friends. Then it was time to start practicing the bomb run. I feel like I have a good line for tomorrow. Time to watch a movie and hopefully get a good nights sleep.

Race Day:
My dad got up pretty early and went out to the start to save me the spot I wanted. I was surprised to see how windy and cold it was. I figured as dusty as it was going to be, the wind would be a lot of help for us today. After a couple of practice runs, I went back to my Kawasaki van and had Jonny do some final prep work (change filter, etc). The start was a little after 9:30 and there were a lot of people on the front line. When the banner fell I had a really good start, but I still got pinched off a mile out when my line met up with Mike Childress’s. I had to pretty much go find another line, which wasn’t going to well. By the time I got to the end of the bomb, I was in third with Steve Hengeveld leading, followed by Mike and myself. I’m not sure who was behind us. After following Mike for about 5-miles, I was able to make a pass. Then I set my sights on Steve, and got around him around the 10-mile marker. I knew I needed to put as much time on everyone as early as I could. I was feeling really good and just kept pushing it. The first loop was a lot faster then I thought it would be, but I was still having a good time. Coming into the pits after the first 40-mile loop, I had a little over a minute on Russ Pearson. Third at the half way point was Kendall Norman, followed by Steve Hengeveld and David Pearson. I knew the club would be putting us on some tighter trails for the second loop, and I was right. They had some fun downhills and some good off camber single track trails. Half way into this loop I felt like my day was going really well, besides a couple of small mistakes. The club’s markings have been good all day, until I was about 8-miles from the finish. A little over a mile after a check, I came to this point in the course that the trail had three different ways to go and no course markings. So I looked at the ground and tried to see if I could see any tracks from the course markers. There were no tracks so I just picked a trail and went with it. About a half a mile into it, I decided to flip a U turn. When I got back to that spot again, I took another trail where I saw some guy sitting by his bike. I asked him if this was the course, but he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. So I made another U turn to see if the last trail, to the right, was it. I went down that trail and never saw any marking, so it was another U turn and this time I saw Russ looking for the trail. We stopped beside each other and I told him I had already checked all three ways and hadn’t found the course. We decided to go down to the valley, off of this hill, and see if we could see anything. Nope, so we both flipped a U turn and went back to the same spot we started. This time we saw Kendall Norman wandering around. All I could think was this is dejavue of the Ocotillo Wells race. Today I had built up a nice lead and then this happens. All three of us finally decided to just head North and hopefully we would run into the course. After riding for a while, I was really getting frustrated. I finally saw some vehicles out in the valley, so Kendall and I took off towards them. When I got to them I saw some course markings so I asked if this was part of the first loop or the second loop. When they said it was the second loop, it was a full on race again! The course Kendall and I were on actually went by the hills where Russ was still trying to find the course. When Russ spotted Kendall and I racing, he jumped in behind us. It was a pretty frustrating day for it to come down to that. I’m not sure if someone took down the markers, or that part of the course wasn’t marked. I was happy to win today, but it would have been a lot nicer to win with a bigger gap. I’m curious to see how everyone else did through that last part. I’m sure everyone had the same problem.

Results:
1st Destry Abbott
2nd Russell Pearson
3rd Kendall Norman
4th Steve Hengeveld
5th David Pearson

Other Notes:
This weekend was going to be my off weekend, but it looks like I’m going to
be making a trip up to Nevada with the family. I just decided this week I
want to go race Loretta Lynns, so I have to race a qualifier first.

Kawasaki’s up and comer mx/sx rider Justin Keeney came out to watch his
first H&H.

Brian Brown wasn’t able to make it to the race, because he’s still
recovering form an injury. I’m sure we’ll see him at the next round in Utah.

I’m not sure how many entries they had this weekend, but I know it was a
lot.

Kawasaki rider’s David Pearson and Shane Esposito will be racing the
Terrible Town, Best in the Desert race next week. Good luck!

Best Wishes,
Destry
www.destryabbott.com
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