MAY 10–AMA H&H IN JERICHO, UTAH: DESTRY’S REPORT

MAY 10–AMA H&H IN JERICHO, UTAH: DESTRY’S REPORT

Pre-race:
Well, it’s back on the road again to Utah. This race is almost at the same place where we had round three about four weeks ago. I’m hoping this trip is going to be a lot of fun, because after the race we’re going to drive down and watch the sx in Vegas. Right now my dad’s driving and Jonny’s watching a movie, while I’m working on my computer. This time I called and reserved a hotel in Mesquite for tonight, so we won’t be driving around until 1:00 in the morning like last time. Tomorrow we’ll go out to the race so I can get some practice in and sign-up.

Friday:
Time to get ready for another mud race. After trying to practice in between the huge rain and hail storms, everything went pretty well. I didn’t get to ride as much as I would’ve liked, but I still felt good when I left. After doing a little riding, we drove out to the start where I almost got my box van stuck. I can’t sign-up until morning so we didn’t stay to long. I wasn’t able to get any info on the race course, besides the fact it’s going to be really muddy. It’s supposed to keep raining off and on until Sunday. It still should be a fun race.

Race Day:
Let me start of by saying this is not an easy story to write. Today we got to the track pretty early and went to walk the start since you couldn’t practice it. After that it was time to get ready. The rain storms were actually clearing up and it looked like it might be a nice day. On the start, I had a great jump and was leading after the bomb (1-mile out). There was still a big pack of us since it wasn’t dusty. Russ actually passed me on one of the straight-a-ways, not to far after the start. Now I was in second and I think it was Kendall Norman right on me. A couple of miles later, I was able to get back by Russ and take the lead again. This time I tried to push it a little more and get a nice gap, but that’s about when I hit a big mud hole and went flying off the bike in front of a lot of people at the road crossing. I was able to get back to the bike pretty quick, but both Kendall and Steve Hengeveld got by me. As I looked back, I could see Russ off of his bike straightening his front end (he must’ve went down too). Once I got going I passed Steve and was trying to reel in Kendall, but he was riding really well. Russ was right on me, and then I missed a corner and had to flip a U-turn. Russ was able to get by, but I was fine with that and figured I’d follow him. I was really having a tough time and it seemed like nothing was going my way. After following Russ for a few miles, I suddenly hit a rock I never saw. This time I was going a lot faster and I knew it was going to be ugly. I went over the bars and planted myself into the ground really hard. This was the hardest crash I’ve had in years. When I was trying to get up, my first thought was that I had broke my femur. At first I couldn’t get up with my right leg, but then I realized that more than likely I had just bruised the bone and muscle pretty bad. It took me a couple of minutes to get to my bike and try to start it. My Thor pants were ripped open by my thigh and you could see it tore my leg up pretty good. I got my bike started and I think I was around 10th when I got going. I still wanted to try and get by as many riders as I could, since the championship was tied going into this round. I caught a couple of riders in front of me and then my bike just quit. I lost all power and was totally confused. I tried starting it, but no luck. So I changed the spark plug and went over the bike. I tried kicking it again, but it wasn’t going to start. My day was done! I got a ride back form another racer (Jeff), and he took me to the pits. Today was one of those days that just didn’t go right. I can’t remember the last time where I had two big crashes and then to top that off, I get a DNF. My bikes are always super reliable and I know it must’ve been one of those weird problems. That’s the way racing goes, but this one was a tuff one to swallow. I’m just looking forward to getting home and spending Mother’s Day with the family. Time to get some rest.

Results:
1st Russell Pearson
2nd David Pearson
3rd Steve Hengeveld

Destry Abbott DNF

Other Notes:
It looks like this race might’ve cost me my H&H championship. Russ and I were tied coming into this race, but with this DNF I have a slim chance at keeping my title. We still have one round left, and I’ll be sure to try and win it and see what happens.

I’d like to thank Jason Smigel for hooking my dad, Jonny, and I up with the sx tickets. Unfortunately we didn’t get to use them, because we didn’t make it to Vegas until 9:30 that night.

This weekend I have off and then the following weekend I’ll be in Taft, California for the WORCS race.

On Tuesday I went to Cooper and Kelsey’s school to do career day. I ended up having two sessions for the whole school. There were a little over 800 kids. I showed a video, talked for awhile, and then everyone got a poster. It went really well.

This week Johnny leaves for Ireland with his brother. He’s spending two weeks on vacation. Must be nice! I could use one of those after this race. He’s been working really hard and I hope he has a great time.

Best Wishes,
Destry
www.destryabbott.com
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