Race Report – Russell Pearson

Good morning everyone,

This past weekend marked the 3rd round of the AMA National Hare and Hound Series. It was located down by El Centro, CA-about and hour and half east of San Diego. We(my dad, Nick, Piper and myself) cruised down there Friday and got my Yamaha 450 all dialed in. After that we went and got some grub and back to the motel to watch some of the college basketball games. Our very own UNLV Running Rebels had made it to the sweet 16, but during their game against Oregon, they lost by 4 points. Anyways, bed time.

Saturday, we got out there and were able to ride the bomb run(start) and it was pretty short, but rough. It seemed good and we pretty much had decided on what we were doing. Did the final preps on the bike and were ready for dinner and showers and bed.

Sunday, Race Day. Got out to the start and it was still dark. Finished up some goggle stuff and finished prepping our start for the 9:30 start. Dang, it is starting to get hot around then, but before you knew it the banner was up and all quiet. Banner drops and the thunder began. My YZ450 fired up and I jumped everyone off the line:) yee haa. I got to my line and pinned it. As we got to the end of the bomb run, I could see like one or 2 guys to the left of me. I pinned it and ended up going back and forth with my cousin David like 3 or 4 times in the first 5 miles. At about the 5 mile mark, I was leading and the trail off to the right looked smoother, so I was pinned, 5th gear and started veering to the right. Well, I didn’t see David, but he was on the right and was heading to the left and ohhh, I saw him at the last second and veered, but Wammm, we hit pretty good, going like 80 or 90 miles an hour:) yeepadeedooda. Well, he got the better line and I ended up settling back to 2nd. I followed him for the first 20 or so miles, almost catching up to his rear tire in some tighter kind of rolly ups and downs with some washes, just to get dusted back. Well, before long, I was following him and went to the left side of a road to get out of his dust and wooo, I saw some ribbon to the left. The course had taken a left off the road and David missed it. Cool, back in the lead. I came in the first alternate and got a splash of fuel and back pinned with David not too far back. The course was pretty fast after that with some zig zags and I got caught a little cause the course was hard to follow. I missed a little and the next thing I knew, braaa, David pulled up side by side with me and we pinned it. I ended up getting the bad end of the deal and David got out front. We pinned it into the pits, but hit a dry lake bed and I had to back ‘er down, cause it was a dusty sucker. Well, after 46 miles, we came into the pits and I could see David, so quick pit and back out for the second 36 mile loop which was supposed to be a lot tighter, cool. I caught up to David in a little wash and, peeled under him on a turn and yee haa, back leading. I led for a while and had opened up a little gap and then we hit the sand dunes. Dang, I struggled finding the course. I could see little stakes in the ground, but either the club ran out of staples for the arrows or the wind blew them off. Anyways, while I struggled finding the course, David caught me. I would pull a tiny bit and then, he was right back on me. Probably 20 or so miles in, I was leading and kept coming up to these like blind rolling dunes with a straight arrow on the top and would almost come to a stop, because you can’t see over them. Well, David could read off me and was now right on my tail. I finally got the courage and left the throttle on over one of these blind ones and Hooolllyy Cowwww, as I went flying over this dune and could see a straight up dune on the other side, probably 30 or so feet away with bushes in it. I thought I was done wrecking as I slammed into the other side and somehow I pulled it off. As I was cleaning out my pants, I was afraid David had followed me and I looked back to make sure he didn’t hit the same thing and get hurt, but he had gone a bit to the right and missed it and danget, he passed me. I tucked in behind him and followed him for a while until we hit a gnarly rock section where I pinned it to try to get by him. Shortly after that I had a little problem and tried to fix it, but no luck. I ended up not finishing, which yea, really sucks. Results were

1st David Pearson
2nd Destry Abbott
3rd Kendall Norman

My friend Carl Maassberg who rides a Yamaha also ended up 6th after he had moved up to 3rd I think, but had a mishap with a waterfall section. Well, back to the drawing board and I am racing in Utah in 3 weeks. So, a big thanks to all my family, sponsors, friends and supports for all the help and I’ll keep in touch.

Thanks again

Russell Pearson
russpearsonracing.com