Pro Diaries: Supercross and Off Road Race Reports

This week's race reports come from James Stewart, Mike Alessi, Destry Abbott, Glenn Kearney and GNCC privateer Nathan Kanney, whose Tarantino-esque method of story telling might leave you wondering exactly how hard he bounced off his head on that second lap...

James Stewart NewsletterI am trying something new. I am going to start sending the newsletter out every few weeks instead of every week. I will cover each race, and all of the news that breaks, but it...
Photo by Steve Cox

Alessi Weekly - GFI Winter Series

Today was the GFI Winter Series held at Competitive Edge in Hesperia California, and Mike posted a four out of four moto sweep of the 125/250 pro classes.

We don't mind racing local races; we think it lots of fun and good training! It's also good to race with the new talent coming up in the amateur ranks. Josh Hill and Austin Stroupe were really good today!

—Tony Alessi

Destry's AMA H&H Story

AMA Hare & Hound Round 3 - Ocotillo, Ca.
March 26, 2006

Pre-Race:

After a really disappointing race last weekend (Havasu), it was nice to be able to focus on something else. I feel good about the H&H series and as of now I'm leading the series. The last two years in Ocotillo weren't all that great. Even though I won one of them and finished second in the other, they were still pretty sketchy races. Ocotillo is a lot different then any of the other H&H races, but this time it's a new club and I've heard good things about them.

Before we made it over to Ocotillo, we went up to Lucerne to do some suspension testing with Bones (from Pro Circuit). We drove over late Thursday and spent the night in Yucca Valley at one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed at. That's saying a lot since I've been in some pretty bad ones, but this place had no heat or air, and the sheets and bed had holes in them. Jonny decided to go sleep in the van and not deal with the torture. I guess that's what you get when you pay $44.00 a night—I think we could've paid by the hour too! LOL.

We planned to sleep in a little bit, but we were both freezing so we made it an early morning so we could warm up a little bit. We had breakfast and then headed out to meet up with Bones. For testing, I had a good 5-mile loop set-up and it was super rough and rocky. By the end of the day, I was pretty confident we had a great set-up. I'm really looking forward to the race, this weekend, to see how it works in race conditions. Now Jonny and I are on our way down to Ocotillo to do some riding tomorrow.

Saturday:

It was so nice to sleep in and have a good breakfast. It seems like it's been a long time since that's happened. We drove out to the race site and met Reid Nordin out there. He knows this area pretty well and took me on a great trail ride. This place is pretty fun to go and do some play riding, but I should've brought my freestyle suspension and practiced my tricks. I've been working on my one-footer and one of these days I'm going to pull it off in a race, so watch out Travis! After taking it pretty easy today, it was off to see Randy Norman (GPR) to do some final preparation work. Randy has a really nice set-up, and since it was so windy we decided to work out of his rig. I feel pretty good about tomorrow and the 450 is ready to go racing. My dad and Cooper (my son) drove over tonight to watch the race. It's always nice to have their help.

Race Day:

This time we didn't get to sleep in much, but I still got a great night of sleep. We also ran out of time to eat breakfast, but I always have a tough time eating before a race anyways. I went out and practiced my start a few more times.

The start was at 9:30 so I got out there a little early. When the banner fell, the KX450 started on the first kick and I was off. I had it on cruise control (wide open) for the first mile or so and I was first to the banner. Just as I was getting onto the trail, I saw Russ just to the right of me. He was able to get in front of me, but that wasn't really a bad thing. I was a little nervous to lead the race. There were a lot of play riders out here this weekend and I was a little worried about some of them playing on the course. The last two years here, I had a few close calls with other riders going backwards on the course. So as you can imagine, this made me a little nervous.

I followed Russ for the first 15-miles and then got right up on him and almost made a pass, but had to back off again. He was riding good and I couldn't see anyone behind us, so I knew we had a good pace going. A little after the 20-mile mark they had an alternate gas stop. The first loop was 50 miles and I'm pretty sure I could've made that, but didn't want to risk it so I stopped for a splash. My dad and Cooper went out there and it was a quick splash and go. Russ had to do the same thing, so I really didn't lose any time.

I was about 10 seconds back and just a little outside of his dust. This is basically where I stayed for most of the first loop. When we came in from the first 50-mile loop I was about 20 seconds back. I think third at this point was Kendall Norman. I really don't know after that.

When we left the pits I lost Russ's dust and was wondering what happened, then I realized he couldn't find the course. He was able to get back to it just in front of me. The start of the second loop put us into some little ravines and the sand-dune hills. This is where the race started to get a lot more fun for me. I could ride a second or two behind Russ and just key off him. It was a lot of fun and at one point I got right next to him and we rode like that for a little bit. Then it was back into some tight little drop-off washes. The first one really caught me by surprise. It was about a 5 foot drop-off and it sent me over the bars. I picked up the bike pretty quick, but I nailed my forearm really good and it was sore. Now I lost some time and I didn't want Russ to check out.

I pushed it and was able to get right back on him. We really had some great, clean racing going on and I was having a lot of fun. Just a little past halfway on this loop (40-mile loop) I was able to make a pass. Not too much further after getting by him, I struggled with these two drop-off sections in a tight wash. The first one was a really close call, then the second one I decided to get off and side-saddle it. I don't know if this was a good idea or not. I still crashed and the bike landed on me. I could see Russ right behind me, but I was lucky enough to be able to get up and going before he tried to go down it.

We stayed pretty close and then I slowly started to pull away. I later found out he had some mechanical problems and this made it a lot easier on me. I was bummed for him since we had such a great race going all day. I know it would've come down to the very end of the race to see who was going to win. The last 10-miles were pretty uneventful until about 2-miles left. Then the markings just stopped! I saw a guy on a quad trying to mark the rest of the course. I was thinking to myself this is déja vu from last year, where the last part wasn't marked and I ended up losing the race.

I stopped and asked him where to go and he told me to just ride back to the banner and follow it from there. The problem was when I got to the banner, by the start, there wasn't anywhere else to go. I could see the pits and then I saw a rider sitting by the banner. I rode over to him and asked what was going on. I then realized it was Nick Pearson (Russ's brother). He said he was going to point everyone back to the pit, so that's what I did.

I later found out after the race that all the top riders had to do this until they finished marking it. I was told some spectators took down the markings. I'm just glad Russ and I weren't right on each other coming into this section. I ended up winning the race and Kendall Norman was able to get around Russ right towards the end of the race, while Russ was trying to get his bike to the finish. I'm really happy to win this race and get ready for the WORCS race on Sunday.

Results:
1st Destry Abbott
2nd Kendall Norman
3rd Russell Pearson
4th David Pearson
5th Kellon Walch
6th David Kamo
?

Other Notes:

This week was really good for riding. Early in the week it rained and Jonny and I had some great desert riding. Then on Wednesday Ryan Clark, Ted Campbell, Ricky Dietrich, and myself had some great motos together out at Canyon.

Saturday night at the Detroit SX my boy Ryan Clark put in another great ride and finished 7th in the SX class (that's the old 250 class for some of you). I told him before the race if he finishes top 10 I'll win on Sunday, luckily we both held up our end! Now he's top 10 in points and looking really good for the last SX rounds. You can check out his site at www.teamsolitaire.com.

My next race is this weekend just North of Reno at the Honey Lake track (WORCS). I like that track and I feel like I should do well there.

I need to give a big thanks to Jonny (of course) and the guys at Pro Circuit (Bones, Mitch and Tommy). As usual, Jonny built me another great race bike. Mitch built me a new motor before this race, and it was fast! Then having Jason and Reid (from Kawasaki) there to help out was huge. Thanks Guys!

Best Wishes,

Destry

www.destryabbott.com

2006 Sponsors: Kawasaki Team Green, Thor, Dunlop, Pro Circuit, Scott Goggles, SIDI, HoyFox.com, Motion Pro, Pro Clean 1000, BRP, Works Connection, Shoei, CTI2, Red Baron, Maxima, Acerbis, Wiseco, Steahly, Trick Fuel, DP Pads, RK/Excel, Renthal, Bent, Hinson, American Racing Wheels, IMS, Jonre Multimedia, Twisten Wrenches, Cyto Sport, N-Style, GPR Stabilizers, Zip-Ty, Tire-Balls, Team Hawgracing.com, and ZLT.

Glenn Kearney Press Release
Juha Salminen took his tally to three from three by taking out the win from Charlie Mullins while I came home in third. Track conditions were perfect and with the course becoming very rough and...
Photo by Ray Gundy

Nathan Kanney

The Best Race Report EVER...
[Steele Creek GNCC - North Carolina]

As good as it could be considering it's a story about a DNF. Okay, so were going to Tarantino it. I'm gonna tell you the situation in my pits when I arrived there an hour and a half early with steam billowing from my bike and look of disgust on my face. Then I'm gonna go back to the beginning and tell you how I got there. This is my race report so I make the rules. Rule number one: No foreshadowing. I can't have you dream away and throw off my climax. Rule number two: I want everyone to enjoy a beverage of your choice while reading my grammatical masterpiece. I recommend a drink I like to call "sweet brown poison" because of its power to put a gigantic smile on the face of anyone the second it graces their mouth (also known as Coca Cola). Rule number three: if you notice a grammatical error and actually give it thought, you will run out of gas in the middle of nowhere because I know someone with super-powers who owes me one.

I don't know why you are complaining already; you're getting a Tarantino switch for free!

Rule number four: I reserve the right to shamelessly plug each and every one of my awesome sponsors whenever I see fit. {Yamaha}

I was a bit timid going into the first turn for fear of getting cleaned out by everyone to the inside of me. When I came out of turn one I was closer to the back of the pack than the front, although I was able to get up to roughly tenth through the grass tracks and into the woods with fierce aggression in throttle hand (also known as whiskey throttle). After passing a few riders, {Zip Ty} I finished lap one in tenth position with 5 riders within the next 30 seconds.

I started the second lap with hunger in my eyes {RER} as I set out to catch the next group. About half way through lap two, I caught Ryan Voase and we started to engage in a text book Hare Scramble battle. Unfortunately, during the "GNCC Lappers Challenge" that Voase and I were up against, we were caught by Fred Andrews, Paul Edmondson and Shane Watts.

Just prior to the conclusion of lap two I was riding on Voase's rear tire and consequently tucked the front wheel and went over the bars. I bounced off my head and almost landed on my feet... thats right, no hands baby! {SHIFT} By the time I got rolling again I was passed by Andrews and Edmondson but snuck in ahead of Watts. I knew if I didn't get in with that group I would be at a disadvantage with lappers so I rode with great conviction {One Ind.} until I caught back up to them.

First I passed Eddy, then shortly thereafter I passed Voase. I was able to catch Andrews as well, though he had a good pace going {Factory Connection} that I wanted to key off of rather than upset. Near the end of lap three I had fallen off Andrews' rear wheel and was the first in the group of me Voase and Eddy.

I hit a brick wall of lappers; Voase and Eddy were hip to it and quickly capitalized on the situation by passing me. Only moments before the finish of lap three, I was hot {Maxxis} on the tale of Eddy and waiting for an opportunity to {Tag} repass him. I kept taking alternate lines from him so if he made a mistake, I had clear trail to capitalize on it. It was the worst of the lappers so far, Voase and Eddy were bushwacking off-trail trying to get through. {Fastway} I made a quick analysis {Works Connection} of the battlefield using skills I learned from {Spectro} the History Channed and 007 on Nintendo 64.

There was an opening in the wall of lappers that lay ahead. I knew if I executed {Moto Tassinari} the very dangerous maneuver properly {BRP} I could thread the needle through the lappers and overtake Voase and Eddy. I committed, hugging the side of the trail to get the drive I needed... Smash!! I hugged the side in the wrong place at the wrong time brushing off of a fallen tree that had uprooted. {DP} I kept it pinned, although almost right away I noticed the smoke coming from my bike. I wasn't willing to accept {E Line} that I had punctured the radiator and kept telling myself that it was just water from the stream we had crossed steaming {Am Pro} from the exhaust (stream we had crossed steaming from the exhaust... hahahaha read that a couple times). Anyway, I pushed hard through the next section which was grass tracks, although {themotodoc.com} when the steam started getting worse and the bike began to run poorly I knew it was leaking coolant.

When I got back to my pits with steam coming from my bike and the look of disgust on my face, I had to explain to my volunteer mechanic Shawn why I was putting my bike on a stand and not filling up with gas and railing to the finish. I'ts not so bad, except for the fact that he drove all night just to help me at the race, and would be driving all night afterwards in order to work the next day for absolutely nothing in return.

Random notes:

Charlie Mullins had a handful of laps faster than Juha. How can you not be a fan of a 20-year-old kid who is that close to a 10-time World Champ?

I talked to Brian Garrahan last night and he reminded me that at the rate I am going he will come off a broken leg and still beat me in points. I didn't laugh.

Word on the street is that Glenn Kearney (pronounced "Car-Knee," Carny—like the guy who tries to rip you off at the fair) is having trouble finding a race-day diet that works well for him. I'm willing to bet that a loaf of Outback bread with Vegemite and a "sweet brown poison" will do the trick.

I'm starting to see a pattern. In my brother, that is. He breaks something on his body almost every time he rides a dirt bike. I forgot to tell him that "whiskey throttle" just sounds funny; you're not actually supposed to ride like that. If he had been wearing Sidi's he might not have smashed his foot in.

Local boy, Jesse Robinson, cracked the top ten from the second row to the pleasure of all the fans.

This was Powersport Grafx's home race. Bart Hayes and the rest of the PG crew were holding it down in the semi KTM pits for the legend, Shane Watts.

Dragon has taken the leed in goggle technology with their laminated tear off system. I have used as many as 28 tear-offs at one time.

You can read Jason Weigandt's politically correct story on the race at www.gnccracing.com, with influence from him employer. Or you can read the less restricted story at www.theracingpaper.com.

This race report is the result of turning the story of a not so fun day into something for your reading pleasure and my writing torture. After all, what's worse than living your bad day over again?

After round two in the GNCC series I got an infection in my finger which kept me off the bike till I saw the doctor on Wednesday. The infection required antibiotics which then kept me off the bike till the following Thursday. Which is why this race report mimics a Quentin Tarrantino movie... with all my spare time I saw almost every movie in Blockbuster.

Thanks,

Nathan Kanney