AMA H&H
Lucerne, Ca.
Round 1
January 27, 2008
Race Day:
I woke up in the motor home this morning, and was looking forward to an awesome race. They haven't had any rain out here in a while, and it was going to be dusty, but then it rained all Saturday night. The desert is definitely one of the best places to be after it rains! I was really excited about today, and it was my first H&H on my new KLX. When the banner went up, just after 9:30, we all shut our motors off waiting for it to drop. The banner fell and I was wide open for the first mile, and then we started to get into some big whoops. A few miles out, I settled into 3rd behind Kamo and Pearson. I was keying off Kamo until I realized David Pearson started to put some time on us. Somewhere around the 6-mile point, I made the pass on Kamo and was about 30-seconds back from David. It took a good 20-miles before I got within 5- seconds of Pearson, and was happy there. Since the riding conditions were perfect I wasn't too worried about making the pass, because we were both riding a really good pace. I followed him into the first pit, but I actually lost another 10-seconds right before it. Just as I was coming in for gas, Pearson was done and off. The second loop is always my favorite section, since it's usually more technical and harder. When I took off I was still feeling really good, but I made my first mistake not too far out. I went off the trail in a really rocky off-camber section, and lost some time getting back on. Of course, after that, I started to really pick it up and went down when I lost the front end on a high-speed corner. I was a little mad at myself, at this point, since I couldn't see David anymore. The second loop really had some awesome tight sections, but it had some really fast stuff too (which I wasn't a big fan of). It's really hard to make up any time on someone when we're both in last gear going across a valley. At one of the checks, I asked how far I was behind and they said 2 minutes. That's wasn't the answer I was hoping to hear! After that, I really pushed it and got in a good flow again. By the time I made it to the finish, I was told I lost by 30-seconds. I was a little bummed, but we still have a long ways to go before the year is over.
Overall Summary:
I had a great time today with today's riding conditions. I actually liked the first loop more, since it didn't have as many valleys. I was hoping the second loop wasn't going to have as many valleys as it did. The club did a great job with the course though! As far as the race goes, I didn't win, but David rode a smart race and didn't make any mistakes. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of close battles this year! It should be a great time.
Overall results (top 10):
1st David Pearson
2nd Destry Abbott
3rd David Kamo
4th Nick Burson
5th Ty Davis
6th Ryan Kudla
7th Steve Hengeveld
8th Carl Maasberg
9th Luke Dodson
10th Nick Blais
Other Notes:
My Kawasaki teammate (Josh Morros) had a huge crash just after the bomb, about 2-miles out. He hit a road crossing around 80mph and went flying over the bars. I heard, by quite a few guys, he was really lucky to walk away from it. That was the end of his day, since he was pretty sore.
I'm not sure how many riders they had for the first round, but it was a ton. The start line was over a 1/4-mile long and it was handlebar-to-handlebar the whole way (with four rows).
Here's a great video clip from the race this weekend http://beaucottington.com/2008-H&H-ROUND01.html. As you can tell, the dirt was pretty awesome. The video was done by Beau Cottington.
My next race is another H&H in two weeks. I'll be back over in California for Red Mountain. If we're lucky it will rain again, but I won't hold my breath.
Jonny really did an awesome job on getting the KLX race ready. The only thing we were lacking was the backgrounds. This year AMA is making all the top 15 or 20 guys run red backgrounds. We've always had black ones, so it was a surprise to us. Jason Smigel brought us out some on Sunday morning, so we were good to go.
Best Wishes,
Destry
www.destryabbott.com
2008 Sponsors:
Kawasaki Racing, Dunlop, Stephen Gall Training, Scott goggles, Thor, IMS, Pro Circuit, Kawasaki Accessories, SIDI, GPR, Acerbis, CTI2, Jonre, BRP, Motion Pro, Works Connection, OGIO, Kicker, Hinson, Hoy Fox Toyota, AP Designs, Braking, Renthal, Team Hawg Racing, Twisten Wrenches, Cyto Sport, Red Baron, Trick, Zip-Ty, RK/Excel, N-Style, Shoei, Maxima, ZLT, Bent, Steahly, Parkway Chiropractic, and Tire Balls.