2004 Vegas to Reno

Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld will remember this month fondly for the rest of their lives. They kicked it off by winning the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 and, most recently, rounded out the month by taking another 500-miler, the TSCO Vegas to Reno, round four of Best in the Desert's Silver State Series, on June 25. They needed just eight hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds to complete the 490-mile sprint up the left side of Nevada, besting fellow XR650R racers Christopher Blais and Quinn Cody, who were the Four-stroke Pro winners in 8:17:59. (Those times beat all of the trucks and buggies.)

But don't think Vegas to Reno was a walk in the park for the factory Honda duo. For nearly the entire distance the overall and Open Pro winners tried to work around a mysterious exhaust leak, debating whether or not to change pipes. However, they didn't have enough of a cushion over Blais and Cody to attempt the estimated 15-minute job so they simply worked around the problem by throttling back slightly.

Just as serious but more of a secret was a knee injury Campbell suffered during a film shoot the week before. Not wanting to reveal any weakness to the competition, he kept the injury hush hush to all but his inner circle and underwent daily physical therapy. It apparently worked, as he said, "The knee didn't bother me all day so hopefully I won't have to have surgery." It marked the second Vegas to Reno win for Campbell and his first with Hengeveld. Being a double-points event, it also catapulted the pair into the unofficial series points lead with two round remaining.

Four-stroke Pro runners-up Chuck Dempsey and Andy Grider rounded out the top three in 9:06:30 on their XR650R. They had to come from behind after Grider missed the start while registering for the race.