Chaos Hits Field at Nevada 1000 - Campbell/ Hengeveld Extend Lead

There are no guarantees in racing. Fortunes can often change in the blink of an eye. Such was the case on July 9, day three of the four-day McMillin Nevada 1000, the fourth round of Best in the Desert's Silver State Series.

Sure, Honda's Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld continued their winning ways, extending their cumulative lead by turning the day's quickest time: an unofficial five hours, 29 minutes and 23 seconds for the 323-mile course that made a loop to the west and southwest of Tonopah.

"We just tried to have another solid day like we did yesterday, and we did," Hengeveld said. "We extended our lead another couple minutes, and we're sitting good for tomorrow."

Behind them, however, a number of teams saw their luck turn good—or bad.

After barely finishing day two due to broken motor mounts on their KX500, Team Green's Shane Esposito and David Pearson finished day three with a broken subframe and a cracked frame, as well as other smaller issues that their Hillbilly Motorsports crew dealt with as best they could.

Yet, they moved up two positions to finish the day second fastest in 5:32:14, unofficially. That's because Mike Childress, the previous holder of the runner-up spot, had to replace a clutch—at the first pit and despite having done a preventative clutch replacement the previous afternoon. Instead of seeing how close he could get to Campbell and Hengeveld, Childress spent his day coming back through the dust, eventually claiming the day's sixth-best unofficial time of 5:53:40.

When Childress took his unexpectedly long pit, the immediate beneficiary was the second American Honda duo of Robby Bell and Kendall Norman, and they led a tight battle for the runner-up spot for most of the race. Often, less than a minute separated three teams, but when Norman took a wrong turn and got lost in the final 20 or so miles, that was just the mistake those chasing them needed. Esposito pounced first with KTM's Andy Grider also managing to eke out a quicker time. Esposito and Pearson latched onto second for the day followed by Grider and Chris Blais in 5:34:09, unofficially. Bell and Norman had to settle for an unofficial 5:34:21, dropping from third to fourth for the day.

KTM's Marc Coma and Kellon Walch rounded out the top five, also on the comeback trail after having clutch issues on day two. Their unofficial time was 5:46:08.

And Ryan Hanna, yesterday's hard luck story, ended up taking a DNF after all his troubles when his old KTM 625's engine blew. "Oh well, I had fun. I learned a lot and had fun," the racing novice said.

Clearly, the day (and, likely, the entire race) belonged to Campbell and Hengeveld. "Tomorrow, we won't have as much pressure to have to go win [the day]," Campbell acknowledged. Indeed, with the lead they've built up, they simply have to remain close to whoever else might emerge to challenge them—but as it stands now, most of the other teams are more in damage-control mode.

Unofficial Nevada 1000 Motorcycle Results - Day Three
1. Johnny Campbell/Steve Hengeveld, Honda XR650R
2. Shane Esposito/David Pearson, Kawasaki KX500
3. Christopher Blais/Andy Grider, KTM 690 LC4
4. Robby Bell/Kendall Norman, Honda XR650R
5. Marc Coma/Kellon Walch, KTM 525 M/XC
6. Mike Childress/Chuck Dempsey, Honda XR650R
7. Paul Emerson/Gil Grieve, KTM 525 M/XC
8. Nick Dally/Mike Korenwinder, Honda CRF450R
9. Nick Fain/Josh Wilson, Honda CR500R
10. David Dunn/Jerry Herling/William M. O'Hara, KTM 525 M/XC