Dirt Bike News - Race Results: Campbell and Hengeveld Dominate Terrible's Town 250 - Dirt Rider Magazine

Last year, Honda's Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld led wire to wire at the Terrible's Town 250 out of Pahrump, Nevada, but they ended up losing on corrected time to series visitors Ty Davis and Russell Pearson. This year, they made sure no one had a chance at pulling the same stunt, and the XR650R-mounted duo annihilated the field at Terrible's Town, round three of Best in the Desert's Silver State Series.Their time for the 243 miles was four hours, 14 minutes and 31 seconds, several minutes clear of KTM's Christopher Blais and Andy Grider who rode a 525 MXC to the finish in 4:22:21 for second bike and second Open Pro. Four-stroke Pro winners Mike Childress and Chuck Dempsey completed the podium on their XR650R in a run of 4:26:54, with Dempsey suffering a broken collarbone after a hard get-off.But the main story centered on Campbell and Hengeveld, the defending series champs. After winning round one of the series, they dropped to fifth at round two. That put them into a dead heat in series points with the Shane Esposito/David Pearson duo who were fifth and first in the first two races on their KX500. The Team Green pair suffered a weird electrical failure at Terrible's Town, but they eventually would finish up fifth Open Pro once again."I just wanted to jump out in front early and try to pull away as quick as I could—that was my goal," Hengeveld said, "I guess I pulled 15 seconds on them by pit one, which was at mile 18. Then when I got to pit two, I don't know what happened, but there was, like, five minutes with nobody. From start to two, everything was going really well. Today was one of those days where everything clicked just right, and it's hard to beat that."Blais and Grider tried in vain to keep the Honda in sight, but both had trouble reacquainting themselves with their 525 MXC after spending so much time on huge rally bikes in the Tunisian rally a couple weeks ago. "This thing is so light and nimble, it was like riding a 125," Grider said.Blais added, "I felt like I was going fast, but I was letting off for a lot of stuff—just kind of riding it extremely cautious and wasn't up for the pace today."Grider also revealed, "Towards the end we got into a horsepower battle—the course was faster than I thought, and they definitely outhorsepowered us, probably by 10 miles an hour." They'll no doubt have more than just a pipe on their bike for the next race.As it turned out, the Honda team had done the most preparatory work, and it showed in the results. "We had a new engine combination we've been testing with, and it was for sure the best for this course today," Campbell said. "The handling of the bike and the way the power was displaced to the rear wheel really made it easy for Steve and me, I think—running in the uppers revs, power when you needed it and stuff—so I want to thank the guys at Precision Concepts for that."I got into pit four and I saw my lead kept expanding every pit so I didn't push it any more than I was going, and I felt comfortable at the pace I was going so I just brought it in to pit six and gave it to Steve. He did most of the hard work today."And that resulted in a $5000 bonus (provided by the Herbst family), adding to the win records of both riders: Campbell now has three victories at Terrible's Town and Hengeveld has two. More important to both, however, is the lead in points it gives them as the series ends its first half.
Terrible's Town 250, Top 10 Motorcycle Results
1. Johnny Campbell/Steve Hengeveld, Honda
2. Christopher Blais/Andy Grider, KTM
3. Mike Childress/Chuck Dempsey, Honda
4. Kendall Norman, Honda
5. Taber Murphy/Brian Pinard, Honda
6. Clint Braun/Matt Gosnell, KTM
7. Shane Esposito/David Pearson, Kawasaki
8. Charlie Barney/Steve Pitts, ATK
9. Max Eddy, Jr./Rodger McCabe/Dal Shemp, KTM
10. Michael Collins/Garvin Johnson/Kirk Stephensen, Kawasaki