Campbell and Hengeveld Win Best In The Dessert's Silver State Championship

Best in the Desert Silver State Series
Round 6: Henderson's Terrible 300
December 4, 2004

Red Riders Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld wrapped up the year by
racing to yet another victory, this one the inaugural Henderson's Terrible
300 in the Eldorado Valley south of Henderson, Nevada. In doing so, the
Honda Off-Road Team and its XR650R captured Best in the Desert's Silver
State Series Open Pro championship, which will make a fine addition to the
SCORE number one plate the team secured by winning last month's Tecate Baja
1000.

The 300 started out cold and fast, with the bikes and ATVs first taking a
trip around the 62-mile-long truck/buggy course. After that, the bikes and
ATVs would settle in for five laps of a much more technical and physically
demanding 32-mile loop that featured lots of tight twists and turns,
difficult climbs and eye-opening descents.

But it seemed to be a walk in the park for Campbell and Hengeveld.

"I think we just needed to start the race to clinch the championship-get
our starter points," Campbell said. "But we wanted to come check out this
race because next year promoter Casey Folks is planning on having it again.

"It's important for us to win this championship; winning another race feels
good, too!"

Hengeveld added, "A lot of the motorcycle loop when I first went through
this morning was virgin wash, really narrow, real rocky, and it was pretty
cool!"

The lead-off rider for the team, Hengeveld diced briefly with two
competitors, but he soon relegated them to the fight for the runner-up
spot. His only real problem turned out to be the early morning cold (with
temperatures near freezing) combined with the high speeds on the initial
lap of the truck/buggy loop. "My eyes were watering so bad that I couldn't
go as fast as I wanted. I couldn't see too much because they were all
blurry," he said. "It was a little sketchy.

"We're happy that we won both series, and we're already thinking about next
year-it's about a month away. We'll just take a break, relax a little bit
and get training again."

In all, the Campbell/Hengeveld duo won the last three BITD races of the
series and was second in two others; the pair lost ground early when they
had to skip a race since it conflicted with SCORE's San Felipe 250, which
they won, before winning two more SCORE events to lock up that title as
well.

BITD Henderson's Terrible 300 Results
1. Johnny Campbell/Steve Hengeveld-Honda XR650R-6:41:53
2. Andy Grider-KTM 525 MXC-6:57:36
3. Clint Braun/Matt Gosnell-KTM 250 SX-7:05:38
4. Mike Childress/Chuck Dempsey-Honda XR650R-7:06:48
5. Bryan Folks/Joey Lanza-KTM 250 SX-7:28:24