Team Green Wins Laughlin Hare Scrambles

Mark Kariya | March 8, 2005

Kawasaki Team Green’s David Pearson and Shane Esposito, aboard a KX250, combined efforts to win the Kawasaki Team Green Laughlin U.S. Hare Scrambles in Laughlin, Nevada, on March 5. It was Pearson’s third at the event and Esposito’s first.

“I grew up riding in tight stuff like this up in the trees,” said Pearson, who hails from Nevada. “I don’t know, it just seems like it’s normal for Pearsons to do good in the tight stuff.”

Pearson and Esposito finished the three-lap, 140-mile team race in four hours, 48 minutes and 17 seconds. The race was the second round of the Best in the Desert Silver State Series.

Pearson and Esposito battled with fellow Team Green racers Destry Abbott and Lance Smail for the first part of the race, which was held in nearly perfect conditions. A cooked rear brake, however, forced desert veteran Abbott and desert newcomer Smail into the pits, where they lost time and, ultimately, one position. Instead of fighting for second, they’d finish a solitary third, nearly 10 minutes behind the first-place team.

The runner-up team involved another Pearson – this one Russ – of the Montclair Yamaha/Zip Ty Racing team. Russ Pearson teamed up with Ty Davis to finish the race in four hours, 49 minutes, 25 seconds.

Honda got in on the action as well, with CRF450R pilots Robby Bell and Kendall Norman, and Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld filling out the fourth- and fifth-place positions, respectively.