Childress, Hengeveld Top Vegas-To-Reno

Mark Kariya | August 28, 2006

Team Honda’s Mike Childress and Steve Hengeveld won the TSCO Vegas-to-Reno marathon, round four of Best in the Desert’s Silver State Series. Third off the line, Childress put their Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Honda Pro Oils XR650R into the physical lead before pit one at mile 36 of the 584-mile contest. From there, they held it the rest of the day.

“It was really rocky for the first 10 miles, so it was still dusty and really bad,” he said, “so I knew, ‘All right, I’ve got to get by these guys in the first 10 miles or we’re going to follow them on the roads until they pit or something.’ So right off the bat, I just charged through the rocks.”

Fellow Honda racers Robby Bell and Johnny Campbell were a minute behind on the pre-dawn start south of Alamo, Nevada, on their Precision Concepts/Dunlop/Honda Pro Oils CRF450X. Campbell took the first section but couldn’t pass the two bikes that Childress did until miles later. Being held up put them in a hole they couldn’t get out of, though they did get fairly close and stay within a couple minutes until the final section when a flat rear tire slowed Campbell’s charge. They would eventually finish nearly 20 minutes behind.

Brothers Chris and Nick Blais put their BlaisRacing.com/Sidi/Michelin KTM 540 XC into third overall motorcycle and first in Four-Stroke Pro despite an early crash that left Nick battered but otherwise okay. They took 45 minutes longer to get to the finish in Dayton, Nevada.

Another brother team took second in Four-Stroke Pro and fourth overall, Luke and Zach Dodson finishing about 15 minutes after the Blais brothers. The Dodsons rode a SunQuest/Barstow Motorcycle Center/FMF RM-Z450.

Coming from far back due to their entry in Open Expert, the Max Eddy Jr./Chris Ray/Jeff Trulove trio proved to have Pro-level speed on their MJS Racing/Three Brothers/Dirt Diggers M.C. 540 MXC. Though not as good as their second overall finish at Terrible’s Town, Eddy/Ray/Trulove easily outdistanced the rest of the non-Pros to round out the top five overall

Mark Kariya | Contributor

Kariya spends way too much time in the desert, but we’re glad he does as he’s the man who gets us our coverage of all things sandy.