Their day-one win gave Shock Doctor/Muscle Milk KTM’s David Kamo and David Pearson the benefit of being first off the line on day two, and the two factory off-road racers took full advantage of their dust-free day to record another successful stage triumph in the TSCO Vegas-to-Reno off-road race.
As happened on the first day, though, they did have to cope with an unexpected problem when the Mousse inner tube disintegrated a few miles from the finish, raising Kamo’s anxiety level as he slowed in order to simply get to the finish.
“We were basically saving the bike all day – we were half-throttle on everything – so it was just too much heat and there were extra miles today [compared to yesterday],” he said. “We didn’t account for that.
“Basically, I was at quarter-throttle for six miles [to the finish]. I was like, ‘Please make it! Please make it!’ It made it all the way in.”
And in doing so, though they lost some of the lead they’d expanded on during the 367-mile day, they still maintained a comfortable cushion over the field.
Behind them, though, several privateer teams battled fiercely over the likely remaining places on the podium. Official results were not available as this time, but physically, three teams crossed the finish approximately a minute apart, with Open Pros Sean Berryman and Cory Vannoy the next to roll across the finish line outside of Hawthorne, Nevada, having started 367 miles earlier in Tonopah on their Brown Brothers Racing KTM 530 XC-W.
“We’re going to try to hold our second [overall] position and try to make it into the finish, just consistent and smooth,” Vannoy said.
Third to the finish was the Open Expert pair of Joshua Fitzpatrick and Irving Powers on their White Knuckle Racing YZ450F. “Today just went great with the better start position – no dust there,” Fitzpatrick noted. “We were fourth off the line today, I believe. Irving got out to a good start and then we ended up passing third overall, which was P9, [the leading] Over 30 Pro. After that, we were catching N8, which was Cory Vannoy and Sean Berryman. I think we finished within a minute of them, so we might be in front of them [on corrected time]. But these guys (leading Four-stroke Pros Ricky Brabec and Robert Underwood) were coming up through the field real quick!”
Indeed, Brabec and Underwood were docked 10 minutes at the start for a pit infraction on day one, so instead of starting third and trying to pass two teams, they had a dozen to find a way around. They ended up fourth physically on their Hemingway Sheet Metal CRF450X, having come through most of the dust from those who’d started ahead of them.
Over 30 Pro leaders Rex Cameron and Michael Johnson were third off the line and finished fifth physically on their CRF450X, but they easily retained the class lead and remained on track to reach their goal of a top five overall finish.
