Hengeveld, Campbell Top Parker 250

Mark Kariya | January 10, 2005

Team Honda’s Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld (pictured) gave chase for about 30 miles, took over the lead and then rode away from the field on their XR650R to handily win the Golden West Cycles Parker 250 in Parker, Arizona, January 8, in what was round one of Best in the Desert’s Silver State Series. The duo completed the three-lap, 232-mile race in four hours, 10 minutes and seven seconds.

“This means a lot to me because I’ve never won at Parker,” Campbell said. And that goes for both the SCORE events, when it was the Parker 400, and the previous two Best in the Desert Parker 250s.

The winners ended up finishing nearly 15 minutes ahead of the runner-up team, made up of Clint Braun and Matt Gosnell on a KTM 525 MXC. They stopped the clocks at 4:24:06 and came away the Four-stroke Pro class victory. Braun and Gosnell finished ahead of defending Four-Stroke Pro champs Mike Childress and Chuck Dempsey, who were third overall on a Honda XR650R.

Open Pros Quinn Cody and Andy Grider (KTM), and Taber Murphy and Brian Pinard (Honda) rounded out the top five.

Robby Bell and Kendall Norman made their debut the number-two American Honda team entry, but it wasn’t what you’d call a dream debut. After drawing the first start position and leading the early going, Norman crashed heavily, breaking the bike and shaking himself up. After limping in to the alternate pit, Norman took a trip to the hospital for a check out, while Bell finished the race. Unfortunately, Bell also took a nasty header but was able to get to the checkered flag 17th overall and fourth Open Pro.