By the time he clicked into fourth gear, Team Green’s Destry Abbott knew things were going his way. Sure enough, by the time he reached the bomb, he had things well in hand at the 56th annual Moose Run by the Four Aces Motorcycle Club, and he never saw another racer’s dust in taking his first win this year in the AMA/FMF Racing National Hare & Hound Series.
“Yeah, it was a good day,” he said on his drive back to Arizona. “I really can’t complain because I haven’t won a race wire to wire in a long time. That was nice not to have dusty goggles or anything.”
Based at the Spangler Hills’ Wagon Wheel Staging Area near Red Mountain, California, Abbott had a commanding lead at the bomb and simply stretched it from there on his Pro Circuit/Dunlop/THOR-sponsored KX450F.
“I knew the start was super-important [because of the dry, dusty conditions],” he said.
Round one winner and reigning series champion Russell Pearson seemed to have all sorts of problems, beginning with a multi-kick start that left him mired in the dusty pack. By the end of the first loop, he’d worked his way up to third behind Abbott and Honda’s Kendall Norman, who rode a Precision Concepts/Pro Honda Oils/O’Neal CRF450X, but that was as far as he’d get.
Though he closed on Norman, Pearson’s Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing/Moose-backed YZ450F ran out of fuel with less than a mile to go. Fortunately, he was able to get gas from a spectator, which got him to the finish line.
“It was just one of those days where you do your homework, but it doesn’t work,” Pearson said.
KTM’s David Pearson, Russell’s cousin, ran second in the early going on his Tag/Michelin/Moose 525 XC, but he couldn’t keep that pace up due to losing the clutch. On the more technical second loop, he slipped back to fourth, with fellow KTM 525 racer Matt Gosnell coming back from a bad start and a knee injury to claim fifth on his BRP/GPR/Fly-sponsored machine.
Abbott’s win gives him a slight cushion in series points after two rounds; he has 55 points from his 2-1 finishes while Russell Pearson has 51, thanks to his 1-3 record.
