UNOFFICIAL - August 10 - 1438 Hours - Kawasaki Team Green's Shane Esposito pulls off yet another solo run, this time checking in with a victory at Best In The Desert's Tonopah 300 aboard his Chevy Trucks Kawasaki KX 500. He pioneered his way through a course blanketed with deep silt and a lot of fast two track riding that wound its way through pine forests, lush cattle laden valleys and back down to the sage brush of the high desert.

He will follow suit with the rest of Team Green and opt out of the upcoming BITD Baja Mex race. Team Green has not returned to Baja since Danny Hamel died there in an accident years ago. Best In The Desert is allowing teams the option to use the Tonopah race as a substitute for the Baja Mex. With as good as Esposito has done so far into the year, he'll be heading into the final race of the season, the Las Vegas 200, in good standing. Esposito's rider of record (ROR), Destry Abbott, is still out recovering from knee surgery. It is likely that he will run the WORCS Gorman race later this month, but it is still uncertain at this time.

Finishing second overall on the day and maintaining course for a remarkable come back from last year, Montclaire Yamaha's Ty Davis and Russell Pearson keep their smaller bore Yamaha 426 scaling the points ladder in contention for a Best In the Desert Championship. It's likely that they'll look to overcome the gap with a good run at the upcoming race in Mexico but will have to fend off the legends of Baja, the Red Riders of Team Honda, particularly the team of Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld, who finished third overall at 5:07:19.

More than nine minutes back from the lead bike, the Chevy Trucks Kawasaki of Brian Brown and David Pearson finished up fourth for the day. Pearson started the race fifth and kept a steady pace through the plume of thick dust that outlined the track throughout the day. The was no help from the wind to clear a path for a safe pass.

"It was fast two-track, dusty roads all day long. The main thing is we just couldn't gain any positions because of the dust. Well, it's just another day of racing," said Pearson, who started off riding two wheels when his dad removed the training wheels from his bicycle at the age of two. By the time he had reached six years-old, he was mixing it up on the BMX circuit with the national No. 6 plate.

Pearson handed off the KX 500 to Brown, who finished the race for the team. Dave Pearson will soon set sail with cousin Nate Pearson for the running of the 6 Days on a Yamaha YZ 250.