Printable View
A bottleneck quickly developed when two riders wedged themselves into the single quad width section which brought everyone behind them to a halt with #24 Rhett Butler, #11 Michael Houston, #14 Andy Lagzdins, #10 Greg Trew, and #20 Kim Kuhnle bringing up the rear of the pack as they waited for their turn through the tight section.
Meanwhile, the battle for the lead was on between Bill Ballance and Chris Borich as they created a trail of dust behind them for the rest of the Pro Riders.
A mile into the race, Chris Borich had powered his Alba Action 450R past Bill Ballance and took over the lead as they headed up one of the steeper ski slopes which was followed by a high speed section up a gradual ski slope before turning off into the woods.
The turn into the woods caught Borich off quard, and he locked up his brakes to make the turn with Ballance right behind him, which spelled trouble for the two riders because Ballance wasn’t able to stop quick enough and hit front tire went up and over Chris’s rear tire as they became locked together, which was the perfect opportunity for William Yokley and Matt Smiley to take over the lead as Borich and Ballance separated their quads.
Once separated, Ballance took off first and luckily only dropped back to around 5th place with Borich kick starting his Honda and taking off right behind Ballance.
The dust became a major issue in the fields as it completed blinded the riders with almost zero visibility, but luckily the majority of the track was in the woods where the dust wasn’t a major issue and in several sections the riders were faced with mud holes.
#8 Jeremy Rice remained hard on the gas regardless of the poor visibility and was charging hard in the top 10.
Pro Am Start
With the Pro Race well underway, the Pro Arm Riders were just getting started with #63 Scott Barron and #316 Brandon Sturdivant getting out to slight lead over the rest of the class as they sprinted up the hill for the first turn.
Scott Barron inside line proved faster as he was able to edge out Brandon Sturdivant for the Holeshot.
With over 31 Pro Am riders heading through the first turn, a blinding cloud of dust formed which caused havoc for class leader #66 Adam McGill along with several other riders as they collided in the dust sending Adam off his Holz Racing 450R.
Adam quickly jumped up and with the help of Rick Cecco was able to continue the race in last place behind #19 Rob Hertz who also had his share of problems getting his 450R to fire up on the starting line
Scott Barron remained out front with Duane Johnson making his move on Brandon Sturdivant and taking over the second spot with James Wahl and Chris Bithell rounding out the top five riders heading through turn two.
4 Stroke A
Ryan Morphew put his Yamaha YFZ450 out front early grabbing the Holeshot with Tom Collins aboard his Honda along side Ryan, but they wouldn't lead for long as Kyle Hemlick would take over the lead before the end of lap one and lead the first three laps of the race with Ryan Morphew moving back up to the front in 2nd place with one lap to go.
Dan Kiehl was off to a great start, but his day would end after only one lap.
Behind Dan, Taylor Kiser spun sideways causing Paul McCoy to lock it up to avoid flipping him over. Luckily for Taylor, he was able to quickly able to get moving again and was in the top 5 after lap one, but with the an intense points battle between him and Rothermel for the Championship, he really needed to stay infront of Rothermel back in 8th spot as they worked there way through the pack and up to 3rd and 4th with one lap to go.
Zac Phillips dropped all the way back to 15th after the 1st lap, but had worked his way back up to 9th by the white flap with the 3rd fastest laptime in the class.