didn't have any issues all race."
Sutherlin took the lead off the
start, but visibility issues ham-
pered him on the first lap. After
surrendering the lead to Rob-
ert, he ditched his goggles and
stayed with Robert until the end.
An attempted charge for the vic-
tory on the final lap was thwarted
by a bottleneck, but after having
issues in the first round, Sutherlin
was glad to bounce back here
with a podium.
"It was a bummer not to be
able to fight for the win on that
last lap, but I'm happy with the fin-
ish especially after the first race,"
said Sutherlin. "I closed the gap
with one lap to go and tried to
push. Unfortunately, the track
had deteriorated so much that I
got stuck in a bottleneck in a mud
hole. I'm just looking forward to
getting this rolling and move on to
Havasu."
Oliveira ran a conservative
pace on the first few laps before
snagging third on lap three. From
there, the Northern California na-
tive used his mud racing experi-
ence to his advantage to hold
onto the final spot on the podium,
his first this season and the sec-
ond of his Pro career.
Redondi took the checkers
approximately 40 seconds behind
Oliveira and had a comfortable
gap on fifth-place Dietrich.
Dalton Shirey finished over a
minute ahead of Blayne Thom-
son in sixth, and Eric Yorba took
eighth, well ahead of Zach Bell.
Andrew Short rounded out the
top 10 and was the last rider to
finish on the same lap as Robert.
Robert now holds a 12-point
lead over Oliveira after two
rounds.
In Pro 2, JT Baker took the
lead at the start on his two-stroke
GasGas, but the conditions
nearly took him out of contention.
After sucking in water in the off-
road section his bike sputtered
and he lost the lead to Austin
Serpa. On the final lap, Serpa
was held up momentarily in a
rut, and Baker went for it, charg-
ing into the lead and going on to
victory. Serpa was second on a
VOL. 56 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 5, 2019 P45
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
HARLEN
FOLEY
Despite riding much
of the race without
goggles Gary
Sutherlin rode to a
second-place finish.
