VOL. 56 ISSUE 11 MARCH 19, 2019 P43
bitt's Kawasaki) for the lead
in the first turn of the Georgia
race, although it was Strang who
claimed the holeshot at the exit
of the first turn in the six-lap race.
Russell was looking to take the
lead and pull away quickly when
he passed Strang after about six
miles of racing. However, Bol-
linger and Duvall wouldn't go
away, latching onto the KTM rider
and eventually swapping turns
at the front, with no more than a
couple of seconds separating the
three riders throughout the race.
Duvall took over the lead late in
the run and was in good position
to claim his first win of the sea-
son, but the West Virginia rider
crashed—hard.
"In felt super good going
into the last lap," said Duvall.
"I thought I could have stayed
with Kailub and pass him for the
win, but I died over here. There
was huge pole and I hit it. It
was pandemonium. I laid there
for a minute and I don't know
what happened. My bike was all
twisted up. I'm just glad to be on
the podium after that. Third is a
disappointment, but I'm stoked
with third after that crash."
At the finish, Russell topped
Bollinger for the win, while Duvall
was 42 seconds behind Bollinger
in third.
Russell was celebrated his
first win of the season. "This
track is really good for racing the
first couple laps, then after that
first lap everybody kind of finds
the fast line and gets dialed in
and then you break apart," said
Russell. "I knew it was going to
be important to get a good start
to position up front there. We
were able to sneak around there
on the inside and make some
moves, but like I said there was
a bunch of lines that just kind of
zig-zagged back and forth. It was
tough to piece together and that's
why there was such close racing
that first lap or two."
KR is now in a familiar place,
back in the points lead. "Yeah,
it's nice to get that back," added
Russell. "It's a long way to go but
it's always nice to have it."
This was one of Bollinger's
best finishes to date, finish-
ing 13 seconds behind Russell
for second, however the North
Carolina rider was not happy after
the race.
"I'm pretty bummed with it actu-
ally," said Bollinger. "I feel like I
had all the pieces there to fight
for a win on the last lap. I honest-
ly made two mistakes the whole
race and one of them was on the
last lap, and it just allowed Kailub
to get that much further out of
sight. I couldn't see him, so it
was really hard to try to close that
gap up. Just one of those days.
I felt good. I was there all day.
I'm happy with it and just want to
build from here. Hopefully I can
fight for a win at Steel Creek.
Last year these guys beat me by
like six minutes when I got third.
Hopefully we can close that gap
down and be there fighting for
the win like we did today."
Trevor Bolinger
battled for the win
but had to settle
for second.
