onds behind Thompson.
"It's been a lot of hard work—
a lot of riding and [my] back's
coming around a little bit at a
time, and I've been able to train
a little bit more, ride more and
just get more comfortable on the
bike," Maxima Oils/GPR Stabiliz-
ers/Fast House KX450-mounted
Bell said.
"All in all, it's been a great
weekend. Yesterday, I won the
AA class, and today I got off to a
second-place start behind Trevor
and made the move right away,
and I just kind of took off from
there. I put in my three fast sprint
laps like I do with Taylor Robert
[at the WORCS races]. That put
me into a big gap over him, and I
just managed it from there."
Stewart managed to hold
second for the first half of the
$8000 race aboard his VP Rac-
ing Fuels/Renthal/Fly Racing-
backed CRF450RX, but when
he pitted, Thompson zipped
past, opting to pit the following
lap, though they did a little back
and forth, Thompson secur-
ing second aboard his IMS/
Rekluse/Sidi KX450 by the time
they got the white flag.
"We were having a really good
race," Stewart said. "I would
make a mistake, he would make
a mistake and we'd get right
back on each other each time."
But after one last pass,
Thompson sealed the deal after
Stewart ran into trouble. "Man,
just like a couple turns later,"
Stewart said, "I hit a false neutral
on one of those singles and oh, I
gutted myself so bad! Basically it
took the life out of me. I skipped
everything right after the race
and went straight back to the
trailer and threw up everywhere."
The one bright spot for Stew-
art is that he's still leading the
points chase since Bell missed
two rounds due to conflicting
events.
Like Bell, Thompson has
also missed two rounds, and
he's also been consistent, his
runner-up finish matching his
VOLUME 56 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 8, 2019 P33
Tarah Gieger
wrapped up
the Pro Women
Championship after
winning for the fourth
straight round.
