good start to the year," he said.
Martinez, who claimed second
at the season finale last month,
also enjoyed an excellent start,
coming out of the first turn behind
only Bell.
But the pro motocrosser who's
transitioning back to off-road
on his Monster Energy/Lava
Propane/Fly Racing CRF450R
admitted, "Man, his pace the first
lap is [insanely fast]! We've got
some work cut out for us to cut
down that gap.
"The race was good. I pretty
much got to run my own race
the entire time. Once I started to
figure the course out, I feel like I
got faster. I look forward to build-
ing on the season and starting
to figure this off-road thing out
again."
Walton had an eventful debut
on his factory-backed FMF/
Dunlop/Fly Racing FC 450. "I
didn't get the greatest start and
had to work for it and kind of was
bouncing back and forth between
spots," he said. "Gary [Sutherlin]
and I got in with each other over
on the [motocross] track. It was
just kind of chaos; there's not re-
ally too many places to pass out
there.
"We felt good on the bike, we
had the speed—we've just got to
fix a couple things and come out
the next race and see what we
can do put ourselves in a better
place on the first lap. I think we
can run up in the front."
Sutherlin rebounded to finish
fourth on his Hatch Off-Road
Racing KTM 450 XC-F with
Walton's teammate Giacomo
Redondi fifth.
Last year's King of Adel-
anto Justin Seeds claimed sixth
aboard his Purvines Racing
YZ450F followed by FMF/Maxx-
is/RPM Racing KTM's Dante
Oliveira, 3 Bros./STI Husqvarna's
Dalton Shirey and Pro II winner
Tallon LaFountaine on his SLR
Honda CRF250R, who said, "It
was tough because the track was
so long [at about eight miles] that
it was hard to remember all the
turns. It was by the third or fourth
lap when I finally found my flow,
so I could get through sections
without hesitating and know
exactly and commit to the whole
track."
Purvines Racing's Tyler Lynn,
the defending Pro II champ, was
13 seconds behind the win-
ner and rounded out the top 10
overall.
After running third in the early
laps, defending series cham-
pion Trevor Stewart's race went
decidedly south. Having switched
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 21, 2020 P45
(Above left) Zach Bell (100) got
through the first turn ahead of the
field, with Cole Martinez (34) holding
onto second place the entire race.
(Above) Tallon La Fountaine eventually
got the long racetrack figured out
and sped to the Pro II victory in ninth
overall. PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
