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M CROSS OTO Round 6: Owyhee MX Park AMA WESTERN FOUR·STROKE NATIONAL MOTOCROSS SERIES F:----==- ----- --------~-----------l bined wi th his firs t-mo to second , gave him 11th overall. _ • Tod d Downs, a teammate of Anava a nd LaM as tus, had his s ha re of problems, too . He was w ithin st riking d istan ce of sixth-p laced Schne ll after a nearlast-place start in the first rnoto, only to hav e the rea r hub on his Yamaha explode after landing from a massive triple jump . Th e seco n d m oto wen t b ett er fo r Downs, who sta rte d off in fou rth a nd ended up in eigh th for 12th on the day. But the day - like so many others in this series - belonged to Smail. The Hu saberg rid er go t the ball rolling in the first moto wit h a clean holesh ot, and he proceeded to roost away from the pack. Nelson, who diced with laMastus early on , kept Smail in sigh t well in to the race until an en counter with a slowe r rider, wh o h a d cr as h ed , se n t him to · t h e gro und as well... "I couldn't avoid a downed rid er 's bike," elson said . "It was layin g com pletely across th e track. I br ak ed hard and w ash ed ou t. Th en, a cou p le laps later, I stalled it an d then failed to refire the bike for a lon g time." From that poi nt on, Sma il had a walk in the park. "So far, so good her e at Boise," Smail sai d . "I felt elson for about half the mot o, then nothing." laMastus inh erited second place and laid claim to that posi tion for the res t of the race, bu t he was never of major concern to Smail , who wo uld cross the finis h li ne some 50 secon ds ahea d o f LaMas tus . Th ere wa s plen ty of ra ci n g a cti on go ing o n for the th ir d throu gh 10 Ih s po ts, thou gh. Na ughton wa s hol ding hi s own in th ir d , wh ile Myers w as in co ntrol of fou rt h. Schnell was ru nning fifth, but Down s wasn't cu tting him any 1 slack, especially late in the race. "I wa s makin g so me goo d tim e o n Greg coming off the hill and down into the lowe r technical a rea," Downs said, 0 "and that's w hen it happened." That "it" to which he was referring was his bik e' s broken hub, which put Downs ou t of the race. Then Taylor pulled over. . "I mu st have jarred the carb loose out there and I had to be carefu l not to blow it up," he said . Mean while, wh ile running in seco nd, laMastus seemed to be pickin g away at Smail's lead . By Don Schneider Photos by Mark Kariya 1.0 A [8 ~ @ 42 BOISE, ID,JULY12 usaberg' s Lance Smail once aga in • dominated the thumping action at round s ix of the AM A West ern Four-Stroke Na tional MX Series, held at Owyhee MX Park in Id aho . With th e se ries re turnin g to t he No r thwes t Smail's doma in - th e two-time cha m p pulled two clean h oleshots and co n qu ered the compe titio n wit h ano ther 1-1 romp. So far this season, Smail has won all but one moto in the series - that's 11 wins ou t of 12 tries. Finish ing seco nd overa ll on the day w as Robert aughton, w ho fou nd his way onto the pod iu m for the first time th is seaso n . Na ug h to n p o w ered hi s Bro wn Brot her Ra ci ng / Ma xxis Ti res BBR machine to a 3-5 tally, giving him the ru nner- u p honors. , Greg Sc h nell , o n the ot her h a n d , m ad e it six s tra igh t podium appea rances, as he pilo ted his Motoworld of EI Cajo n Yamaha to +-7 finis hes for third overa ll. Eve n more remarkable was the fact tha t Schnell wa s com pe tin g with a busted kneecap. Sco tt My ers, who step ped up to a podi u m finish at the last rou nd, settled for fourth in Boise wit h a 5-6 tally on the Racers Edge Yama ha YZ400F. Myers, too, was competing in pai n, having fractured his right thumb during practice. Rich Taylor, on an other Racers Edge Ya ma h a, ro u n de d o u t th e to p fi ve , though not wi thou t a few hurdles along the way . While running fourth in th e first rnoto, a loose carbu retor boot relega te d him to ninth, but he did come back and hold on to fourth in the second moto to take the fifth-p lace p osition. Si xth ov erall o n the d a y went to Motoworld of El Cajon 's Dustin Nels on , w ho was followed by Andy Ana ya wi th a personal-bes t seventh. Eighth went to Grayson Hart, w h o was foll owed by Beau Baron and Boise's own Robb Floth . I elso n ran a strong seco nd in the first mo ta befo re crashing and ul tima tely finishing 16th, bu t he cam e back in the secon d m ota to finish o ff what h e w a s una ble to acco mplis h in the opener - to take second pla ce. . Ph oenix Pr emi er Mot osp orts Hu sabe rg 's Jimmy LaMastu s had a tou gh da y. He finished a st rong secon d in the first moto and wa s behind Sma il in the second moto before he cras hed and la ter su ffered engine problems. He was credited with 21st in the moto; tha t, com- (Top) Husaberq's lance Smail (1) nails the l irs t of his tw o ho leshots at Owyhee MX Park en route to another 1-1 sweep in the Western' Four- Stro ke National MX Series . (Above) BBR's Robert Naughton found his way onto the podium with runner-up honors. (Right) Greg Schnell, bum knee and all , grabbed third overall.