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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128131
"I had a bad pick [starting gate choice] and a bad jump," Watts said. When the pack left the motocross track and headed out into the woods, Smith, the one rider who many thought had the best chance of beating Watts in Oregon, was left sprawled out in one of the MX track's turns. "I lost the front wheel going into the tum," the recently crowned GNCC champ said. "It was all my mistake." Smith was slammed into by a number of riders, including Brian Garrahan, who said, "I ran right over Rodney's bike." Smith's Yoshimura DR-Z was badly damaged in the wreck. "I was slammed into so hard," Smith said. "The fuel hose got knocked off and gas was pouring everywhere and I couldn't find the hose. The sub-frame was bent and a tab for the side panel had broken off. My bars were bent and the front end was tweaked. I found the fuel hose when I went to pick up a piece of the sub-frame, only to find out that the nozzle on the carburetor was bent." By the time Smith had gotten his bike put back together, minus his right hand guard, and somewhat straightened, he was nearly a full lap down on the leaders. Meanwhile, Caselli continued to lead the way as they came in to complete lap one, but Watts had remarkably moved up to third and was about to pass Brian Garrahan for second. Early into the second lap, Watts had run down and passed Caselli for the lead, and from then on, it was all Watts' race as he gradually pulled away from everyone. By the third lap, Watts had opened up a 14-second advantage over Caselli, who now had Garrahan and Kiedrowski barreling down on him. Also on the move was Hatch, who was now in seventh and closing fast. He quickly got around Jason Raines, steve Hatch (20), on the Yoshimura Suzuki DR-Z430, slips past Pat Ganahn en route to a second-place finish. and Pat and Brian Garrahan. Kiedrowski then got around Caselli, as did Hatch shortly thereafter. Pretty soor., the Yoshimura Suzuki teammates were running 2-3 but were some 40 seconds behind the fleeing Watts. "I got up to MK [Kiedrowski] and was like, 'Cmon, lets go, let's try to get Shane!'" Hatch said. Hatch's momentum carried him around the more conservative-riding Kiedrowski, who was thinking more about the big picture .. the series points - and pretty much decided to let Hatch go, not wanting to risk his top-three position. At this point, near the halfway mark, Hatch was still about 40 seconds down on Watts, who pitted for gas. This allowed Hatch to gain 25 seconds on the leader, but Hatch had to gas up on the next lap. After Hatch pitted, Watts' lead increased back up to about 45 seconds. And this was as close as Hatch would ever get to the speeding Watts for the rest of the race. Each lap thereafter, Watts stretched out his lead by significant margins. Pretty soon, it was up to 52 seconds, then 55 seconds, then a minute and seven seconds, a minute 20, a minute 35 and, finally, a minute 45. "I just had a bad start and worked my way through [the pack]," Watts said. "It wasn't too hard to pass out there." "I had a good race, but I guess my starts could be better," Hatch said. "I got tangled up in that turn [where Smith went down) and got spun around. After that, I put my head down, had fun and charged." Kiedrowski finished a distant third comfortably ahead of Brian Garrahan. "Steve [Hatch) got right on me there," Kiedrowski said. "He got around me, but that really didn't effect the championship. I pretty much just rode out the race." Even though Watts' win was never really in doubt throughout the race, there was still one big questions left to be answered .. how many positions could Smith make up after his firstlap disaster? As it tumed out, a lot. Smith didn't even start seeing back-of-the-packers until the third lap, but that's when he started picking off riders in bunches. By the eighth lap, Smith had control of 11 th and by the ninth lap he had cracked the top 10. Smith took over ninth after passing Naughton and then eighth after getting around Caselli. On the 12th lap, Smith picked off KTM's Pat Garrahan and Kawasaki's Brian Brown. Finally, Smith slipped by Yamaha rider David Pearson to (Left) Brian Garrahan had a strong race and was rewarded with fourth place. (Right) Mike Kiedrowski extended his series points lead with a solid third overall. cue. e n __ s • NOVEMBER 21,2001 19