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AMAINATC Ryan Young Products National Trials Championship Series Rounds 1-2: Temecula GeoU Aaron awes them at National Trials Series opener STORY AND PHOTOS By SHAN MOORE/ TRIALS COMPETITION NEWSPAPER TEMECULA, CA, APR. 25·26 eoff Aaron initiated his own "shock and awe" campaign at rounds one and two of the AMA/NATC Ryan Young Products National Trials Championships in Temecula by posting a pair of domi· nating wins. Not that an Aaron win in Southern California is a big surprise the Gas Gas pilot is very much at home on the high-traction terrain but the manner in which he did it was. Aaron's performance on Saturday was awe-inspiring, taking less than a third of the runner-up's score. In round two on Saturday. he started with a questionable five in the first section then reeled off 39 cleans on the next 44 rides to claim his second victory in as many days. A pair of Gas Gas-mounted Canadians took the runner-up spots each day. Ryon Bell grabbed the spot on Friday, with Wilson Craig making his G best-ever National finish with a second on Saturday. With the wins, the 30-year-old Aaron put himself in good position to claim a record-breaking seventh National title. "I'm just real excited to get these two out of the way," Aaron said. "I knew I had a real good chance to win here, so I'm just glad I could do that. I think the sections were my kind of going because they were technical and tricky but not crazy, so it was just a matter of concentrating. Now I'm gonna try and find some slippery stuff to practice before the next four rounds up in the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully I'll get up there early enough to tune up in the wet stuff. I'm just gonna keep on working hard like I've been doing, and hopefully I can go for the championship." Bell had a different take on the SoCal sections: "The whole winter, Wilson [Craig] and I rode four or five days a week in the mud, and it's very critical there to have proper weight Caa . .$I . . . . . . . . . . . GaaGaa .......... - ' 2 - 3 _ the-und. ~.. placement and proper throttle and clutch control. Then you come down here and basically throw it all out the window. It doesn't matter what you do here - you can get traction." It would be easy to just chalk up Aaron's win to familiarity with the local terrain, but Aaron had something the others lacked, at least on this weekend, and that was concentration. Seventy-nine cleans and J 0 single dabs versus just two bad rides in the two events tell the tale. It wilJ be interesting to see if the tide changes when the series moves on to the slippery northern rounds. After two rounds, Aaron leads the series standings with 60 points, followed by Bell with 46 and Craig with 40. David Chaves and Chris Florin round out the top five with 39 and 34, respectively. ROUND ONE After looking particularly good in practice on Thursday, David Chaves got off to a bad start on Friday with fives in the opening two sections. The Spaniard, who had an extremely good shOWing at the U.S. Indoor Championships in January and is one of the favorites to challenge for the outdoor title this year, had the misfortune of catching a section marker with his rear wheel in the first section and made a bad judgment in the other to start the event with a 10point deficit. 38 MAY 14. 2003' cue • e n __ s Bell, mounted on a Gas Gas after several years with Montesa, got off to a shaky start as well, with nervous dabs in a few of the first sections. Aaron, on the other hand, rode aggressively, making several miraculous saves to turn potentially disastrous rides into brilJiant cleans. "Sometimes I think that's the onlYl difference between me and some of the other guys," Aaron said of his point-saving moves. "If you just try a • little extra - that could be the differ- . ence in a win or second place. A couple of times I got a little off course and had some hairy rides, but I just hung on to it and made it work for me." Aaron's determination carried him to a two-point first-lap score after single dabs in sections 10, a tricky hillclimb section, and 13, an up-down affair with an eight-foot near-vertical, entrance. Bell was next best with 15 points, with Chaves just three points back in third, despite his terrible start. Monte· sa's Chris Florin turned in some stylish rides combined with a couple of fives for 19 first-lap points, while Scorpa-mounted Ray Peters and Wilson Craig of Surry, B.C., were tied with 20 each in a battle over fifth. • Lap two saw Bell getting more accustomed to the grippy rocks. A nice clean on the hillclimb highlighted his two-point performance on lap two. Aaron matched Bell's perfor-