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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128238
o n hi s fi n al ride, but he st il l t ook
fourth - his best fi nis h thi s year.
Tiger was still looking fo r the R6's
fir st win , so he gea red it up for more
top speed , but he was n't abl e to p ut
t og et her a soli d run , t ho ugh he did
run a fract io n faster at 7 .74 2.
BOOCC
Jack Mason launched hard out o f th e
hole as the big bikes took to th e h il l.
He jumped o ff the breaker an d wasn 't
ab le to sta y in his lin e, but h e still
cloc k e d a run of 7 .590 s ec o nd s.
B obb y Te m ple t o n f oll o we d an d
m ov ed to th e t op after a 7. 3 17 -second run that held up until late in the
rou nd, when t h e number-on e b ik e
rolled into the pit. D ave Watson needed a fourth -place finish to lo ck up th e
title, but he was still go ing for the win.
" I' m just go ing to try to win the
hillclimb today," he said . "That seems
t o work out better for me than trying
to finish fourth or better. "
Watson lined up on the l eft side
and click ed off a sm oot h , fast run of
7.008 to take the lead.
"I had a pretty cl ean ride" he said .
" It felt like a better ride than the 540 ,
but it wasn't much faster - maybe
because of th e traction or something .'
Four riders later, Strank stepped in
for hi s chance. He was good over the
breaker, but he got crossrutted off the
seco nd jump, and he lo st time getting
it straight for the ru n to the last ju mp.
Tiger moved into secon d with a time
of 7.085. For Large to tak e the champ ions h ip, he needed to w in and for
Wa tso n to finish sixth , b ut his day
didn 't start off too well .
" S o m et h i n g ha ppened to the
damp ing ad ju st m ent on t h e re ar
sh ock , and i t locked u p ,' h e sai d .
"We tried to work on it , and it works a
little now, but it's no t right. '
La rge li ned up on the far left side
.only two feet from out of bounds for
h is fi rst run . He let it loos e off t he
st art, and instead of trying to ro ll ov er
the breaker, he ke pt it on , jum p ing off
it. The b ike sta y ed on the left sid e up
to the big jump, but the ruts sent h im
way t o the right , and he had to fight
to stay in bou nd s. He never bac k ed
off, and the Ohio native passed the
timers with a 6 .813 -second tim e to
take the lead.
" T h a t was an excit ing r id e, ' h e
said. "I never would have guessed that
wa s a six . I felt li ke I was out of con t rol from the second jump on. b ut I
left the gas on and had a lot of luck.'
Larg e 's teamma te Ge rry Ben nett
h as been one of th e most improv ed
riders on th e ci rc uit this season , an d
he knew he had to try to beat Tiger
and Watson to h el p La rg e win the
ti t le. He was t rying to o h ar d on h is
first run and ma de a few small m istakes that left h im well b ac k as he
closed out the round .
Watson wa s going for the win as he
launched up the ce nter of the hill in
the second round . After a good run
over th e breaker, he pinned the th rottle and le ap t o ff the b ig j u m p . He
landed hard, and after he went ov er
the second jum p , he had to back off
for an instant to get th e bike bac k on
line. Watson ripped pas t th e timer in
6 .788 seconds to move back into fi rst.
Stran k geared his R1 up for hi s fi nal
pa ss, and he had a fast run go ing until
he lan ded off the second jum p .
"I was a li tt le slow off the bottom,
then I cased real hard off the second
j um p and ha d to back off fo r a secon d ," h e said. " I have the best sus pension gu y I've ever ha d in Donny
Li ng le, so this w inter we 'll work on
the susp ension and find some more
horse power.•
jum p , an d the big Harl ey th un dered
to t h e to p . Watson watc h e d as
Large's 7.745 lit up the scor eboard.
" I ha d a pretty fast run on m y sec ond ru n to nip Larg e, then he came
right b ac k an d n ipped m e back by
.043 ," Watson sa id . " T h a t was a n
awe so me rid e he p ut in. Stil l, it ' s
. been an unbeli evabl e day, our 50th
w i n and to win t h e 80 0 Champ ionship, too."
I:N
Devir s S1