Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128314
Woods continued to stretch his lead out over Bonds. His largest gap on Bonds would be 37.1 seconds on the sixth lap, but from there on out , the Yamaha rider's lead began to shrink. Bonds picked up his pace and started catching Woods, and both riders had to start thinking about pitting for their one and only stop for fuel. By the ninth lap, Bonds had caught up to within nine seconds of Woods , who decided it was time Creek MX facility for the first time , and the over 1000 riders who turned out over the weekend quickly discovered how the place got its name . Once the four-mile course left the motocross track and head ed o ut into the nearby woo ds, the riders discovered about 10 creek cross ings and about two miles worth of single-tra ck tra il over dark and moist loam. There was also a grasstrack section . "It was the coolest WORCS race I've done:' Abbott said. "They sent you out on the grasstrack, then into the woods, and then back onto the MX track. It was a to ugh course; we went through some creek cross ings and a lot of ruts. It was a nice all-around eve nt that seemed to have everything." For the most part , the 13-lap race produced a lot of close racing, especially among the top 10 riders . Wood s was the early leader, completing the first lap seven seconds ahead of Bonds, who was closely followed by previous-round winner Lance Smail, Honda rider "'i:;;:~""'!I"""'PT"l"' Mark Tilley, KTM's Kurt Caselli, Abbott, Naughton , Russell Pearson and Davis. That first lap pro duced t he singlefastest lap time of the day, set by Woods at nine minutes and 21.7 seco nds. Woods and Bonds started to break away from the rest of the pack, and even Woods started putting some time on Bonds. It soon became o bvious that this race was going to boil down to a tw o -man sho otout for the win. to gas up. Bonds, however, de cided to go one more lap. While Woo ds wa s in th e pits, Bo nds shot into the lead and tried to put as much dist ance between him an d Woods as poss ible , knowing he'd have to stop on the next lap. Bonds' plan worked . He came in after the ninth lap, pitted and got away before Woods could get him. Once in the lead, Bonds busted out a couple of his best laps of the day and stead ily pulled away from Woods. His lead quickly grew from 10.1 seconds to 1:3 I.B over the next fIVe - and fi nal laps to take the win over Woods. "The very end of the race was the best," Bonds said. ''Af I pitter ted, I knew I'd win. If there was anyone close, I was going to hold them off or get off trying." There was plenty of action going on behind Bonds and Woods, as well. Throughout the race, there was a freight-train of riders , mixingit up for third through seventh or so . Smail held on to the third -place position for a while until suddenly dropping back to I I th, where he would hang out the rest of the day. Tilley moved up to third for a while and was looking good until he started to drop back a bit. too. He would eventually finish 10th. ~':i.lII www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 10, 2004 39