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AMA/NATC National Championsh ip T r ia ls Series Roun d s 7 -8 : S e qua tch ie Trials T r ai n in g C ent e r S TOR Y A ND PHOTOS BY SHAN MOORE SEQCIATCHIE, TN, JUNE 24-25 fte r being shutout the previous week in Kentucky , five-time National Champion Geoff Aaron served up a double dose of revenge in Tennessee by winning rounds seven and eight of the AMA/NATC National Trials Championship series held in Sequatchie. Aaron dominated the competition on Saturday, but by his own admission , won "by the hair of [his ] chinny-chin-chin" on Sunday. The ERE /Gas -Gas-backed Aaron and newly crowned Canadian Champion Ryon Bell tied for the win on Sunday, with 76 points each . Closer insp ect ion of th e ca rds s howed Aaron with 20 cle a ns co m pa red to Bell's 16. In NATC com petition, the rider who cleans th e most sectio ns wins th e tie brea ker ; this ga ve Aaron the top spot A 26 JULY 12, 2000 ' cue • e on the pod ium . The two wins pro pelled Aaron to a 24-point lead in the series with just two rounds remaining. "La s t weekend definitely wasn 't my type of event," Aaron said in a post -event interv iew. "I had good rides , but I also had blowout loop scores where I was just not on track. We were pretty d isappointed that Ryon [Bell] ga ined points on us . I wanted to stay strong all yea r, and I don 't like to lose , so th is weekend I just put my head down and went for the win." In contrast to last week's event in Kentucky, which consisted of dirt c lim bs, sl ipp er y roots and log s , but very few rocks , th e Sequatchie ev ent was a slightly m o re te chni cal e ve nt t ha t included car-s ized boulder s a nd m assiv e roc ky cr eek s that threatene d to swallow rid e rs who le. "Se vera l of th e sect ions were p ret ty ra dica l," Aaro n s a id . "B u t th ere n e VIl' s Geoff Aaron was hot on Saturday, and hot and cold on Sunday, but the re igning AMAINATC National Trials Champion prevailed for two straight w ins during the SequatchIe Na tional doubleheader. wasn 't anything out there that I fel t like I couldn 't clean. So , I jus t went for it." Bultaco USA's Ra ymond Peters finished third both da ys and has a so lid hold o n third in the series ove r c ro wd favorite Jess Kempkes of Nebraska , who finished the weekend with a pa ir of fourth s . OAYONE Aa ron wa s red hot o n Saturda y, a nd rode the first loop with de termi na t ion and p rec isi on. His first loop score of 15 wa s nearl y half tha t of the . nea res t compe tito r, round -five winner Pete rs , who had 27 . Bell's firs t la p d idn 't go as well. Su ffer ing ill effe c ts from the 95degree t e m pe ratures , Be ll st a rted slug g ishly a nd turned in 29 po ints for th ird place afte r one loo p. "I started we ll, but then I began to fee l terrible ," Be ll sa id of the first loop. "I was sweating , and m y sto ma ch began h u rt ing. I fel t lik e I ha d already ridd en three loops, and I was jus t getting started." A s lice d rea r tire in section eight didn't help Be ll's effort either. "I wrecked a new rear tire on th e first loop," Be ll said. "I hit so mething h a rd , a nd I k new I ha d a flat rig ht a wa y. I ha d a slice a t the tread and o ne a t the bead , and it to o k fo u r plugs to fill eac h hole ." Afte r ta k ing o n fresh rubbe r a nd pitching his s por ts d rink for st raig ht water, Bell got thing s togethe r on the second lap and eq ua led Aa ron 's first lap 15 . By the second la p, th e event' s high entry count was st arting to ta ke a toll on the course , and the to p rid e rs began to encounter bottlen ecks at the sections. Aaron wo uld admit after the event that h is con centration on the second lo o p d ropp ed off fro m the frustra tion of wai ting in lines . Aaron scored e ight more po ints than Bell for the lap , but st ill held a six -point lead go ing int o the fina l loo p. Pete rs held on to th ird with 57 po int s , and Jess Kempkes , who was having a hot and co ld da y, wa s fourt h, 60 points after two loops. Extreme ly lo w on ti me , Aa ron motocrossed the final lo op to avoid disqualification a nd fell into a rhythm that carried him to the be st loop of the day . "On the th ird loop everybody was_ tight on time , and we were just flyin' ." Aaron sa id . "I had no traffic , and it was pretty mu ch clean-clean-clean. I had four ones and a three for seven and that was enough to do it." Add four penalty points for being eight m inutes late at the finish and Aaron 's 49 -point total gave the 27year-old his fourth win of the season. Bell scored 18 marks on the fina l circuit plus one penalty point for a total of 63, and second overall. Peters and Kempkes maintained third and fourth for the day , with 75 and 92, respectively, whi le Canada 's Wilson Craig finished fifth, with 108. OAYTWO Aaron had mo re of an up -anddown day o n Sunda y , attacking Sequatchie 's full -tilt ro ck y c re e ks with abandon and go ing for cleans on every section. Th is strategy produced some of th e m ost s pectacula r rides of the weekend, but a lso m o re t ha n a few threes and fives . Aaron was the only rider to clea n sectio ns four a nd 15 , whic h were pr ob abl y t he tw o toughest se c tio ns of th e eve nt, but fived th e easier nu m ber three on a ll thr ee loops.