guys on green pulled a gap of
up to 25 seconds, though they
couldn't completely shake the
GasGas riders.
Later, Stover inadvertently
moved over on Bell just before
the scoring chute with both rid-
ers going down and Bell got up
quicker to retake the lead.
"In the daytime it seemed like
we were more or less evenly
matched," Bell said. "We held
the lead for maybe the first half
of the daytime then they got into
the lead and held it to just before
dusk. We were pretty evenly
matched and thought, 'Oh man,
it's going to be a race come night
time!'"
As it grew darker, however,
the Kawasaki squad appeared
to have a slight edge. "Either our
[light] setup or just our speed
in general was a little better at
night," Bell said.
"We had a little adjustment
period going into the night [por-
tion]," Stover admitted.
It was not only Redondi's first
time racing at night but his first
true, American-style endurance
race, so he had much to learn.
"In Europe there are 10- and
12-hour races, but you have a
special test then a transfer [the
whole time]," he said. "It's differ-
ent than this [style of going hard
the whole time]. The first lap in
the night, I was a little bit like on
the brakes, we can say.
"The second time, I was good.
I was more or less doing the
same lap time as the other guys."
Among the issues the Kilmar-
tin/3 Bros. team dealt with were
a sliced tire and loose chain
adjuster/rear axle, though those
were handled without incident.
"I got on the bike for the last
stint just over a lap down and the
second lap through I get a pit
board, and I couldn't quite read
what it said," Stover said. "All
I saw was 'Kawi' and it looked
like 'blew up' and I wasn't sure.
It seemed like wishful thinking.
Then I came around for my third
lap and all of a sudden, the pit
board read 'P-1, drop the ham-
mer!'"
IN
THE
WIND
P48
Trevor Stewart chases
Colton Aeck in the early
going. The top two teams
exchanged the lead
multiple times throughout
the 10 hours.
