doing a full service (fuel and both
wheels) at pit seven (mile 246.3).
This time, however, he struck
trouble early, painfully hitting
his foot on a rock which both-
ered him the rest of the way. "I
thought my toes were broken and
I thought that they were bleeding
so I kept looking down at my boot
to see if there was blood coming
out of my boot or not," he said.
More troublesome was a
lowside before pit six (mile 219.4)
that sliced his arm open sub-
stantially and tweaked the front
end, something the JCR crew
was unable to remedy. Brabec
also broke a hub, adding two
unplanned stops to swap wheels,
the last one due to a melted
mousse which forced him to baby
it to the last pit. (Former winner
Kendall Norman was officially
entered but only as a backup in
case Brabec was unable to ride.)
"It was an eventful one," he
admitted. "We stopped a little
bit too much, I think," adding, "I
thought it was going to be a little
bit easier as far as the riding and
the terrain, but this year with all
the rain, it definitely made the
course a lot rockier with a lot
more ruts. That kind of put a lot of
wear and tear on the body after
500 miles; my hands are pretty
beat up and I think I was expect-
ing it to be a little bit smoother,
honestly!"
Hintz and Hunter enjoyed a
relatively trouble-free race aboard
the Kenda/Pro Circuit/FXR 450
SX-F. Third off the start behind
the Shirey and Brabec, Hintz
found himself unable to match
their pace, though he stayed
ahead of Beta's Zane Roberts un-
til he slid out three times in about
10 miles before pit seven due to
tire wear.
"We did a tire change at pit
eight and I gave the bike to Trevor
there and Roberts actually got
out in front of us then," Hintz
IN
THE
WIND
P46
Following a long layoff due
to a shoulder injury, Jared
Schlapia teamed up with Wyatt
Brittner and Taylor Stevens
to top 399cc Pro, finishing
seventh overall motorcycle.
