wasn't really worried about what
he was doing.
"The second I could get around
him, I got around him and then
just tried to stay out in front of
these guys. Randomly, they'd
catch me out there and I'd have
to take off again, but it was a fun
race, I was stoked on the event,
it was super-fun riding and I'm
looking forward to what the rest
of these races have to offer."
Technically, Redondi led
the first 30-plus minutes with
Oliveira on his rear fender, but
the current number one had an
issue with the roll-off film of
his goggles sticking. The mo
-
mentary lapse was the open-
ing Oliveira took advantage of,
though Redondi wasn't done as
they went back and forth.
"It was like playing cat-and-
mouse pretty much the first two
hours, then I saw him pitting
so I say, 'I push, I push, I push,'
but maybe I pushed too much
because I had a pretty big crash,
but nothing happened to my
body, just the bike that was pretty
twisted," Redondi reported. With
a bent bike, time running out and
seven rounds to go, he decided
to simply finish, saying, "I'm fine
[with] the second [place]; I already
used all my jokers because we
were going very fast."
Indeed, with about 30 minutes
left, he was less than 10 seconds
behind Oliveira and had some two
and a half minutes on Roberts
who somehow came back on the
opening lap from that last-place
start to third aboard his Mika Met
-
als/Pirelli/Klim-sponsored 480 RR.
He'd chosen the far outside into
the right-hand first turn but got
pushed wide and ended up stuck
in a big clump of sage brush but
dismissed the incident: "It took a
little while to get out of there, but
it kind of took the pressure off
because you're just chasing from
the bike, I guess. I'm comfort
-
able here and I like this area, so I
wasn't super-worried. Obviously, I
would've preferred to be up there
in the lead pack off the bat, but it
wasn't too big a deal."
Teammate Wasson occupied
a lonely fourth for practically the
entire race on his FMF/IMS/Fly
Racing 480 RR ahead of Rock
-
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P61
Pro 250 winner Layton Smail
didn't panic when he found
himself deep in the field off
the start. Even with one get-
off, he steadily worked his way
to the front and earned sixth
overall in the process.
