the pit stops, Bell began feeling
some pressure from the series
points leader, Hoeft. The two
fiercely battled back and forth
right in front of the pits. Ulti-
mately, Hoeft was able to make
the pass, moving Bell to third.
Bell took a couple laps to
regroup, keeping Hoeft within 10
seconds, and planned to make
a last-lap charge. Unfortunately
for Bell, he went slightly wide in
a corner on the last lap and his
knee slammed into a branch.
The resulting "dead leg" slowed
Bell's pace, but he soon pushed
through the pain and charged
after second place once more.
Bell closed up to within touching
distance of Hoeft but ran out of
time.
Hoeft started the race in
fourth and fought his way
through the field, officially finish
-
ing 21.793 seconds behind Lynn.
Honda rider Tallon LaFoun-
taine held fourth for most of the
race and finished there approxi-
mately three minutes behind
Bell. Mateo Oliveira was fifth.
Hoeft still leads the champion
-
ship by 11 points, while just six
points separate the next three
riders: Lynn, Oliveira and LaFoun
-
taine, in that order.
It looked as though SLR Hon-
da's Kade Tinkler-Walker was
going to add another win to his
list in the 250 Pro class until a
mechanical issue ended his day
prematurely. Tinkler-Walker was
fourth after lap one but snatched
the lead away from Jake Alvarez
(RPM KTM) on lap three and
started pulling away. It was his
to lose as he held a 20-second
lead over Yamaha rider Jake
Simpson with three laps to go.
But that's when his bike let go
and forced him out of the race.
Simpson inherited the lead
and went on to take the win
by 46 seconds over KTM rider
Colton Aeck who Simpson
passed a few laps from the end.
Kai Aiello (Husqvarna) was
fourth and Thomas Dunn (Ya
-
maha) fifth.
Simpson still has a command-
ing 30-point lead in the 250 Pro
Championship over Tinkler-Walk-
er and Alvarez who are tied in
second. Aiello is just two points
back in fourth. And Aeck is right
there in fifth, just five points
behind Aiello.
VOLUME ISSUE MAY , P39
Jack Simpson pulled away
for the Pro 250 win.
