VOLUME ISSUE JUNE , P97
Jared Mees, who looked miser-
able on track pretty much all day
and found himself mired down
in 12th in the early going, and
Dalton Gauthier, who ran as low
as 10th while making his debut
on the factory Royal Enfield
while subbing for the injured
Johnny Lewis.
As Ross and Robinson slugged
it out, Mees and Gauthier hooked
up and slashed through a big
pack of riders, ultimately inserting
themselves in the podium picture
just as the clocks hit zero and
only two laps remained.
Ross' maiden premier-class
podium seemed all but assured,
at least until Gauthier slotted the
Twins FT underneath Ross' Nin
-
ja 650 and transformed the race
Bauman was also quite im-
pressive relative to the remain-
der of the field, quickly dropping
the pack in a hopeless attempt
to push Daniels for victory.
While there was precious little
drama in determining first and
second, the situation behind
more than made up for it.
There were two separate
battles of keen interest. First
was a heated scrap for third
waged by championship-hopeful
Brandon Robinson, armed with
the Mission Roof Systems
Indian, and Kawasaki-mounted
Billy "The Kid" Ross, who missed
the opening six rounds after suf
-
fering a preseason injury.
Well behind them were nine-
time Grand National Champion
at Senoia. We decided to go home
and go back to the R&D department
and put a better program together. I
went and did some warm-up races in
Canada—I'm going for the champion-
ship up there—and came out here
swinging, just looking to have fun. We
did just that. We went out and won
my heat, got pole, and won the [Al
Lamb's Dallas Honda] Challenge. In
the main, I ripped the holeshot and
led a couple laps, which was a blast.
We fell back to fifth. It's a little disap-
pointing, but [I] know I have the speed
to compete with these guys."
29 BILLY ROSS
4TH SUPERTWINS
Mission Foods/Digitrace's Billy Ross
burst back onto the scene after
missing the opening six rounds due
to injury with a near (as in two-thou-
sandths of a second near) podium
ride aboard his privateer Kawasaki
Ninja 650. Ross has shown flashes
of brilliance throughout his career,
including a victory in the Mission Pro-
duction Twins class and sixth-place
ride in the Mission AFT SuperTwins
class here at Orange County a year
ago. Now the hope is that the matur-
ing "Kid" is able to build on this result
and push up front with more regu-
larity. He said, "It's awesome. I'm
pumped to be near the front. Hope-
fully, I can stay up there. I started off
a little rough in practice but just kept
going the right way. In the main, I just
went forward and tried to stay there."
MYOWNRACE
