Wild West GP
29
Polmi, CA
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Mark
Tilley
at
the Wild
es
on
wrns
West
GP'
th€
p
the first lap. but Tilley was starting
to turn
up the heat.
"l
had a bad
start and then
went offthe
track three times and did all
kinds of stu-
pid
stuff
on the
first lap," Tilley said.
"Once
I calmed down,
I
got
right behind
I4ikey
[Childress]
and made the
pass.
I
could see
Ward up ahead,
pulling
into the
36 APR[. t9,
2006
.
cYcLE NEWS
Round 3
A,Piil
t-2, 2.J.J6
OFF.ROAD
I
!
il
:-l
)
I
r!
\
)
I
-2
/
Gordon Word
(pic-
tured) ond
filley
won
the Teom
roce.
I
I
I
T1
{
'i
lf'
B1
a
ark Tilley
came to round
three of the AP1A Dis-
trict 37 Big
6 Grand Prix
Championship
Series
with one thing on
his
mind: Sweep.
And
he wasn't thinking
about a broom-
The
Temecula Motorspons/HlC/Dr
D/Precision Concepts
Yamaha
rider, who
currently
holds the number-one
plates in
both
the Four-Stroke
Heavyweight and
Open-class divisions,
wants
to keeP those
titles
for at least another
year, so he made
every
race
count at the Wild
West
GP
Tilley started
the weekend off
with a
hard-fought
win in the Four-Stroke
Heavyweight
division. Once
again, it was
veteran racer Gordon
Ward making
Tilley
earn
the win,
as the two riders battled
it
out on the rough course.
Mike Childress
inirially had the
lead
when
he
jumped
offthe
line first from the
dead-engine start
on his
American
Honda/O'
Neal/Gaerne/Scott-sponsored
cRF450X.
"The
450X is awesome,
with the elec-
tric
start and kickin8 at the same
time,"
Childress
said.
"lt
fires right every time,
so I
got
my XBurcom
Holeshot Award!"
Childress
soon found out, however,
that his off-road
riding skills
would not be
enough to hold off the
charginS
Ward
in
the motocross
sections.
"l
held off
Ward for the
first half-lap,
then
he
iust
out-motocrossed
me, out-
turned
me, and
gave me a little lesson."
Ward was
leading the race when
the
riders came
throuSh the scoring chute
on
scoring chute on the second
lap, and I
knew I had
to make the
pass
before we
got
back
into the off-road section.
I didn't
want to be behind him, because
I knew it
was
going to hurt!"
Tilley executed a
clean
pass
on
Ward
when
he outjumped and moved over
on him
in the motocross
section.