VOL. 51 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 26, 2014 P93
but also picks up an extra cham-
pionship point. Once again, it
was Colton Haaker who stopped
the clock the quickest.
"It keeps on helping me,"
Haaker said. "That's my third one
of the season. I've got three extra
points on Taddy and Cody be-
cause of that."
The hot lap in Atlanta came
with an added bonus—a $2,000
payout courtesy of Girardi Wealth
Management. Haaker was also
happy to pocket the cash, which
Mike Girardi was on hand to pres-
ent to Haaker on the podium.
That Damn Matrix
It's never a surprise to hear rid-
ers call the Matrix the toughest
part of the track, but in Atlanta,
the Matrix collected more than
its typical share of carnage. Des-
try Abbott pinpointed the reason
why: "They usually use telephone
poles so it's a different kind of
wood. Here we actually used
trees. So once the bark came off
and it got wet, it was ice," Abbott
explained. "You had to hit that
dead center. If you didn't, you
went flying. It was impossible. It
didn't matter what rider it was. I
don't know anyone that made it
through the Matrix without crash-
ing. You want to see crashes and
entertainment, this was the race
to be at!"
For the first time in the history
of the series, EnduroCross pro-
moters actually fired up the chain-
saw and removed a log from the
Matrix after the first practice ses-
sion in an effort to make it more
passable.
The Nicoletti Experiment
Fellow N-Fab Yamaha racer Phil
Nicoletti decided to try his hand
at an EnduroCross race. The Joe
Gibbs Racing Yamaha rider is a
regular in the AMA Motocross
Championship, but elected to
come to Atlanta since he was
sitting out the Utah National.
Nicoletti rode a lightly modified
YZ450F, and after only three
days practice, found himself
on the Gwinnett Center Arena
floor alongside the best. Nico-
It was a tough night for Mike Brown who made only three laps.
