VOL. 52 ISSUE 18 MAY 5, 2015 P111
snatched the holeshot in the second
main event just in front of fellow KTM
pilot Steven Mages, but behind them
there was already a fight breaking out,
with Regal shoving Suzuki's Cory Green
wide heading into the whoops for third,
opening the door for Hayes to make a
move. Before the field even got to the
finish-line jump for the official start to
lap one, Hayes made a very aggressive
move, cutting across the inside of the
turn after the whoops and slamming Re-
gal to the ground on the turn's exit. Regal
went down in a heap, and Hayes stayed
up. That could've and possibly should've
been the "winning blow" for Hayes in his
championship chase, except that when
he hit Regal, there was a cloud of smoke
from his KX250F as it relinquished all of
its coolant. The huge plume of smoke
quickly went away, a bad sign. His bike
was running dry of coolant.
Over the course of the next five laps,
Hayes' bike continued to slow until Regal
passed him for 10th on lap four. By that
lap, he could no longer jump the track's
large triple jump, and then couldn't get
over the finish line a lap later. On lap
seven, his bike finally gave up com-
pletely, and the dejected Hayes—done in
by his own aggression—stomped off the
track and could not be consoled.
"It kind of caught me off-guard be-
cause I was already committed to the
finish line and next thing you know I've
Regal and Jacob Hayes (2) went into the
Vegas race tied for the points lead.
