VOL. 52 ISSUE 47 NOVEMBER 24, 2015 P83
the same lap, Haaker made the
pass on Redmond for third and
set his sights on Webb who had
about a nine-second lead. Then,
the rocks grabbed Robert and
Webb got close again. Two big
jumps later Robert had his lead
back.
Haaker caught Webb on lap
13 and put an aggressive pass
move on the champ, making
contact from the inside of a
flat, sandy turn. Webb braked
early, swung under Haaker and
passed him back over the flat
tractor tires. Haaker's forceful
move forced him to drift wide out
of the corner—causing him to
get stuck on the outside of a tire
obstacle while Webb rode away
with the championship essen-
tially won.
Robert went on to win con-
vincingly with consistent, fast
weaving through lappers by the
fourth lap.
On lap six, Haaker had moved
into fourth place—really pres-
suring for the podium with more
than half the race to go. Webb's
lap-traffic maneuvering was
perfect, even allowing him to
erase gains Robert was making
by jumping big gaps at times as
Robert became stuck behind
slower riders.
By the ninth lap things began
to shake up. Webb went down
in the rock garden and stopped
just long enough for Robert to
get right next to him. Both riders
moved out of the rocks at the
same time and held it wide open
to jump the finish line double
inches apart. Robert would
make the pass stick and Webb
looked to settle into a champion-
ship-winning second place. On
pionship in last place. Lanza
would fall back a few positions in
the first lap mayhem and as the
first lap wound out, Redmond,
Webb, Robert and Gerston were
in a fight for the top spot.
By the second lap, Webb had
moved by Redmond and started
putting a gap on the field. Rob-
ert was pushing hard, jumping
every obstacle nearly every lap
and charging forward to Red-
mond.
Meanwhile, Haaker was on
the move from the back. By lap
three, he had moved into sixth
position, jumping when he had
clear vision and blitzing past the
field everywhere else. Redmond
had his hands full with a moti-
vated Robert and finally gave up
the second place position in the
rock garden. Webb was racing a
nearly perfect race up front and
(Left) Things
got crowded
early in the
main. Haaker
got left in the
back of the
pack.
(Right) Webb
(center),
Robert (left)
and Haaker
(right) finished
out the night on
the podium.
