OFF ROAD
AMA DISTRICT 37/MSR BIG 6 GRAND PRIX SERIES
ROUND 1 / JANUARY 15-17, 2016
MAVERICKS STADIUM / ADELANTO, CALIFORNIA
P54
"In the next few corners, I kind
of pushed people out of my way
and I just worked my way up."
Arm pump slowed his prog-
ress after getting up to second
place, preventing him from the
steady progress needed to
catch Thompson, though miss-
ing his pit forced him to throttle
back which helped alleviate the
condition.
The story was much the same
from Rocky Mountain ATV/MC
Kawasaki's Robby Bell and his
Precision Concepts/Maxima/
MSR KX450F.
"I wheelied like a goon off
the start so that'll look good on
the GoPro," he quipped before
race and stayed on two wheels
so I ended up coming out with
the win."
On the other hand, Zip-Ty
Racing Husqvarna's Dalton
Shirey had a very mediocre start
before clawing his way through
the pack to an eventual second
on his Pro Circuit/GPR Stabiliz-
ers/Troy Lee Designs FC 450,
just 18 seconds behind Thomp-
son.
"I didn't want to push it be-
cause the concrete [start area]
was kind of sketchy to me so
right when I let off, everyone
kind of went by me and I was
like, 'Aw man; I shouldn't have let
off!' " he said.
WCGP PRO
Fasthouse Yamaha's Thompson
got the holeshot on his Flo Mo-
torsports/Mom & Dad/Maxxis-
backed YZ450F and was never
passed, plain and simple.
"We got the start we were
looking for last year and we final-
ly got one [today]," he said. "We
ended up leading the whole lap
and the whole race, and that's all
we were looking for, starting the
season out good.
"It was tough [leading the
whole race] because I knew
there were a lot of big hitters be-
hind me. I knew they were going
to try to come and get me, but
I just made sure I rode my own
At the beginning of
the year, Jeremy
Newton (281) had no
plans to run the Big 6
GPs, but winning the
WCGP Pro II class at
Adelanto changed his
mind. Here, he checks
for Mitch Anderson
(203) who eventually
finished second.
