WRONG TURN FOR UDALL, WIN FOR
THOMPSON AT BIG 6
A
fter a disappointing opening
round in the AMA District
37/MSR Big 6 Grand Prix Se-
ries, Ox Motorsports Honda's
Colton Udall ended up with both
good and bad results at round
two, the Taft Grand Prix put on
by the Dirt Diggers Motorcycle
Club at Honolulu Hills Raceway,
Taft, California, February 6-7.
After taking the lead from
Fasthouse Yamaha rider Blayne
Thompson towards the end of
the 90-minute AMA Big 6 West
Coast Grand Prix (WCGP) Se-
ries feature and being first to the
checkered flag, Udall discov-
ered he'd be penalized for leav-
ing pit road prematurely, which
put him back on the course in a
turn right after a large table-top
jump.
The options officials weighed
were disqualification, penalty
of some sort or overlooking
the matter entirely. After much
discussion, the officials opted
for penalizing Udall one position,
dropping him from first to sec-
ond. Thompson thus found him-
self a perfect 1-1 in the first two
rounds of the series to stretch
his points lead. Rocky Mountain
ATV/MC Kawasaki-mounted
Robby Bell came in third.
Before that, it appeared that
Udall had ridden a perfect race
and had shaken the bugs out of
his new Michelin/Lava Propane/
MSR CRF450R, coming from
fifth place on the opening lap to
second about 45 minutes into
the race.
"I made a pass on Robby and
then he passed me back about a
lap later," Udall said. "I got a little
tight and I finally worked it out
[and got him back the next lap]."
IN
THE
WIND
P28
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MARK
KARIYA
The WCGP Pros chase
Michael Del Fante into the
first turn before about half
a dozen in the middle of
the pack went down.
