Udall passed Thompson for
the lead with a quicker pit stop
and initially appeared to be the
winner, but the Flo Motorsports/
Mom & Dad/Maxxis-backed
YZ450F rider was declared the
winner after the checkered flag.
Before that while thinking he'd
gotten second, he said, "We
came out with the points lead so
we're still doing all right.
"I'm ecstatic with the way I
rode. If I keep riding like this all
year, I think I can win a champi-
onship, for sure."
As for Bell, the Precision Con-
cepts/Maxima/MSR KX450F
rider admitted, "I didn't get off to
the greatest start. I was maybe
seventh or eighth. I got up to fifth
or sixth, then on the pavement
section I got my doors blown off
by Colton and [Shirey]."
But he shook that off to even-
tually pass his way up to $100
Fasthouse Holeshot Award win-
ner Michael Del Fante. However,
Thousand Oaks Powersports
Yamaha rider Del Fante ended
up tipping over in the scoring
chute and collecting both Bell
and Udall who, as the last to fall,
was also first to get away. Bell
lost a lot of time getting rolling
again, as did Del Fante at the
bottom of the pile.
"I think third place at that point
was the best I could do today,"
Bell confessed.
Bell's teammate Justin Seeds
rebounded from a mediocre
start to claim fourth, though he
was happy to meet his goal of
finishing without going down. Ox
Motorsports Honda rider Justin
Jones got a good start but was
still feeling the effects of his
high-speed digger the week be-
fore and settled for fifth ahead of
Udall's teammate Mark Samuels,
who had to come back from be-
ing taken out in the first turn.
Yorba, Del Fante, WCGP Pro
II winner Trevor Stewart and
Maxxis Yamaha rider Jeff Loop
rounded out the top 10.
Mark Kariya
VOL. 53 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 9, 2016 P29
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MARK
KARIYA
Blayne
Thompson
led the most
laps in the
WCGP.
Trevor Stewart
picked up a ride
on a TM 250 MX
two days before
Taft and raced
to the WCGP
Pro II victory.
