VOL. 53 ISSUE 13 APRIL 5, 2016 P37
podium finish. Thompson piloted
his Fasthouse Yamaha to third
place, despite having lost his
back brake on the third lap. "I
just rode my race and stayed
smooth," Thompson said. "I like
going fast and this course suited
me. We still have the points lead.
We'll try to take it out the rest of
the year and win this champion-
ship."
For defending champion
Colton Udall, it was a challenge
simply lining up for the WCGP
race after having broken his
leg less than four weeks prior.
"I broke my leg and sprained
my ankle pretty bad at our team
photo shoot just doing some
stupid jump," Udall explained.
"I had surgery that Thursday so
I was recovering pretty quickly,
but when you're injured you
don't get to train, so obviously
you're struggling."
Udall's performance didn't
indicate any struggle, as he
seemed to gain strength near
the end, and make a last-lap
pass on his Ox Motorsports
Honda teammate Mark Samuels
for fifth. Bell's Precision Con-
cepts teammate Justin Seeds
finished fourth just ahead of
Udall in a close finish.
The Pro II ranks had a lot
more position swapping, with
Jeremy McCool leading the
early laps. He eventually gave
way to both Mitch Anderson and
Beau Baron, who led the charge
before a flat tire forced him to
yield the point to Anderson.
McCool also capitalized and got
back into second place, but Clay
Hengeveld ran him down to take
over the runner-up position. An-
derson, Hengeveld and McCool
made up the Pro II podium while
finishing eighth, ninth and tenth
overall.
In the Women's Pro divi-
sion, Tatum Sik appeared to
be headed toward her second
victory of the day, after having
dominated the Women's Expert
race in the morning. But Sik was
yet another victim of a flat tire on
the choppy high-speed course,
and although she made a repair
and jumped back into the race, it
was Zip-Ty Racing's Gina Alva-
rez who captured the win. Beta
USA's Morgan Tanke finished
second while Sik collected third.
Jean Turner
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JEAN
TURNER
The start was everything on the dusty, high-speed course, and Robby Bell
got a good one, which resulted in a second-place finish.
Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna's Gina
Alvarez celebrated her first WCGP
Pro win in the Women's class.
