VOL. 53 ISSUE 13 APRIL 5, 2016 P33
sell who was on the move after
overcoming a bad start, which
once again forced him to battle
his way through the XC1 pack to
take control.
Behind the leader, the battle
for the podium was heating up
as Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's
Strang and JCR Honda's Bach
dueled it out. Russell had a
comfortable lead by the end of
the race and he captured the
win, leaving Strang with a solid
runner-up finish and Bach with
his first podium of the season.
Strang was disappointed to
see an end to his win streak, but
still retains to the overall points
lead. "I struggled in the first half
of the race and when I finally put
it all together I was too far back,"
Strang lamented. "I'll take it for
this round, but my plan is to be
back in the middle of the box at
Big Buck."
"It's awesome to get my first
podium of the season," Bach
said. "I had a decent start and
was able to even lead a little
bit of the race. I've been deal-
ing with issues from my crash
in Florida but I'm taking it race
by race and we're finally back
where we should be."
In the XC2 ranks, JCR
Honda/Lucas Oil rider Trevor
Bollinger was looking to make
it three in a row in front of his
hometown fans. But Coastal
Racing riders Layne Michael
and Craig DeLong weren't about
to let Bollinger have it so easy.
But in the end, nothing could
stop Bollinger—not even a hard
crash—from taking the XC2 win.
"It feels great to get a win at
my hometown race especially
after the race I had," Bollinger
said.
"I just couldn't get a clean lap
in the whole race, but it feels
good to come out with another
win and keep fighting for the
championship."
Michael took second place
followed by DeLong, marking
a double-podium for the newly
formed Coastal Racing team.
The hotly contested WXC
class would see a new name
claiming the win as Fly Rac-
ing/Maxxis/Yamaha's Becca
Sheets took her first win of the
season. With a huge turnout of
race entries, the morning race
was clogged with lappers that ef-
fectively kept the pace changing
lap after lap. FMF/KTM's Kacy
Martinez took second place—her
first non-win of the season—fol-
lowed by Bonzi/RideMPS.com's
Brook Cosner.
Ken Hill
Josh Strang was not happy about
his win-streak being broken, but
collected a runner-up finish at
Steele Creek.
Grant Baylor (314) and Daniel Milner (31) get out to a strong start, as
does Charlie Mullins (112) who led the opening laps of the race.
