Cycle News

OFF ROAD AMA DISTRICT 37/MSR BIG 6 GRAND PRIX SERIES FINAL ROUND / DECEMBER 3-4, 2016 ELSINORE MOTORSPORTS PARK / LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA P62 opted to not come in, estimating he could make it to the end on one tank. "A bunch of guys started to pit and I'm like, 'That's pretty much the only place I can pass.' Towards the end I was in third; I knew Blayne and Justin Seeds were behind me and I wasn't really making any ground. We were kind of staying the same and I knew if I pitted, they would get around me because they were right behind me so I just decided to wing it. Fortunately, I had enough gas and ended up on the podium, the first podium of my pro career!" Thompson held on for a some- what disappointed fourth on his TBT/Mom & Dad-sponsored CRF450R with Seeds settling for fifth after several issues. Fast- house Yamaha's Trevor Stewart won WCGP Pro II, finishing sixth overall almost a minute ahead of class runner-up—but class champ—Beau Baron. JCR Honda's Benny Beck (who'd won Vet Heavyweight Expert earlier), WCGP Pro II third-place Mitch Anderson and fourth-place Kai Mukai rounded out the top 10 overall. CN WCGP PRO 1. Eric Yorba (KTM) 2. Jeff Loop (Yam) 3. Michael DelFante (Yam) 4. Blayne Thompson (Kaw) 5. Justin Seeds (Kaw) Justin Seeds had a mechanical is- sue sideline his race bike so after the Unclassified race he dashed home, picked up his nearly new 2017 KX450F and took it back to the track to race in the WCGP after swapping the stock suspension for his 2015's and making a mount so the older model's FMF pipe fit the new bike. Eric Yorba had a vocal cheering section since the race was close to home and he seemed to relish this Big 6 WCGP Championship even more than his first one two years ago. "To me, it didn't really feel like [I won it in 2014] there were a lot of big hitters that were missing that year—I mean, a championship's a championship; I'll take it—but this year to have everybody here all year and battle with everybody all through the entire year and win the championship, it really means a lot." After coming into Big 6 from moto- cross and winning three champion- ships since 2013, Tatum Sik has called it a career and will turn her focus to racing four wheels. "I think I accomplished all the goals that I had I set out for myself [on motorcy- cles] by coming into off-road," she said. "I don't want to keep going for the same titles over and over. I think I accomplished everything I wanted to so now it's time for me to step into my next adventure." However, she promised, "I'll be around! I might hit some races now and then, but I'm not going to be going all crazy like before. I think that's the smart thing for me to do. Now I've got to pay for my own health insurance!" Trevor Stewart happily announced that this will be his final WCGP Pro II win. Next year, he moves up to the WCGP Pro class as one of the new members of the Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda squad. One more rider moving up is Shane Logan. The Super Mini Advanced champ will ride big bikes full-time next season, though he's been preparing by racing Lightweight II (200cc) Intermediate this year (af- ter starting in the Novice class until round four). Round-seven WCGP winner Dalton Shirey's weekend didn't last long. He got a decent start and was run- ning fourth about 30 minutes in but had to take a DNF after reportedly suffering a knee injury. Unofficially, he still took the Heavyweight Expert Championship despite missing that race on Sunday afternoon, having built up enough of a cushion after winning six previous rounds. Shane Logan closed out his mini- bike career by easily winning Super Mini Advanced for the fifth time this season to wrap up the class cham- pionship. Later that afternoon, he won Lightweight II (200cc) Interme- diate for the third time, giving him third in class points—commendable since he started the season a Nov- ice, moving to Intermediate at round four. Briefly...

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