as they headed down a fast,
rough, five-mile-long powerline
road.
Beta's Joe Wasson blitzed
past to lead momentarily but
crashed hard and had to be
flown to a hospital in El Paso,
Texas, where he underwent
surgery a few hours later for
a compound fracture of his
forearm and severely dislocated
wrist.
Shortly after that, Sutherlin
took over and held the lead the
rest of the way.
"I really needed this," he
said. "I made a couple quick
passes and put my head down.
Just made sure I paid attention
to markings and charged and
got a good little gap.
"The second loop, I kind of
made a wrong [rear] tire choice
[to begin with, going with a pure
sand tire]. I was just being easy
with it, riding smooth. Ricky
was about 30 seconds [behind]
going into the last loop so I just
put my head down the last loop
and charged really hard and
stretched it out and made sure I
had a comfy little lead."
Lucas Oil/Pro Circuit/Fly
Racing CRF450X-mounted
Brabec said, "I got one of my
famous dead-last starts.
"Gary got a good start. I
tried to make up as much time
as I could, but with Gary and
me having the same [training]
program back at home—we live
a mile away from each other
so we burn in trails together,
we ride trails together and do
VOL. 54 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 14, 2017 P35
After three
podiums last year,
15-year-old Tyler
Lynn claimed his
first win in the FMF
Pro 250 class.
Though he didn't
end up with the
holeshot, Gary
Sutherlin (324) led
most of the rest of
the way for his first
win of the season.
Ricky Brabec (7)
was second.
than-normal area available for
the bomb run. It was more like
a Supercross start except with
dead engines and when the
green flag waved, Sutherlin got
to the first turn on the inside with
a slight lead aboard his John
Burr Cycles/FMF/THOR-backed
YZ450FX, but Ryan Smith's wider
line allowed him to grab the lead
on his SRT/Rick's Custom Shut-
ter & Blinds/O'Neal YZ450FX