ing to wheelie and hit
it as hard as I can!' I
almost made it over, but
it caught my linkage and
my rear knobby and I got
locked in to the bottom
two [strands of wire]. I
should've stopped and
opened it. It would've
helped me in the long run
to do that, to just take the
time. But in that situation,
I was freaking out!"
The pack quickly
caught him, but by and
large, the riders demon-
strated sportsmanship by
helping extricate him and then
restarting in basically the same
order as they'd come in.
Axel Pearson was fourth when
he left the gate, but when broth-
er Tuffy Pearson overshot a turn
shortly afterwards, Axel quickly
found himself running second
on his FMF/DP Brakes/6D
Helmets YZ450FX.
"After that, I pushed hard and
I'd get close—like within five sec-
onds in a couple sections; so
close! Then I ended up having a
big crash in the dust. I was kind
of pushing a little too hard in the
dust, I think," he confessed.
"But I feel like I had to try and
give it my all."
The rest of the race went like
that with Axel Pearson charg-
ing hard through the dust and
having Burson in range before
getting stymied by a wall of it
due to lappers or hitting some
unseen obstacle and falling.
After more than two and a half
hours, he trailed the winner by
seven seconds.
For Gerston, his ride to third
was both solitary and eye-open-
ing aboard his Motul/Kenda/
Klim 390 RR. "There was noth-
ing tight about it," he said. "I'm
not going to sit here and [play]
shoulda, woulda, coulda, but if I
would've gotten the holeshot or
something, it would've been a
completely different race for me.
Instead, I'm riding in the dust
and the dust is so thick, it was
impossible [to pass].
"I didn't even know I got third!
I thought I was fourth or fifth or
something."
Actual fourth-place finisher
Joey Fiasconaro told a similar
story of being blinded by dust
so the Six Five O Racing Gas-
Gas rider rode alone, finishing
about two and a half minutes
behind Gerston and with about
the same margin over fifth-place
finisher Tuffy Pearson.
Austin Garcia, Marshall and
FMF Pro 250 racers Cole Co-
natser, J.T. Baker and Tayson
Weeks rounded out the top 10
overall.
Mark Kariya
1. Nick Burson (Yam)
2. Axel Pearson (Yam)
3. Max Gerston (Bet)
4. Joey Fiasconaro (GG)
5. Tuffy Pearson (KTM)
6. Austin Garcia (KTM)
7. Ryan Marshall (Yam)
8. Cole Conatser (KTM)
9. J.T. Baker (Hus)
10. Tayson Weeks (KTM)
IN
THE
WIND
P60
Max Pearson made sure at least
one Pearson went home with a
winner's trophy, his coming in the
combined MRAN 65cc C/AMA Pee
Wee race. (His father is retired
racer Nick Pearson.)
