but managed to regain what he
lost and took second at the flag,
padding his points lead over
Justin Seeds.
"I made my way to second,
and I knew Taylor was going
to be the guy to beat," said
Sutherlin. "I had a solid second
going when my rear wheel came
apart. I came in, changed the
rear wheel and went back out
seventh. Once I got out, I told
myself I wasn't going to have a
bad day. I put it all out there and
caught all the way up to sec-
ond."
Eric Yorba was holding down
second late in the race before
being slowed by a bottleneck
and then suffering a flat (the
mousse inner-tube in his wheel
broke down). He ended up third.
"I got up into second and had
a little bit of a gap on Gary, but I
got stuck behind some lappers
that fell in the creek in the can-
yon section and I had nowhere
to go," said Yorba. "I came to a
complete stop and lost all of the
time I had on Gary. My rear tire
mousse ended up giving out,
and I made the decision to let
Gary by and salvage a third. I
was glad to redeem myself from
the horrible performance I had
here at the last round."
Trevor Stewart rounded out
the top five.
Dante Oliveira clinched the
Pro 2 Championship after tak-
ing his fifth win of the season.
Mitch Anderson and Alex Dorsey
joined the KTM rider on the
podium.
"I felt really good and the bike
was working awesome," said
Oliveira. "I faded a little at the
end of the race, but kept moving
to stay on top. The track was su-
per cool. It was nice to change it
up a little bit."
For Anderson, it was the fin-
ish of the season for him. He
took the checkers 20 seconds
behind Oliveira.
In Pro 2 Lights, Clayton
Hengeveld proved he has fully
recovered from a broken arm
sustained in a crash during prac-
tice in June with his third victory
of the season. He came out of
a three-way battle with Austin
Serpa and motocross racer Con-
ner Mullennix for the victory.
Serpa scored his sixth podium
of the season. He remains the
points leader on his KTM. "I feel
pretty good, but not as good as I
would if I had won," said Serpa.
"The heat wasn't bad. I just rode
as well as I could."
Mullennix came into the race
on a bet with friend and fel-
low motocross racer, Nathan
Ramsey. After winning the 250
A race on Friday, he proved he
could compete in a longer race,
finishing third.
"He said he could beat me at
a WORCS race so I talked with
my race manager about getting
me a fuel tank and the next thing
you know my tank came in," said
Mullennix. "Nathan somehow
got out of it, but I had to do it. I
came in with a good head and
just had fun."
Harlen Foley
VOL. 54 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 P45
Dante Oliveira clinched the Pro 2
Championship.
