about this win and I'm looking
forward to the next round. I was
sorry to see that Taylor Robert
wasn't racing today. I hope he
comes back so I can race with
him."
Despite an 11th-place start,
Sutherlin was determined to
win, and he made it all the way
to second place on the first
lap. He then led for a while but
lost out to the Italian. Though
Sutherlin had trouble pronounc-
ing his name on the podium, the
defending champ gave props to
Redondi for an excellent race.
"I led for two laps, but 'Ravioli'
rode well today and he got out
front," said Sutherlin. "I tried to
keep him honest, but I connect-
ed with a lapper. On the last lap,
we were literally wheel-to-wheel
at the finish. It sucks to get
second, but we'll work on this for
the next race. I want to dedicate
this race to Chris Wheeler. He
had a bad get-off this week and
broke his back. He's the guy
who put this team together for
me with Suzuki. My hat is off
to him for a speedy recovery. I
couldn't be here without him."
Oliveira led his first-ever Pro
laps in the race. The 2017 Pro 2
Champion had a nice run going
before tipping over in a turn. He
was happy to recover in time to
score his first Pro podium.
"I got the holeshot and tried to
stay out front as long as I could,"
said Oliveira. "I guess I couldn't
handle the pressure because
I washed out my front end and
went down. Then I just tried to
keep up with them and went as
fast as I could for the rest of the
race."
Yorba spent several days prior
to the event trying to get the lay
of the course. It took him some
time to find his lines, but once
he did, he was fast on his KTM.
He fought through a crash and
a bent clutch lever to pass Bell
and finish fourth.
"I didn't know the track very
well and it took me a while to
find my lines," said Yorba. "Once
I did, I got into a good groove. I
ended up crashing and the guys
behind me made up some time
because my clutch lever was
bent pretty badly. Zach got past
me, but I made a charge, closed
up on him in the rocks and he
made a mistake. So I got by him
VOL. 55 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 27, 2018 P41
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
HARLEN
FOLEY
