Round 9 of the Super
Series brought out the infamous Big Al (aka Troll, aka Alex Martin) to launch
his YZ450 to victory in three classes as he tries to race himself back into
shape after his broken arm put a major hitch in his season. He was certainly ultra-competitive
at the local level as he romped to six moto wins. Shockingly enough, he is old
enough for the 30+ class! Where
have the years gone?!!
The Spring Creek track
was in good shape with a lesser number of ruts as the lack of recent rain left
a drier base, but the crew kept up watering throughout the day to minimize dust
and all was well. Rider
entries totaled a bit over 450 so there was good competition throughout the
day. The track was routed to go up
a bit of Mount Martin so that was a bit of an extra for the day.
Jaden Rolbiecki
roosted down the start straight to lead the 250 C class around the first turn
as moto 1 was launched. Zaine Randall was in pursuit and took control in short
order to lead the way. Rolbiecki lost ground gradually as Randall pounded out the
laps. Byron Setzepfandt
Alex Rasmussen were in a battle over third and closed in on Rolbeicki
in the late stages and while Randall crossed the line with a good
sized lead, second through fifth were fairly close at the flag with Rolbeicki, Setzepfandt and
Rasmussen leading Jaydon Nyeggen as they finished off
the moto with a last shot over the Holy Schmit jump.
Nyeggen surged to the front as
moto 2 started but Randall was close by and swept by for the lead. Nyeggen held
onto second with Rasmussen and Rolbeicki in pursuit a
couple of seconds back until the halfway mark when Rasmussen nabbed second
place. Unfortunately
he took a digger right at the start of the last lap and dropped back a few
spots while Rolbeicki, Nyeggen
and Setzepfandt cruised on by. Randall went on to win quite handily
while Rolbeicki maintained his way for second and Setzepfandt dropped Nyeggen back
to fourth later in the lap for third, then Rasmussen got by to drop him back to
fifth before the flag waved.
Bentlee Walker charged
out front in moto one of the 85cc 9-12 class and found that Caleb Wagner was
eager to replace him as the leader.
Lap after lap they circulated out front but
Walker remained in control for the duration and collected the checkered flag
first. James Schaffer stayed close
enough to keep them in sight with Blake Gyldenvan and
Cooper Couette rounding out the top five.
Gyldenvan mastered the art of the
holeshot for moto two only to see Walker blitz on by shortly into the
race. Walker got just a bit
of a lead while Schaffer and Wagner set up a dispute over second which would
run about the whole length of the moto. When finally
the action ended Walker secured the win with Schaffer and Wagner remaining 2-3
while Gyldenvan and Couette reprised their 4-5
performance from moto one.
Speaking of the art of
the holeshot, Dalton Hein has been on a run lately and pulled the holey in moto
one of the 250B class. Wyatt
McGrath was running a KX250 for this race, for the first time possibly, and
soon took over out front.
While he took off, Hein found Garret Becker and Dylan Payer pressuring
him and the game was on.
Becker demoted Hein just as they started into lap three and then Payer
made a charge into third somewhere in the vicinity of the sandwash. Order at the finish was then
McGrath with a good lead over the still battling duo of Becker and Payer with
Hein just a bit back and Gabe Gerhardt snapping up fifth.
Hein couldn’t hold
back and holeshotted moto two. McGrath was close though and swooped
into the lead in a hurry. Payer and
Becker were quickly by too and dropped Hein back to fourth. McGrath set a good pace out front
and built a margin over Payer who in turn pulled a gap over the fighting trio
of Becker, Gerhardt and Hein. That is the order in which
they finished out the day some laps later.