2022 Delta NGPC

The MX track featured a gate start, with a long, uphill straightaway leading into the sweeping first turn. As the gate dropped, Tyler Lynn had a decent jump, more or less even with the competitors either side of him. However, as soon as the pro’s crossed the gate into the loamy, uphill start straight, Tyler’s KX450X stretched its legs. Lynn pulled hard into the first turn, coming out in third place behind Chance Hymas and fellow Kawasaki rider Michael Del Fante. Lynn was eager to overtake Del Fante in order to latch on to Hymas. Unfortunately, as Tyler took a deep inside rut on the motocross track, he it neutral, sending his weight forward and almost sending him to the ground. After getting back in gear, much of the pack had swallowed him up, and as the 450 pro riders began to string out, Lynn found himself around eleventh place.

From there, Lynn methodically pushed forward, working through riders while dealing with a little early-race tightness. By the halfway-mark, Tyler had worked up to seventh place. After the pit stops, the KX450X-mounted rider set his sights on Tallon LaFountaine and was quickly able to make the pass. The next rider in line was fifth-place Trevor Stewart. There was a bit of a gap to Stewart—around thirty seconds—but Lynn went to work to whittle it down. With just over a lap remaining in the race, Tyler had shrunk the gap to just a few seconds, as he looked to apply the pressure to the Yamaha rider. In the motocross track, just before the white flag was set to fly, Stewart made a bobble in an inside rut, which opened the door for Lynn to sail around the outside, locking down a fifth place finish in a solid recovery from the first-lap mistake.

The vet race looked pretty stacked on the start line, as Mark Tilley made his return to racing this year; along with Justin Seeds (riding his 250), Mark Samuels, and Nick Thompson joining Nick Stover, Robby Bell and the rest of the over-30 crowd. As the gate dropped to start the race, Robby’s jump left some to be desired as he was just adrift of the front of the pack. Bell’s KX450X pulled well up the start straight though, and helped him recover a fourth-place position through the first couple corners. As Robby looked to move forward toward the point position, the rider in front made a mistake at the top of a sandy hill in the off-road. As the rider darted left across the track, Robby’s front wheel was right in the firing line, clipping the back wheel of the rider in front and sending Bell to the ground. Robby got up just inside the top-ten, with his work cut out as Stover had moved into the early lead and began to set sail.

Robby was able to make a couple passes by the end of the first lap, moving forward to seventh place. From there, Bell sliced through the field, passing Soucie, Samuels, Tilley, Seeds and Thompson on the second lap, moving himself up to second, though nearly twenty second behind Stover. Over the next couple laps, Bell was able to cut into the lead, getting right up to the back of the KTM rider. However, Stover responded to the pressure, lifting his pace and making it difficult for Bell to make an overtaking attempt. As the race passed the halfway mark, Robby continued to apply the pressure which finally made an impact as Stover made a slight mistake through an inside rut on the motocross track. Bell had committed to the outside and went full-send to complete the pass for the lead. From there, the Kawasaki-rider laid down hot laps to stretch out a gap and maintain his unbeaten record on the year.