RACE REPORT: 2016 BIG 6 #2 | Taft

By Precision Concepts | February 6, 2016

BELL AND SEEDS GO THREE AND FOUR AT TAFT.

Taft, CA (February 6th, 2016) –

Recent rains seemed to make a habitually rough venue even nastier as the holes were a little deeper throughout the track at the second round of the 2016 Big 6 grand prix championship, presented by MSR. Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts, Maxxis Racing’s Robby Bell was looking to improve upon his third place finish at the opener, but his start left a little work to be done. “I didn’t get the best start,” said Bell, “but it also wasn’t awful. I came out of the first turn around eighth, but was able to make a few moves pretty quickly while everyone was still bunched up.” After getting into fifth, Robby looked to continue that momentum forward, but was surprised to lose a couple spots. “I was behind Justin Jones, as we were feeling the track out a bit, and all of the sudden Colton [Udall] and Dalton [Shirey] come by me like a freight train. I felt like a bit of a beginner to lose two spot in the matter of just a few hundred yards.”

After dropping to seventh, Robby picked it up and started to reel in the riders ahead. “After the first lap I really started to find the lines I wanted to use and was able to make my way back up past a few guys. I got into fourth and could see the leader less than ten seconds up the track. I felt like I had the win in me at that point, but then Michael Del Fante fell down in the scoring shoot right in front of me. I had nowhere to go and piled on top of him, then Colton fell on top of me!” After getting untangled, Robby remounted in fourth, but had lost the momentum he had built towards the leader. Bell was able to make one more pass before the checkers to cross the finish line in third. “Third’s not a bad result on the day. Had a couple things not gone against me, I may have been able to challenge for the win, but I’m happy to come away healthy with solid points towards the championship.”

Like his teammate, Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts, Maxxis Racing’s Justin Seeds was also looking to improve upon his result from the series opener. Justin suffered a bad crash at the first round, but went some way to making up for that by starting just outside the top five. “I lined up all the way inside, but I feathered the clutch a little too much and got pinched off,” said Seeds of his start. Justin was able to sneak around the inside and come out around sixth place, settling in and maintaining pace with the leaders.

Justin was just behind his teammate while all of the scoring shoot carnage was happening, battling just outside of the top five with Justin Jones. “I had a good battle with Justin Jones, and [later] a real good battle with Eric Yorba. It was fun, I had some real good racing.” As the laps wound down, Seeds was able to make the pass on Jones and then caught up to Eric Yorba. After a lap-long battle with Eric, Justin was able to make the pass stick and came across the line in fourth. “All in all it was a good weekend, something to build off of. I’ll just keep pushing myself, get stronger, I need to get my sprint pace up a little. I’m feeling better and better, but I still feel like I’m the smallest guy on the line. I want to work on getting a little stronger for the remainder of the year.”

Robby and Justin will be back in action at the third round of the 2016 WORCS series, in Las Vegas, NV, on February 26-28th.