RACE REPORT: 2016 BIG 6 #4 | 29 Palms

By Precision Concepts | April 2, 2016

BELL AND SEEDS EXCEL AT 29 PALMS

29 Palms, CA (April 2nd, 2016) –

The 29 Palms racecourse is never short on speed, and with warm, windy conditions greeting the riders on race day, it wasn’t short on dust either. Dusty conditions put a lot of emphasis on the start, and when the green lights signaled the start of the race, both Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts, Maxxis Race Team riders were inside the top five.

“I really focused on the start because I knew it would most likely define the race,” said Robby Bell, “and was able to come out of the first couple turns in third.” Justin Seeds was hot on Bell’s heels through the first turn, nearly making the pass by his teammate before settling into fourth early-on. Said Seeds, “My start was pretty decent actually. I thought I spun, but then my bike hooked up [on the start straight] and I just sent it to the outside berm. It was a little squirrelly, but I ended up coming out in fourth.”

Justin held right at the edge of Robby’s dust for the first half of the first lap, but he lost a position to Blayne Thompson down a fast asphalt road. “The last ten feet of the pavement Blayne was able to pull me,” Justin later remarked, “because I think his bike was geared for a little higher top speed. Then a little later on the first lap Dalton [Shirey] came out of nowhere and came up the inside of me, wide open and squirrelly, and we both nearly went off the track. I actually did [go off the track] and had flashbacks of Primm WORCS [where Justin hit a rock on the outside of the course and suffered a horrific crash], but I was able to ride across the desert to the next corner and get back on course.”

While all of Justin’s excitement was happening, Bell was finding himself a frustrated figure in third spot behind Jeff Loop and the leading Eric Yorba. Bell later talked of the early part of his race, stating, “The dust was so thick that I instantly had to drop back six or seven seconds behind Loop, and for the first five laps I just sat there at the edge of his dust, hoping for a little luck.” That luck finally came when Loop suffered a flat rear tire just past the half-way mark, putting Bell in second position, but with quite a gap to make up on Yorba. “When I got into second, Eric had a pretty good lead on me,” Bell later said, “so I just charged as hard as I could, hoping to get close enough to apply a little pressure, or force a mistake, but he was too strong today and I just ran out of time. Second isn’t a bad finish by any means, but I do need to start winning to put a dent in the gap Blayne has over me in the points. I’ll be looking to get that going at Primm.

Like his teammate, Justin Seeds enjoyed a bit of fortune in the race as well – benefitting from Loop’s flat tire, and Dalton suffering a bike problem – finding himself in fourth place late in the race and catching Thompson. “I tried to put the hammer down,” said Seeds, “once I saw Blayne. He and I always have a little rivalry so I really wanted to catch him. I cut his gap down to seven or eight seconds, and thought we had another lap [as there was no white flag], so I was just going to send it, but they brought the checkered straight out. It was a bummer not to get that last lap, but fourth place was good. It’s not a podium spot, but I showed some speed and felt really good out there today.”

Robby and Justin’s next event will be the fifth round of the WORCS series at the Sand Hollow State Park, just outside of Hurricane, UT, on April 15-17.