RACE REPORT: Big 6 #6 | Ridgecrest

By Precision Concepts | October 5, 2016

SEEDS SHINES AS BIG 6 PICKS BACK UP

Riverside, CA (October 5, 2016) –

A high-speed racecourse awaited Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts, Maxxis Racing’s Robby Bell and Justin Seeds as the AMA Big 6 Grand Prix championship kicked back off after a long summer break. The Ridgecrest, CA track is always a fast one, but this year’s course seemed to put some of the riders a little more on edge. Explained Bell, “I’ve always liked this place, even though the speed and terrain are a little on the fast and sketchy side at times, but this year’s course seemed to have a harder base in places and it made it easier to catch a hard edge and get squirrelly. And I wasn’t the biggest fan of the reworked motocross section; some of the landings were a bit on the steep side with g-outs at the transitions of the landings. Maybe it’s because I’m still coming off injury, but the course was a bit hairy to run at full speed.”

As the green starting lights signaled the beginning of the race, both Seeds and Bell had good starts, but under differing circumstances. Robby was lined up way to the outside, but had a great jump, entering the first turn level for a top-three start. Justin was lined up far to the inside, but didn’t enjoy the best acceleration out of the hole, he explains, “I went down the [start] straightaway probably top five, but everybody pushed a little wide in the first corner and I was able to sneak by in second.” Bell exited the first corner fourth.

Justin lost a spot to Ryan Reina on the first lap down a fast straight as Reina picked a line with a little harder dirt and was able to use that to his advantage, out-pulling Seeds into the following corner. Then the two teammates went back and forth over the next half lap in a fight for third place. “I had a little pace on Justin early,” describes Bell, “but he was fighting hard! I nearly had the pass made two or three times, but he’d just squirt right back by. Finally, I just sent it around the outside [of Justin] into a corner and made the pass stick.”

From there Bell closed the gap slightly on the leader Eric Yorba, but he was also beginning to feel a little pressure from a hard-charging Dalton Shirey who had moved past Seeds and Reina into third. “I could feel Dalton closing in, the kid’s really fast, especially in the higher-speed stuff. He swept around the outside of me and took over the lead [Eric Yorba had pitted a lap earlier then the two, giving Bell the lead for a stretch].”

That same lap, disaster struck Bell’s race as he suffered a pretty nasty crash on the motocross section. Bell commented on the crash, saying, “Eric had just got around me as I was just not going as fast as the two kids through the lapped traffic. I wasn’t too balled up about it with still nearly half the race to go, but on the moto track I hit a hole and my hand slipped off the bar. I whiskey-throttled off the next jump and nearly saved it, but ended up crashing pretty hard off the side of the track. Honestly I think it was the nature of the track meeting the lack of strength in my shoulder. My collarbone is still mending, and I’ve been doing what I can to keep some strength in my upper body, but I just think I was caught out by the conditions and not being one hundred percent yet.” Bell would pull off that lap and head back to the truck, suffering a DNF on the day.

While Bell was having his issues, Justin was having a very solid ride, maintaining fourth place just behind the leaders and moving into third when Robby pulled out. “I had a good pace going,” said Seeds, “just kind of had my own race going. I had lost a little time [to the guys ahead], and I was pushing because there were a lot of good guys behind me. Next thing I know I see Robby just cruising [on the side of the track] and then Dalton broken down on the side of the track and I thought to myself ‘I think I just got something handed to me!’” With Shirey suffering a mechanical DNF, Justin suddenly found himself in second place, a position he would hold all the way to the checkered flag, taking his first podium of the 2016 Big 6 series.

“It felt really good,” commented Seeds regarding the second place finish, “I’m going to build off of it and keep working hard in the gym and come out swinging for the rest of the year. I want to get a win before the year is done.”

Justin and Robby will be back in action at the WORCS finale in Primm on October 23.