2017 BIG 6 #2 | Taft
Riverside, CA (February 7, 2017) –
At the second round of the 2017 AMA District 37 Big 6 Grand Prix series in Taft, CA, both Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts Race Team riders got off to mid-pack starts, just inside of the top ten. Robby Bell was able to make a couple passes on the first lap and move into fifth place, while his teammate Justin Seeds had an unfortunate incident force him off to the side of the track early-on as roost off a competitor’s rear wheel hit his water pack clip just right to pop it loose, which had his pack then dangling on his shoulders. Justin had to stop on the side of the track to rescuer the pack, putting him back to thirteenth place on the first lap. Both riders charged hard, as Bell made his way up to into podium position by the middle of the race, and Justin worked up to the edge of the top five late-on. Putting in the fastest laps of anyone late in the race, Seeds pushed his way into fifth place, less than ten seconds out of fourth, and within sight of his teammate, who would finish third as the checkered flag came out to signal the finish of the race. An incident in the pits during the race had the second place finisher penalized, which moved Robby up to second and Seeds up to fourth place in the official results.
Photos courtesy of Mark Kariya.
Said Seeds of his day, “I got roosted and it knocked my water pack loose, so I had to pull of the track on the first lap and fix it. I dropped back to pretty much dead last. I usually ride pretty good from the back, so I started pushing and was able to work my way forward, not letting the guys [ahead] get too far away from me. Once I found my lines I really put the hammer down and honestly that’s the best I’ve felt this whole year. My body, the bike, everything felt good and I was pumped to make it up to fifth, which ended up being fourth place once the results were official. Turning some of the fastest laps on the last three laps showed me that I really have something, so all in all I’m really happy with the result. If the race was two hours long I think I would have been battling for the podium, and without that early mishap [with the water pack] I think I could have been battling for the win, but we’ll definitely take it and move forward.”
“It was a decent day,” said Bell after the finish. “We made some progress on the bike for me in the last couple weeks and I definitely felt a bit better out there. I felt I needed a bit more speed early in the race to stay right up front with the two leaders because by the time I got into third there was a pretty good gap there. I had a couple issues mid-race with some lapped riders falling in front of me and I had a crash of my own, which all slowed my progress as well. After the start to the year I’ve had, finishing second [after the results became official] is a positive result and we’ll build off the progress we’ve made to get closer to the top step of the podium once again.”
Results
Robby Bell – 2nd place
Justin Seeds – 4th place
GoPro Footage
