Bithell may have been able to hold on for the
win, but fatigue finally caught up to him after
two hours chasing the pack after his first-turn
crash. “I took the lead there and just
tried to hold it,” said Bithell. “Chris
must have passed Bill somewhere, and he came
on strong. We battled, and I really didn’t
have enough endurance there at the end. I was
really working the whole race, and my arms were
getting weak. I did the best I could to hold
them off, we passed back and forth at the end.
He got me in a mud section, he just knew a line
around it, and I went right through it and he
got around. I wanted this win in front of all
these fans, everybody was yelling, I want to
thank everybody out there, a lot of hometown
guys out here, a lot of family, friends, everybody’s
here for me and I could hear them yelling the
whole race.”
McGill rallied late to hold onto fourth. Ever-consistent
veteran Matt Smiley was fifth on an East Coast
ATV Honda, in front of Team Excell Motorsports’
Bryan Cook. Seventh overall went to the winner
of the XC Pro Am Class, GT Thunder Yamaha’s
Brandon Sommers. Sommers grabbed the ATVRiders.com
holeshot award, was briefly passed by Kevin
Yoho, and then got the lead back for good. Yoho
dropped into third behind Don Ockerman before
rallying late in the race to get second place
in XC2, with Ockerman third. They finished 14th
and 15th overall.
“I worked hard over the summer so I’m
happy,” said Sommers. “I got a good
start, and then Kevin got past me, I just tried
to put in good laps and keep pushing.”
Eighth overall went to Duane Johnson, with
Brent Sturdivant ninth and Taylor Kiser rounding
out the top ten.
|
Chris
Borich smoked his Maxxis Tires on the
Podium making sure everyone knew that
he was going for the #1 Plate |
