Round # 2
Tulare
Cycle Park -
Sportsman Photos and Results - Page one
Digger Open Pro
Digger Open Pro
1. 17 Henry Wiles
2. 65y Kris Bunch
3. 49y Chad Cose
4. 53y Steve Murray
5. 15 Garrett Stout
6. 22 Eric England
7. 342w Jesse Sleeper
8. 33e Mikey Avila
9. 26 Briar Bauman
10. 34 David Brown
11. 58 Brandon Bates
12. 18h Tony Davila
13. 88 Dillon Allen
14. 10t Dennis Trentman (dnf)
15. 21 Jared Mees (dnf)
Eddie Mulder's W.C.V.D.T. Series
Round #2 Tulare, Calif.
May 17th, 2008
Article by Jamey Blunt
| The Digger Helm Open Pro twenty lap final had fifteen riders staged through three rows as starter Fred Allen waved the green flag. Garrett Stout nailed the start to lead with Jared Mees in tow only to find the red flag waving as they came to the stripe for the first time indicating a full restart. This time Henry Wiles lead the field into turn one only to have Mees take the lead away upon the exit from turn two. Completing the first lap the running order was Mees, Wiles, Kris Bunch, Chad Cose, Stout, Jesse Sleeper, and Steve Murray. A lap later Mikey Avila passed Murray for seventh with David Brown moving forward now up to ninth. Exiting turn four to start the fifth lap Cose slipped past Bunch for third while Eric England moved into the tenth place position. With five laps complete Mees had a three bike length gap over Wiles as he inched away at the front. Lap six Mees turned his fastest lap of 13.79/100 seconds while Cose a lap later put in the fastest lap of the race at 13.52/100 seconds giving him the new track record (Mees & Cose were the only two in this race to break the 14 second barrier).By the half way point Mees was into lappers which he handled without any problems. At lap thirteen Cose made a mistake that allowed Bunch to close the gap and smell blood in the water, a lap later on the exit from turn four Mees hand went skyward as he looked at his mount. Something was wrong; as it turned out he had lost a chain which cost him the race. Wiles was our new leader with Murray and Bunch both picking up their pace. Cose was also now having some problems with turn four with Bunch looking to set him up for a last lap pass. This happened as Cose exited turn four as Bunch took over second. Murray marched all the way up to fourth, Stout stayed put in fifth, England was up to sixth, Sleeper in seventh, and Avila was back to eighth. Wiles had this to say after the race, "I think this is a racy track, a few ruts here and there. I had a good bike under me, a Rod Lake bike, RHC motor, I'm glad to come out and have some fun. I caught some ruts and crashed in practice and didn't know if I could ride, but it worked out. Jared's chain popped off or something so it was a little gift to me, but I've given some gifts too to other people so it's good." As for second place Kris Bunch, "Oh man Chad was pulling away from me and he had an awesome line, his bike was working really well but then towards the end his bike started blubbering and he started losing ground to me. So on the last lap we got around him for second, it's good for us." Catching up to a Disappointed Chad Cose he still took time to talk about the last lap pass, "It was about half way the bike started having problems, it was sputtering real bad but I got into third and pulled away quite a bit but Kris was riding a real good race and caught me, so overall with the way things were it was a good race." |
Sportsman Photos and Results - Page one
Practice photos by Jessyca Blunt
Sportsman Photos and Results - Page one
