On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 106

On The Pegs 106
I was down a lot at that race. It was kind of wet and technical. That last test I’ve
always actually just rode really well. It’s kind of tight. I remember just threading
the needle so good and could not screw up. I was riding these off-cambers and
straightening out little sections and just dialing stuff so good. It almost felt like my
bike was slow. It almost felt like my clutch was going out, but it wasn’t. It was just
because I was riding on just the right power that it was hooking up and not spinning
and we were going places. I even crashed. I fell off of a bride at the bottom
in this ravine. I had to get up out of that creek, stood up, climb out of it, and go
across it again. I thought I was throwing it away. I thought I had a sick test going,
and then I thought I trashed it. So to come in and still have edged him out by a
couple seconds, that was pretty massive.
5
2016: Last Title
It was 2016, that was my last championship. 2015, I
didn’t have that great of a year. I think I was fighting some
bike stuff. I really meshed well with the 250F in 2016. That
comfort level got brought back up. That was the first year
I rode a 250F.
I beat Stew by 11 points that year. So I went 2nd, 2nd,
2nd, 1st, 1st, 7th, 2nd, 2nd, and 6th. That last round was
stressful as shit. I hated that one. It was in Oklahoma. I
hated that day. That was the worst championship really I ever won because of
how terrible that last day was. I was in, like, tenth after the first couple tests. I was
like, oh man. This is not good. But that that championship in 2008 only came
down to six points between Mike and me. That was memorable.
I beat Mullins by four points in 2011. Pretty close. We were one point apart going
into Indiana. I got first and he got second. So I had to win that.
I had done a ton of testing. I had just switched to a 300 for that event. I hadn’t
won a championship in three years. So coming back and winning that one and
beating Charlie, because he was starting to be top dog in GNCC, and to do that
it was like, hell yeah. The competition was rising in the sport. That was one of the
best race wins I had. n