REM WINNER ROBBY BELL’S RACE REPORT: ?HOW I WON BOTH MOTOS?

By Robby Bell
February 16th, 2013
Glen Helen, CA
Photos by Mark Chilson

With the unfortunate news that the Adelanto GP had called off the Pro race, I was left with an appetite to race on Saturday and decided to satisfy it by heading out to Glen Helen for REM and a bit of motocross training. I rather enjoy the REM series races and so it came as a small shock when I realized it had been over a year since I’d made it out to one. I must say that the new (well, new to me) course design since the X-Fighters has made the track flow better, added a few options for racing lines and allowed for some better racing. After burning some hot laps in practice I felt great on the bike and, as I lined up for the first moto, was looking forward to a bit of sprint training.

I hadn’t started with a motocross gate, let alone one on concrete, for some time, so when the gate fell I was very happy to get off the line well and headed into the first turn in second position. I was soon applying massive pressure on the leader trying to push past him and just a few corners into the race I made a move around the outside and jetted into the first place. Tony Amaradio quickly made the move behind me and showed he still has plenty of speed as he clung to my back tire. A couple laps in, I began opening up a gap and after finding a couple better lines I had stretched out over ten seconds, allowing me to focus solely on how I was riding the track and I continued to enjoy myself through the checkers, winning the first moto and putting myself in a great position for the overall.

For the second moto I wanted to improve my start by one, but as the gate dropped I found myself slightly off balance and as much as I fought to keep the throttle pinned, I finally had to lift, regain myself and settled into fourth through the first turn. I quickly made my way into third behind Brandon Brady and Tony Amaradio and it was apparent the intensity had increased from the first moto. Brandon was hanging it out looking for a way by Tony and a lap later he made his way into first. I soon worked my way onto Tony’s rear fender, anxious to get by before Brandon pulled too much of a gap, and as we headed down Mt. Whitney I pushed hard down the inside, out braking him into the corner. Unfortunately for me my momentum had carried me a bit wide and Tony made a cheeky move as he cut back underneath my line and took second place back. I didn’t waste much time finding another way by as just a couple corners later I carried more momentum around the outside of a left hander and took sole possession of the spot.

I now had my sights set on Brady who was riding extremely well out front, making it difficult to gain ground, but I was slowly starting to cut into his lead. With under half the race to go I had closed the gap to just a couple seconds, and that’s when Brandon gave me a real gift as he stalled his bike at the base of Whitney. He tried to quickly restart his machine, but in vein as I was close enough to capitalize and made the pass for the lead. I was focused on riding smooth from there on and I was able to close out the race with a pretty comfortable gap at the finish. It was unfortunate for Brandon that he stalled his bike; he was riding really well and it would have made for quite a battle to the finish, but I was happy to come away with the moto sweep.

REM races always provide a fun day of racing and today was no exception. I’d like to thank all of my supporters: Precision Concepts, Alamo Alarms, Fox, THR Motorsports, Northland Motorsports, USWE, GPR, HookIt.com and all of our team sponsors for continuing to back me. I’m doubling up this weekend as Sunday is the first round of the Gary Jones Western Off Road Championship Series and, as I love to race at Glen Helen and the Pro race is two hours long, it’s a bit of a no brainer for me to go out there to get some excellent training in and have a great time!

Robby Bell
www.robbybellracing.com
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    Thank you to all the Precision Concepts, Alamo Alarm racing team sponsors: FMF Racing, GPR, IMS, BRP, AME Grips, Kalgard, Ryan Abbatoye Designs, Renthal, Dunlop, VP Racing Fuels, DT1 Filters, Hinson, Matrix Concepts, RK/Excel, Acerbis, Works Connection, Zip-Ty Racing, SealSavers.

ON-BOARD WITH ROBBY BELL