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TYLER BOWERS
450 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Many industry insiders and fans of the sport alike, haven’t seen two weeks back to back like this, in such contrast, in quite a long time. On one hand, you have an open stadium, with ood-like water levels saturating the course for days upon end. And a mere seven days later, we are in Minneapolis, where one of the cleanest, weather ready stadiums in the world, plays host to a larger than life layout, with dry, hard-packed ruts. As a Supercross racer, you must be able to weather (no pun intended) every type of storm that mother nature may provide, and adapt to the surface in front of you. Tyler Bowers has been able to do that, and although he endured the swamp- lled west coast round of last week, he was more than ready to come to dry land (inside at least), here in Minneapolis. Toying with both outside, and inside step-on, step-off lines, in the two way rhythm lane, he wanted every possible combination of track con guration, to be dormant within his arsenal of tricks. It would be put to use in the early going of moto number one, as he quickly would work his way through the eld, even crossing the layout from one edge to other. Tenth place in the early going, he and Malcolm Stewart seemed to pace each other, as though the two locked at the hip for a tad bit. Side by side through both respective whoop sections, neither were giving an inch. It was truly something to see, but in the end, he would go on to nish eighth. The second main provided a format of
a bit more leniency, in regards to how urgent the passes had to be made. But he didn’t care how long the event was, he was moving forward as fast as possible. Christian Craig was in his way at rst, but he would make the move, constantly in ascending fashion.
As the checkered ag would close in, the mechanics towel would wave in a clockwise motion, the sweat dripping from his brow. However, regardless of the fatigue amounting, he would carry on, nishing eighth. A quick shift to third, winding out the machine, was what happened after the gate fall of the third moto. Early on his quest to the top ve was a bit troublesome, but he and the faithful steel-horse that sat below, continued to gallop forward. He would lasso his opponents, ringing their neck with a swoop of the rope, and pushing them to the wayside. He continued to hop on every tabletop he could, although the lips were getting both chewed out, and obliterated, to next to nothing. Nevertheless, the throttle would remain pinned, something that all in the crowd would admire. The checkered ag would be zeroed in on, and his result for the nal run, would end with a sixth place nish; it would average with the rest of his scores, and result in a seventh place overall.
26 GRITMOTO • APRIL 15, 2018