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Natalie Engages in Intense Battle and Miller
Given OK to Race
John Natalie
John Natalie on Podium
Cody Miller |
Pell City, AL (March 30,
2008) – Round number 2 of the AMA ATV
Motocross Nationals saw Warnert Racing’s, John
Natalie, engaged in a 2-moto heated battle with
National champ Joe Byrd. Byrd applied the
pressure, but Natalie showed why he is the WPSA
champ and never buckled despite the fierce
competition. Meanwhile, Cody Miller was given
the thumbs up to race, after a health scare at
round 1 in Glen Helen, and made his National Pro
class racing debut.
Out of 28 Pros that showed up, only 6 of them
had earned seated positions, but Cody Miller had
no problems in Saturday’s qualifying round,
securing his spot for Sunday. Miller came off
the line in 6th place during the first moto, and
fell back to 11th. In his 2nd moto, Cody was in
15th place out of the gate, but kept his focus,
and raced a smart consistent race and eventually
worked his way up to 11th place. “Everything
went really good,” said Miller. “Warnert has
been great to work with, and I’m really looking
forward to the rest of this season,” he said.
Between now and round 3 Cody plans to do a
little testing on his bike and train a little
bit harder so he can get back to the level he
was at before his recent health issue sidelined
him from training and riding for a couple of
weeks.
While Cody was holding his own out on the track,
John Natalie had his hands full trying to hold
off Joe Byrd. In the first moto, John came out
of the hole in 6th place and soon worked his way
up to 3rd place with the #7 bike nipping at his
heels. Byrd was so close, he almost appeared to
be perched on Natalie’s grab bar at one point,
but Natalie kept his cool and held him off for
the entire first moto, and hanging on to 3rd
place as he crossed the finish line.
In the second moto, it was Natalie that grabbed
the holeshot, but the fierce competition between
the top 5 sent him back to 2nd place where he
once again found himself under pressure from
Byrd. Natalie and Byrd battled back and forth
for several laps. Byrd soon fell back but
Natalie soon found himself doing battle once
again as Chad Wienen began to close the gap.
Natalie was doing an excellent job of keeping
Wienen at bay, but Wienen and Natalie connected
which caused John’s tie rod to break, forcing
the #13 Can-Am to DNF. “We got too close in one
of the corners and Chad ran into me and the
impact broke my tie rod,” said Natalie
disappointedly. “We’ve done a lot of testing and
tuning and the bike was running great,” he
concluded.
The next round of the AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals will be held at Ballance MotoX in
Bowling Green, KY on April 12-13 where Natalie,
Miller and the rest of the Warnert crew will
once again demonstrate their competitive
spirits.
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