John Natalie Takes Holeshot in Moto 1 and Wins Moto 2

John Natalie taking the holeshot. Cody Miller John Natalie in the lead.

Bowling Green, KY – A storm was brewing on the horizon, and this time, it had nothing to do with Mother Nature. It was none other than John Natalie, Jr. crossing the finish line with his first win of the season aboard his Can-Am/Warnert Racing DS450. John came back with a vengeance in moto 2 after a nasty wreck in the first moto knocked the wind out of his sails.

As the gate dropped for the first Pro moto at Ballance Moto X this weekend, it was John Natalie who grabbed the holeshot. “We’ve been working hard and got some really good power out of the bike,” said the #13 racer. John was steadily pulling away from everyone else and had increased his lead to 5 seconds when disaster struck. Natalie looked smooth coming into a sweeper at high speed, when his front tire caught a big rut and sent him cartwheeling into a fence post. All though he was battered and bruised, John was relatively ok. John climbed back on his bike, and all though he was obviously shaken, went on to finish the race.

Meanwhile, teammate Cody Miller showed than he is definitely a threat this season as well, as he made a strong charge off the line. Cody took 7th in the holeshot and soon began working himself up. Cody put up a good battle for several laps and worked his way up to 5th place by the time the checkered flag was waved. “Everything went really well for the first moto. My bike was running great,” he said.

As the racers lined up for moto number 2, heavy rain began to fall, almost instantly making track conditions a muddy mess. As the gate dropped, it was a struggle to get traction in the slick mud, but John Natalie managed to get out of the hole in 4th place. As John put the hammer down, he seemed no worse for wear despite his knarly crash in moto 1. John was determined to take the win and began chasing down riders and picking them off one by one as he set his sights on first place. Once Natalie took the lead, he began to pull away and was unchallenged all the way to the checkered flag. “I knew we could do it!” John said confidently. “We’ve been working really hard to make this happen,” he concluded.

Cody Miller did not share his teammate’s luck in the 2nd moto. Miller was on the line when his bike stalled just before the gate drop, and for reason’s unknown, the bike would not restart which forced Cody to DNS.

The WPSA series will be kicking off in 3 weeks in Alvord, Texas and the Can-Am/Warnert team will be training and working hard in order to claim the top spots on the podium, while John Natalie will begin the fight to defend his WPSA championship.