Mark Kariya | May 16, 2023
Tyler Lynn grew up racing in the Utah desert, so even though he’s become an accomplished grand prix rider over the past few years, he will always feel most at home in the desert, though he rarely has the opportunity to race in Utah nowadays due to scheduling conflicts. He proved it two years ago when he became the first Utah resident to overall a round of the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF, as a Purvines Racing Yamaha rider. With the weekend off from GP duties, the Chaparral Motorsports/Precision Concepts Kawasaki rider backed that up this weekend at round four of the series by topping the Sugarloafers Motorcycle Club’s 62nd Cherry Creek National Hare & Hound, May 13-14, after a close battle with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Dalton Shirey, LiquiMoly Beta ace Zane Roberts coming in third.
After trading the lead a couple times early on with defending champ Dalton Shirey, Tyler Lynn seized control out of the pits and blazed away to victory.
Photos by Mark Kariya
Three weeks ago at round three (also in the 60,000-acre Little Sahara Recreation Area but using a different portion), Lynn and Shirey fought back and forth all afternoon with Lynn leading late in the race until he missed a turn. Shirey took advantage to run his 2023 series win streak to three in a row aboard his Motorex/FMF/Fly Racing-backed FX 450.
The Cherry Creek race started out much the same with Shirey leading Lynn shortly after the bomb, the pair quickly separating themselves from the rest of the field. After a few passes, Shirey came into the pits after the 42-mile first loop with a 20-second lead on Lynn, but shortly after leaving the pit for the more technical 48-mile second loop, Shirey left the door open and Lynn dove his Pro Circuit/Dunlop/Leatt-sponsored KX450X underneath to seize the lead for good before crossing Cherry Creek.
Clayton Roberts made it four in a row in Pro 250 at Cherry Creek, celebrating with a nice wheelie through the chop with a couple miles to go.
“After the Sage Riders just three weeks ago, I was for sure fired up,” Lynn said. “It didn’t end the way I wanted it to; I executed Sage Riders almost perfectly—just one mistake at the end cost it for me.
“I came in today with a better game plan to ride better and just be better and just be in it the whole time and it worked out for me. I was able to stay on course and I made sure I was reading course the whole time and kept that focus on every marker, just corner to corner and trying not to get ahead of myself.”
After the pass, Shirey said, “He beat me to the trail and dusted me out a little bit, so I had to back off and couldn’t see anything, so I just sat behind his dust and followed him for a little while. I got really close a couple times, but I got a little sketchy a few times. He really rode good today and I didn’t have the pace; I couldn’t keep it going that long. I’m a little under the weather today, too.”
Shirey took the checkered flag a minute and 39 seconds behind Lynn’s 2:24:48.
For Roberts and his FMF/Pirelli/Klim Beta 480 RR, it was a solitary day spent mostly in third place, no one really close either in front or in back of him. He said, “I was surprised—by the time I even got to fourth place, which was maybe two minutes in, they were already like a hill ahead of everybody else. It took me maybe another 10 minutes to get around Carter [Klein], and I could still kind of see them up there pretty close until, I’d say, the really fast stuff out there by Desert Mountain where I didn’t feel very comfortable. Then I don’t know if it’s the five weeks of long, intense races in a row or what, or if I’m getting sick or something, but I just didn’t really have anything today.” He finished in 2:29:21.
Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Preston Campbell got a fourth-place finish for the second round in a row aboard his Pro Circuit/Pirelli/Fly Racing CRF450X with LiquiMoly Beta’s Joe Wasson fifth on his IMS/InnTeck/Fly Racing 480 RR, a marked improvement over round three where he finished 21st overall after a crash with another rider on the bomb run. He stayed with wife, Jayme, until she delivered their second child, son Jett, and headed to the race from Arizona early Friday so he may have been understandably tired and distracted.
Rachel Stout and Ty Woolslayer exchanged the Pro Women lead in the early going, but defending champ Stout took control less than halfway through the first loop and went on to win.
RideWithTheKnights/ MotoXperts Sherco rider Josh Knight—another local but a part-time racer nowadays—finished sixth followed by Carter Klein’s 3 Bros./Acerbis KTM 450 XC-F. Klein sits second in points behind Shirey, 115-67. Wasson is third now at 66 with Roberts fourth with 63.
S.W. Roberts Construction GasGas rider Clayton Roberts was eighth overall and the Pro 250 winner for the fourth time this season on his 3 Bros./Blud Lubricants/Fast House EX 250.
CSR KTM rider Shane Logan and 3 Bros./Hatch Racing Husqvarna’s Corbin McPherson rounded out the top 10 followed by Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda-mounted D.J. Weber and DC Racing Sherco’s Robby Schott, the Pro 250 runner-up and third place, respectively.
Enerlon/TBT Racing Yamaha rider Andrew Puckett stretched his Pro Vet 35+ win streak to four in a row and finished 21st overall, Darrin Tuckett and Steve Roberts rounding out that podium.
Brennen Watson topped the Big Wheel overall for the third time this season.
In Pro Women, defending champ Rachel Stout and her Full Factory/Dunlop/Fly Racing KTM 350 XC-F made it three in a row to extend her class points lead over runner-up Ty Woolslayer and her Steadman’s Yamaha YZ250FX, 115-85. (The absent Britney Gallegos drops to third at 80.) Newcomer Emma Dunn earned third.
The series now takes its summer break before the final two rounds, with round five scheduled for September 9 in Panaca, Nevada.
OVERALL
- Tyler Lynn (Kaw)
- Dalton Shirey (Hus)
- Zane Roberts (Bet)
- Preston Campbell (Hon)
- Joe Wasson (Bet)
- Joshua Knight (She)
- Carter Klein (KTM)
- Clayton Roberts (GG)
- Shane Logan (KTM)
