Ryon Bell took his sweet revenge after clutching defeat from the jaws of victory at the 2003 Indoor National. This time, Ryon left no doubt with a dominant ride over the huge man-made obstacles. Ryon's ride was almost error free, which gave the other contenders no margin after errors of their own.

Congratulations to Ryon Bell. Needless to say... Gas Gas dominates again! The last time Gas Gas DID NOT win a National was in 2001!

Team Ryon Bell Press Release:

Ryon Bell Wins 2003-2004 Gas Gas AMA/NATC National Indoor Mototrial Opener

Team Gas Gas rider Ryon Bell won the final event at Round One of the 2003/2004 Gas Gas AMA/NATC National Indoor Mototrial Championship. "It’s still sinking in", said a very happy Ryon after the event. Before the event, there were concerns about his health. "I was in recovery mode and on antibiotics to get rid of the flu. I’d only practiced three-or-four times since the end of September and it’d been a couple of weeks since I’d ridden."

Those concerns diminished during practice as the Gas Gas USA, Hebo, Michelin, Skagit Powersports, Alpinestars, Renthal, Apex Motorsports, TrialsSource.com-supported rider rode very smoothly and conquered the sections. "The sections looked very challenging and appealing to ride. The sections were great. They were very fun to ride. It was a pretty casual practice session. Everything was fine and my bike is excellent, I didn’t have to make any adjustments at all for the event." explained Ryon.

Last year fellow Gas Gas rider Geoff Aaron won the event after a nailbiter that included a three-section run-off to determine the winner. Ryon and Geoff went clean-for-clean on each of the tie-breaker sections, so the win was decided on score and time. In the final section, both riders cleaned the section, but Geoff passed through the finish a mere four seconds faster than Ryon. The anticipation for this year’s event was the expectation that we would see the continuation of the showdown.

"Qualifying heats went good, though I had two silly fives. The first in section two was poor judgement," said Ryon, about an incident where he slipped off one of the barrels onto the ground. "And the second was basically an error when I missed the big splatter up onto the big red step in section four." Ryon’s score of 11 points was only one more than fellow Gas Gas rider Geoff Aaron, and they were the only two entrants to have less than two fives in the qualifying sections. This then, lead to the expected battle between the two riders for the event win.

Ryon and Geoff both set themselves apart by blazingly fast races, with Geoff crossing the finishline in the first race less than a bike length ahead of Ryon. In the second race, Geoff completed his turn-a-bout faster on the cable spool and broke free of Ryon. Ryon nearly caught Geoff on the final leg of the race, but Geoff was away for the win. With this victory, Geoff and Ryon the two top spots going into the final, with Sherco’s David Chaves and Montesa’s Chris Florin taking the final two transfer positions. Beta’s Andy Johnson, Ray Peters, and Gas Gas’s Wilson Craig failed to make it to the final.

The final started well for Ryon, with only a couple one-point steadying dabs. "I was the second to last rider and feeling confident," related Ryon, " I put in some really good, clean rides and was the only rider to clean the section with the big rock entrance." Ryon began to take control of the event when Geoff failed to attain the undercut entrance to the corner in section three and bailed off the side of his bike after a number of desperate attempts to get into the corner.

Section four was a long and challenging section featuring a down-ramp criss-crossing of a ribbed tube, then a splatter onto a long, steeply angled box, a large drop-off, then a final section with four three-foot steps ascending to the top, then a steep, tight stepped descent back to the ground and out. Ryon pulled clean through the start, then dabbed once going up the steps, at the top of the massif, then dabbed a couple more times as he dropped down off the top, positioning his bike for the final launch to the exit, finishing scan seconds before the 90 second section time limit. In similar fashion, Geoff cleaned the first part of the section, and paused to get focused for his climb up the steps. Unfortunately, he got hung up going across the second step. With a couple dabs he made it to the next one, but almost lost his balance over the left edge. Another quick dab saved him and he bounced up to the top, but as he dropped down onto the first step from the top, the timing horn sounded an another maximum penalty was levied upon him.

"The event was so fast paced, and there was such a time constraint, you really couldn’t count points, but you had to have a game plan. Everything is so quick you can’t think about it, you just have to go," explained Ryon. "We both made mistakes and everything is so narrow that if you lose your balance you have nowhere to go but down."

At this point Ryon had a five point lead over Geoff. The next section, featuring a huge ten foot rock climb and a series of slippery sandstone rocks and a second stepped climb, had only been cleaned in Ryon in the qualifying round. Ryon pulled off another clean in the opposite direction in the final. The pressure was on Geoff as he dropped off the steps onto the sandstone rocks. Hopping slightly to position himself to skip across the rest of them, he hopped off the rock into the bark below, suffering another five.

Now with a ten point lead, Ryon was able to pick his dabs at will, and only required one more to make certain a zap up two stacked blue crates in section six. Unless he fived both races, the event was in the bag. The safe route was to go slow and steady, carefully negotiating the race sections, letting Geoff go for the win, but that didn’t happen. "In the final race was going to play it safe, but when the flag dropped I just went for it." said Ryon, "We’re pretty competitive in the races, and it’s good fun. We went as fast as we could in them." Both races were very close, with Geoff taking the win in both. Ryon added three points to his score in the races, to finish up with a score of nine points to Geoff’s fifteen points.

"I’ve got no complaints, that for sure," said Ryon afterwards. "Ian’s minding helped me out tremendously. He’s really consistent and does an exceptional job. It’s a lifesaver to have him there. The whole organizational aspect of the trial was great. They really knew what they were doing, and the sections were very challenging and very exciting for the spectators to watch."

The second event in the series is scheduled for May 16, 2004 in Ontario, California. Check http://www.mototrials.com for more information.

Results:

Qualifying:

1. Geoff Aaron (Gas Gas) 10

2. Ryon Bell (Gas Gas) 11

3. David Chaves (Sherco) 15

4. Chris Florin (Montesa) 19

5. Wilson Craig (Gas Gas) 24

6. Ray Peters (Beta) 33

7. Andy Johnson (Beta) 34

Final:

1. Ryon Bell (Gas Gas) 9

2. Geoff Aaron (Gas Gas) 15

3. Chris Florin (Montesa) 22

4. David Chaves (Sherco) 24

Release contact: Mike Thuleen.

http://www.trialssource.com.

email miket@trialssource.com.

Tel 208 342 7715.