VOLUME 56 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2019 P29
The Tyler Nicholson-captained team claimed third
overall, second Open Expert/Intermediate on their
Maxxis/Amsoil/IMS-backed KTM 300 XC with 37 laps
in the books, about 10 minutes behind Kelly and com-
pany. Kyle Wade's Open Expert/Intermediate and Josh
Trimble's Vet Expert/Intermediate teams rounded out
the top five overall among the 62 entries.
Among Ironman entrants, Wes Nemec did best, put-
ting in 33 laps aboard his 3 Bros. KTM to win easily. In
fact, he ran so fast in the early going that he was up to
fifth overall. Fellow 3 Bros. KTM rider Seth Brandenbury
completed 30 laps, putting him second Ironman and
25th overall.
Now, attention turns to the longest race of the series,
and the winners feel optimistic.
"Two for two," Thompson said. "We've got one more
and that's the 24-hour. We've won that the last two years
so we're going to come out here and try to do it again!"
Mark Kariya
OVERALL
1. Blayne Thompson/Ryan Surratt (Kaw)
2. Nic Garvin/Evan Kelly/Nick Stover (KTM)
3. Tyler Nicholson (KTM)
4. Kyle Wade (Yam)
5. Josh Trimble (Hus)
of Garvin's early stints. Fortunately for
the team, it happened not too far from
the pits so he was able to push it back
and retrieve their backup bike—also an
SRT/STI Tires/FXR 250 XC—from the
impound area and resume racing, losing
less than an estimated 10 minutes.
After losing that time, they switched
focus, concentrating on the class win
instead of the overall en route to com-
pleting 37 laps.
"I got really lucky," Garvin admitted. "If
it had blown up any farther [out on the
loop], we would've been out of the race,
for sure. I've blown enough motors to
relax now [when it happens] and just be
like, 'Hey, we're out of it for the overall,
but we can still win our class.' Being that
Stover and Evan are in the points hunt,
it was like, 'Might as well get that bike
and we'll continue to knock off laps,' and
that's kind of what we did today."
Though a suspected top-end failure
prevented the trio of Nic Garvin
(shown), Evan Kelly and Nick Stover
from challenging for the overall, they
managed to win the 250cc Expert/
Intermediate class.
Wes Nemec sprinted
to an early lead in
the Ironman division
and hung to win the
class and finish a
commendable 13th
overall.
