VOLUME 56 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2019 P37
"I kind of tried to keep the fact
that I was beating Pat out of my
mind. I was pretty nervous, but
I felt like I held it together pretty
well," said Blanc-Gonnet.
Karl Davis Jr. (FactoryONE Scor-
pa) finished third with 80 points,
31 points behind Blanc-Gonnet.
Disappointed at missing out on his
first overall win, Blanc-Gonnet was
clearly happy and excited about
pushing Smage to the limit.
"I'm not the happiest with my
riding, but we did the best we
could, and I'm happy to be on
the podium," said Davis. "When
you go into every section kind of
nervous about the outcome, it's
hard to concentrate."
A pair of Pro-class rookies,
FactoryONE Sherco's Josh
Roper and Alex Myers (Factory-
ONE Scorpa), rounded out the
top five. Myers finished fourth
with 91 points, edging out Roper
by just two points.
Sunday was more of the same
for the top riders, although
Smage got off to a much bet-
ter start and led the way with
a 17-point opening lap and he
bettered his scores on each of
the final two laps, finishing the
three-lap, 36-section event with a
total of 33 points.
"Early on I wasn't confident in
the more dangerous sections,
and I was a little bit worried about
trying them," said Smage. "I just
wasn't quite feeling it early on,
but about midway through the first
lap I kind of really tried hard to
turn that around and started rid-
ing like myself again and having
Sherco) had two third-place
finishes.
The series wraps up next
weekend in Oregon, where
Smage has a chance to clinch a
record-breaking 11th U.S. Nation-
al MotoTrials Championship title.
Shan Moore
PRO
Saturday
1. Pat Smage (Shr) 45
2. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet (GG) 49
3. Karl Davis Jr. (Sco) 80
4. Alex Myers (Sco) 91
5. Josh Roper (Shr) 93
6. Alex Niederer (GG) 94
7. Sam Fastle (Shr) 105
8. Andreas Niederer (Bet) 133
9. David Avendano (Ver) DNF
Sunday
1. Pat Smage (Shr) 33
2. Alex Niederer (GG) 76
3. David Avendano (Ver) 91
4. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet (GG) 92
5. Karl Davis Jr. (Sco) 107
6. Alex Myers (Sco) 112
7. Sam Fastle (Shr) 119
8. Josh Roper (Shr) 134
9. Andreas Niederer (Bet) 140
confidence in the sections and
with the bike. There were a few
that were on the edge, for sure,
and some really difficult ones, but
overall I'm happy with the way I
turned things around."
After finishing seventh overall
the previous day, Alex Niederer
(GasGas North America) turned
in a solid performance to finish
second overall behind Smage
with a total of 76 points.
Third place went to David
Avendano (Vertigo USA) with 91
points. The Venezuelan champion
DNFed Saturday's event with an
electrical problem. One point be-
hind Avendano was Blanc-Gon-
net, who posted a 92-point day
for fourth place in the extremely
high scoring event.
Davis rounded out Sunday's
top five with 107 points. Maddie
Hoover (GasGas North America)
took a pair of wins in the Wom-
en's Pro class, beating former
Women's champ Louise Forsley
each day, while
Kylee Sweeten (FactoryONE/
Daniel Blanc-Gonnet
took runner-up honors
on Saturday.
