Howes Wins Vegas To Reno, Championship
G
arrett Off-Road Racing
Husqvarna's Skyler Howes
hasn't had the best of luck this
year, but things came together for
him when it counted—at the 23rd
General Tire/Casey Folks Vegas-
to-Reno, Presented by Fox, in
Dayton, Nevada, August 17.
Despite the relative handicap of
being sixth off the start in Beatty,
he worked his way through the
dust to take the physical lead
during the second half of the 505-
mile journey to Dayton in northern
Nevada. Howes secured not only
the race victory but the series
championship as well.
In doing so, he became only
the third rider to secure the overall
motorcycle win as a solo act, join-
ing Quinn Cody and Joan Barreda
in this elite club. However, he's
believed to be the first solo rider
to earn the series championship.
Howes bested the Danny Cooper
team that led in points going in,
340-332, but whose luck turned
sour.
"We had a game plan coming
into this race," Howes said. "If I
won the race, Danny Cooper and
the Monarch [Honda] team had
to finish fourth or worse for me to
win the championship."
With Cooper's squad of Jesse
Canepa and Kyle Tichenor only
able to finish 11th Open Pro on
their Kenda/Nitro Mousse/Fly
Racing CRF450X, Howes had
plenty of points to ensure the title.
Howes' time of eight hours, 22
minutes and 19 seconds put him
over eight minutes ahead of run-
ner-up Santiago Creel/Max Eddy,
Jr./Shane Esposito's 8:31:02, the
Nic Colangeli/Hayden Hintz/Jeff
Trulove/Sage Vincent team claim-
ing the third bike in 8:36:09. (The
winning vehicle overall was Bryce
Menzies' all-wheel-drive Trick
Truck in 8:10:36. Howes owned
IN
THE
WIND
P42
Skyler Howes became
just the third rider to solo
to the overall motorcycle
win at Vegas-To-Reno.
PHOTO: BY MARK KARIYA
