VOLUME 56 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 20, 2019 P43
the fourth-fastest time overall.)
Howes, on the Lake Powell
Off-Road Racing/AEO Suspen-
sion/Fly Racing-backed TE 501,
which was prepared by Anthony
DiBasilio of Wrench 42 Motors-
ports, said, "In between pits one
and two [mile 31 to 57], there's
this long section that's SO silty,
and I've never experienced that
heavy of dust before! It was crazy.
I didn't know what to do; I didn't
know where to go—it was so
thick! Once I was able to work my
way into third [physically], I was in
clean air for pretty much most of
the [rest of the] day."
Howes added, "Soloing it; I
had super-high hopes. Coming
into pit nine [Mina at mile 312]
I was super-fresh, like I felt so
good. Then just that little tiny
section in between nine and 10
[Gabbs at mile 364], it zapped all
my energy. It was just really cut
up from all the rain [this winter],
really rocky, a lot of ditches, big
square edges and things like
that."
Despite that, Howes said, "The
day went as good as it could've
gone, for sure. It was awesome."
Runner-up on the Monkey
Business Workshop/Monster En-
ergy/TBT Racing KTM 450 XC-F,
Esposito said, "For [a race where]
anything can happen, nothing
really happened for us. We had a
good day with the bike, riders—no
crashes. We just started so far
back (they were ninth off the line),
the dust was our problem. We
did what we could. Skyler and
the N33 bike [Colangeli/Hintz/
Trulove/Vincent], those guys
were riding good. Once we got
into clean air, we made up some
time. But Skyler was in the zone
riding awesome today; I'm proud
of him."
Mark Kariya
OPEN PRO
1. Skyler Howes (Hus)
2. Santiago Creel (KTM)
3. Jeff Trulove (KTM)
4. Nick Stover (KTM)
5. Wyatt Brittner (Hus)
Shane Esposito had
a tougher road being
the ninth bike off
the line, but he and
teammates Santiago
Creel and Max Eddy
Jr., charged ahead to
finish second.
Hayden Hintz heads into pit
seven at mile 240. He and
teammates Nic Colangeli, Jeff
Trulove and Sage Vincent drew
first off the line and kept a
good pace to finish third.
