VOLUME 57 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 14, 2020 P45
took $500 from Maxxis for third
overall and third Open Pro Mo-
torcycle in 4:32:02.6 on their 3
Bros. Racing/Pro Circuit/1-800-
DENT-DOC 450 XC-F.
The race got underway before
the sun came up with two pros
leaving the start each minute.
From row three, Argubright faced
off against Kevin DeJongh who
sprinted hard aboard the Gar-
rett Off-Road Racing Husky he
was sharing with Ben Meza in
order to get points for rider of
record Skyler Howes. Of course,
Howes was half a world away
racing his second Dakar Rally,
but the defending BITD champ
took advantage of the rules that
let others ride and collect points
for him.
"Me and Kevin DeJongh had
a battle leaving [the start and]
going through the [first section
of] whoops, then I was able to
get him and just started picking
people off," Argubright said. "I
was able to pass everyone and
be in the physical lead before
the end of the first lap. The roost
was terrible! It seemed slightly
easier for me [compared to last
year] because I'm already in a
little better shape off the bike. It
was cold [on the first lap espe-
cially, with temperatures in the
high 30s] and that sucked!"
An unscheduled rear-wheel
swap on the final lap just to play
it safe didn't affect his position,
as he had several minutes to
spare over the Pearson/Trulove
team who were basically break-
ing in their bike, it was so new.
In fact, Pearson didn't even ride
it until the day before, doing
about an hour shakedown, get-
acquainted ride.
After starting on row two
Trulove said, "It was relatively
quick; we found our spot [in
second place after starting on
the second row] where we were
running.
"We had a pretty good day
for having that kind of testing.
It was a smooth ride all day—it
never touched the ground." Well,
except when Pearson ran out of
fuel coming into the main pit at
the end of the first lap, though
it didn't hurt their final result too
badly.
Despite a less-than-favorable
start position due to their late
entry, the Hintz/Hunter team
pressed on steadily all day,
occupying fourth physically for
most of the race behind the
Cooper Ashton/Taylor Stevens
Despite minimal
time on their new
bike, Axel Pearson
(shown) and Jeff
Trulove slotted into
second place early
and stayed there
the rest of the day.
