IN
THE
WIND
P40
Wasson Tops Texas H&H
B
eta's Joe Wasson emerged
from a pitched four-rider battle
to top the Lubbock Trail Riders'
Lone Star National, round two
of the Kenda/SRT AMA Hare &
Hound National Championship
Series, Presented by FMF, Febru-
ary 23. Early leader Dalton Shirey
held on for second overall, the 3
Bros./SRT Husqvarna rider finally
losing contact with Wasson after
hitting a tree that knocked his
goggle lens out while Wasson's
Beta teammate Zane Roberts
held on for third—good enough to
give him the series points lead.
With a drizzle wetting the Texas
soil just enough on Sunday morn-
ing, and day-long cloud cover
with no wind keeping dust to a
minimum, conditions were prime,
leading to tight racing throughout
the field. Nowhere was racing as
tight as at the front, though.
Shirey's knack of quick starts
aboard his FMF/Zip-Ty Racing/
Troy Lee Designs-backed FX 450
found him, once again, at the
front of the pack, as they headed
out onto the 32-mile first loop,
basically run backwards from the
previous two years.
However, the absence of dust
made it much easier for those be-
hind to trail closely in hopes of the
rider ahead making a mistake to
allow an easier-than-normal pass.
Before long, Wasson was on
Shirey's rear fender with 2019
series champ Jacob Argubright, of
the one-man Off-Road Support/
TBT Racing Kawasaki squad, re-
covering from a bad start to slot into
third followed closely by Roberts.
"This race was very hard to
lead," Shirey said. "If I was in
second and obviously Joe was in
first, I was able to key off him and
go faster, but when you're in first,
you couldn't really see the trail be-
cause the bushes were about as
tall as the bikes sometimes, and I
can't pin it because I can't see!"
The four in the lead pack soon
had a comfortable cushion over
their pursuers. Clearly, the winner
would be one of these four.
And then there were two.
Argubright took a nasty tumble a
few miles into the 45-mile second
loop and suffered a possible wrist
injury and a severe headache.
Roberts stopped to
quickly check on his
rival and resumed rac-
ing after determining
(Left) Joe Wasson
hadn't won since
round six last
year, but in Texas,
he turned it all
around to grab
the victory.
