kind of what I was ready for, and
I knew it was probably going to
come down to the last 20-ish
miles when the real push started
happening. It's hard to lead at
the end there when you're trying
to follow ribbon and figure out
where the course goes."
And indeed, that's how it
played out.
Wasson said, "I couldn't really
get around him in a lot of the
spots. The dust was so thick that
as soon as I'd get really close
to him, it would just blow up silt
pockets and just made it re-
ally dangerous so I kind of held
back."
On the fast-paced third loop,
Wasson finally saw his opportu-
nity. "It was a pretty good little
battle," he said. "We kind of
jumped out of a sand wash side
by side and went through some
whoops and there's a couple
little ditches with some cows
nearby. I never let off and he did,
and I was able to get past him
right there."
Wasson took the checkered
flag two hours, 26 minutes and
18 seconds after the banner
dropped with Roberts second for
the second consecutive round
with a time of 2:26:40. That add-
ed another five points to Was-
son's tally, giving him 85 to the 71
of Roberts. Morgan's third place
moves him to third in points at 51,
one ahead of Campbell.
"I'm very happy [with third to-
day]," Morgan said. The Monster
Energy/Skechers/Fly Racing
CRF450X rider said, "I finally
got a decent start—I'm usually
really bad at starts so I'm start-
ing to work on them and Bobby
[Youngs, of San Diego Power-
house] has got the bike running
really well. I managed to hold it
together and get by Jones and
then keep a solid pace. There
was a freight train of really good
guys behind me.
"I'm just really happy to get
on the podium," Morgan said.
"It feels good to come here out
of my element and prove that I
could do it."
Morgan's previous podium
IN
THE
WIND
P42
Clayton Gerstner rode
to the top of the Pro
250 podium for the
first time in his career.
