VOLUME 58 ISSUE 18 MAY 4, 2021 P41
definitely not do-or-die anymore.
I'm just looking forward to being
able to ride my own races with-
out all that pressure."
Moving forward, Kelley needs
to stop the bleeding.
"I finally got into third and
was about 45 seconds back
from those guys so I dug deep,
caught Layne and I was gaining
on Stew—gaining on him, gain-
ing on him," said Kelley. "I had
to charge so hard there in the
middle that I was smoked there
with three laps to go. I was stay-
ing with him, but that last lap, he
definitely had more in the tank
for me."
After missing rounds three
and four due to injuries, Michael
on me. So, I really struggled
there on that lap, but the last lap
I was just able to put my head
down and nail my marks."
Remarkably, Steward, who
looked totally out of the champi-
onship picture after the first two
rounds, is just five points behind
Kelley in the standings and look-
ing unstoppable.
"We made up some really
good ground," said Steward.
"Moving forward, it's no longer
do or die to win. I got out there
with two to go and I started mak-
ing mistakes. I was like, if I've
got to back it down, if we keep
making these mistakes, it's okay
to get second today. We can get
second and still rebound. So, it's
once again, Steward went down,
and then again.
"When that two-lap card came
out, the lappers just got sense-
less," said Steward. "It was one
thing after another. I had a lot of
really close calls and a couple
fall-overs with some lappers and
then a couple mistakes myself."
With the mistakes, Kelley, who
passed Michael at the two-lap
board, was able to close to with-
in seven seconds of Steward.
However, Steward put togeth-
er a solid final lap and took the
win with 35 seconds to spare.
"I hit four lappers in three
miles and somewhere in the
middle with two laps to go Ben
and Layne gained 35 seconds
Johnny Girroir topped
the XC2 Pro class.
