Kelley Wins Lumberjack National Enduro
F
MF/KTM's Ben Kelley
claimed his first AMA National
Enduro Series win of the 2021
season with a consistent perfor-
mance at this weekend's Lumber-
jack Enduro in Bergholz, Ohio,
August 22. Despite not winning a
test all day, Kelley topped Am-
Pro Yamaha's Steward Baylor by
11.477 seconds for the overall.
With the win, Kelley became
the fourth different winner in the
six rounds held so far this year.
The win was also Kelley's first
since the 2019 season.
"It's been a long time coming,"
said Kelley. "The climbs were
huge. Everything was on a hill,
so you had to be cautious and
try not to slide off the trail. A lot
of off-cambers, deep ups and
downs. I'm happy to get a Nation-
al Enduro win, especially since
they're not my strong suit. A little
surprise for me, but I'm pumped
to get the win."
Baylor won two of the six tests
en route to the runner-up slot. He
extended his lead in the cham-
pionship chase to 39 points with
just three rounds remaining. Bay-
lor was fast, as usual, but missed
an arrow in test one, which got
him off on the wrong foot.
"The last few races I've been
trying to really start my day off
with a good first test, but after
that, that kind of just really frus-
trated me," said Baylor.
Josh Toth appeared to be
heading for a third-straight win,
with a strong lead after three
tests. However, the FMF/KTM
rider buried his bike in a creek in
test four and lost over five min-
utes pumping the water out of the
engine.
"About halfway into test four, I
came to a water crossing and hit
a bad line where it was getting
kind of deep and I committed.
IN
THE
WIND
P34
Ben Kelley topped the
Lumberjack Enduro in Ohio.
It was his first win since 2019.
PHOTOS: SHAN MOORE
