"After the rain we got last
night, it was not that bad until the
last test and the skies opened
up again," said DeLong. "I had
never ridden anything like that.
That was interesting, but I had a
lot of fun. I was smiling and I'm
pleased with the outcome."
DeLong's Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna teammate Trevor Bol-
linger rounded out the podium in
his first race back since injuring
his hand in June.
"I started out third on the first
test," said Bollinger. "I think I
made a couple mistakes in the
second test, but from there, we
were pretty consistent. Luckily, it
landed me on the box. I missed
the last two rounds with my hand
[injury]. So, to come back at
these and get on the podium—I
think it's my second career po-
dium—so it feels good."
Steward Baylor was fourth
after struggling with bottlenecks
and slower riders.
"The day was just really
tough," said Steward. "Ryder
[Lafferty] left the door wide open
to score some very valuable
points, but I was just having an
off day. I was riding really, really
well, but my mistakes were cost-
ly. I tangled with a lot of lappers
and every time I seemed to get
off the trail to try to avoid getting
close to anybody, I would just al-
ways seem to find a way to make
a mistake. All the bottlenecks,
it seemed I always caught the
worst of it. Just really struggled
all day, mentally."
Toth was in contention for a
podium for most of the day but
made a costly mistake in the final
test when he got off the trail and
lost nearly a minute, eventually
landing the KTM rider in fifth.
Ryder Lafferty came into the
race with the series points lead,
but a sixth-place finish dropped
the Coastal Racing GasGas
rider to second in points behind
Grant, 141 points to 134.
Coastal Racing GasGas' Ricky
Russell topped Beta USA's Evan
Smith by 15 seconds to secure
seventh.
Steel City Honda-rider Ben
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 23, 2022 P39
Craig DeLong reveled in
the wet conditions and
finished second best.
