night to the WHS race, arriv-
ing too late to walk the course
beyond the first turn.
But that disadvantage only
seemed to slow him in the open-
ing laps where others had better
lines; in addition, he'd guessed
wrong at suspension settings,
ending up on the too-stiff side,
though he took it all in stride.
"It was definitely a change of
pace!" the FMF/P-Works/Troy
Lee Designs FX 450-mounted
Shirey said. "All in all, I went out
there just to have fun and see
what I could do."
For Roberts, this was a
make-or-break day to keep his
championship hopes alive, but
arm pump during the first hour
prevented him from mounting the
charge he needed. In addition,
water between his tear-offs ob-
scured his vision until he'd pulled
them all.
"Beyond that, I felt good and
had fun," the DP Brakes/Dun-
lop/Klim 430 RR rider said. "I've
definitely got to get up into some
nasty woods and practice it
more. I'm decent at it, but it's just
so far out of my wheelhouse."
Despite crashing in the first
turn and later on in the first lap,
Layton Smail ended up with an
impressive comeback to not only
take the Pro 250 victory in his
first time in the class (after two
earlier rides in the Open Pros)
but claimed fourth overall on his
NWEC/GPR Stabilizers/Viral
250 SX-F.
Round-five class winner Jaden
Dahners hounded Smail most
of the way but had to settle for
class runner-up and fifth overall
on his Amsoil/TBT Racing/Arai
YZ250F.
Fun Country KTM's Chase Lar-
son took third in class and sixth
overall ahead of Serpa, Dallas
Chidester (DC) Yamaha's Mason
Ottersberg (the Pro 250 points
leader), and Fun Country KTM's
Blake Best (fifth Pro 250). Chase
Esty is listed as 10th overall and
the Open B winner.
M9 GasGas-mounted Devin
Watson padded his unbeat-
able points lead in Pro Vet 35+,
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 8, 2022 P37
Despite this first-turn crash and going
down hard later on the first lap, Layton
Smail (454) rebounded to win the Pro 250
class and finish fourth overall, ahead of
class runner-up Jaden Dahners (X10, back
of pack), who had a start nearly as bad.
