to-last lap, I slid off the ridge,
which cost me about 20 sec-
onds to get going again."
Thad
Duvall, still returning to
form from injury, finished sev-
enth, exactly 10 seconds ahead
of
his Coastal Racing GasGas
teammate Ryder Lafferty, who
was eighth overall and first
in the XC 2 250 Pro division,
despite feeling a bit under the
weather.
"Ever since the enduro, I've
had a little cold that I've been
fighting," said Lafferty. "I was
dealing with it after the enduro,
and then it almost felt like I got
it again Thursday leading up to
the race. Just congestion and
nose stuff. I had a game plan to
but we will look ahead to round
two now and see what we can
do there."
Grant Baylor, making his
GNCC debut with Babbitt's Mon
-
ster Energy Kawasaki, got off to
one
of his signature slow starts
and had to work his way up into
sixth by the finish.
"I was next to last going into
woods," said Grant. "I fell a
couple of times and it was hard
to pass, so I basically had to just
wait for guy to make a mistake
in order to get by. On the next-
Husqvarna, while fifth went to
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Fac
-
tory Racing's Craig DeLong after
starting
the race in seventh. The
two battled for positions late in
the race.
"I kind of struggled to make
moves on the first lap, was a
little bit behind, but got moving
into my groove from the second
through the fifth lap or so," said
DeLong. "I made a pass into
fourth going into the last lap
and held it for about halfway
through it, but I struggled with
some lapped riders and some
different lines, so I went back to
fifth and that's where I finished.
I'm frustrated with that, what
happened at the end of the race,
ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 19, 2023
UNION, SOUTH CAROLINA
OFF-ROAD I GRAND NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY SERIES
P66
Korie Steede fought hard for
the WXC win. She won by less than
a second over defending class
champ Rachael Archer.
