VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P77
year. Kind of speechless."
DeLong was the only rider to
get three wins this season while
scoring points at every single
round.
"Honestly, at the beginning
of the year, I wanted to win the
championship," said DeLong.
"But my goal was to win a race.
Obviously, the biggest goal was
to win a championship, but I
never believed that until I got
that first win, I was up front,
and I had to change my goals.
It was just a new maturity that I
needed to learn. I'm just so lost
for words."
Strang started putting pres
-
sure on Ashburn, finally taking
the lead on the final lap.
Meanwhile, Steward was close
behind Strang with Girroir in
third.
At the finish, the order was
Strang, Steward, Girroir, Grant
Baylor and AmPro Yamaha's
Ricky Russell. DeLong finished
eighth, which was more than
enough to wrap up the title.
With the win, Strang tied Fred
Andrews on the XC1 career win
list.
"Sounds pretty darn good to
me," said DeLong. "In the race,
I wanted to come out and win.
I got up front there and I just
didn't feel like I really wanted
to go that fast, honestly. Those
guys were going fast. I kind of
just managed it. Man, what a
On lap three, it was FMF
KTM's Ben Kelley making an
outside pass on Ashburn to take
the lead.
At the halfway mark, Ash
-
burn, Strang, Kelley, FMF KTM's
Johnny Girroir and Steward
were in a dogfight for the lead,
while DeLong dropped back.
Strang took over the lead when
Ashburn bobbled in the woods.
Veteran Josh
Strang came away
with the day's win,
which was his
first of the year.
