"I came in with a seven-point
lead," said Walker. "I knew I had
to finish third to win the champi-
onship. The first race was good, I
finished third. In the second race,
just had a bit of a nightmare.
A few things went wrong, and I
ended up seventh. That's what
kind of threw it away. I got a good
start, and I was like, 'oh sweet,
we're on for it now.' I knew I just
had to beat Cooper Abbott and
Cody, and I was in front of them.
Then I went into the pipes and
went over the handlebars, which
was the worst thing I could have
done. Jumped straight in, straight
over the handlebars. I was like,
'oh no.' But it's racing. We've done
what we could. It's difficult to
come over here. Obviously, I'm
not happy with second. You don't
want to be second. But it's racing.
I did exactly the same to Trystan
last year. I came in, points down,
managed to beat him on the
night and take the championship.
So, it's the same again."
Haaker was second on the
night and, until late in the final
moto, appeared to be on his way
to a sweep of the program after
winning the first two motos.
"I won the second moto de
-
spite screwing up in the pipes;
we all got super tangled up in
there. It was pretty chaotic,"
said Haaker. "I didn't go down,
but I was stuck behind Trystan
and Jonny and everybody else.
It was crazy. The last moto, we
were just training out there. It
Then the second one, I went
into third on the first lap from
the second row, crashed, and
went back to last. In that last
one, I didn't know. The math was
so confusing. I just knew that
I had to be near the front and
Jonny couldn't be close to me,
and there was a chance I was
going to win. I honestly didn't
even know I won. My mechanic
was cheering, and I just started
doing a burnout. I'm like, surely,
I won. The gods wouldn't have
done this to me."
The Reno round was a wicked
twist of fate for Walker, who
came into last year's finale
trailing Hart in the title chase
and wound up winning it all, a
juxtaposition to this year.
ROUND 6 / NOVEMBER 18, 2023
RENO-SPARKS LIVESTOCK EVENTS CENTER / RENO, NV
OFF-ROAD I IRC TIRE ENDUROCROSS SERIES PRESENTED BY PROGRESSIVE
P62
Abbott enjoyed his best
race of the season,
finishing out the night
on the podium.
