couple of times. I found myself
in the lead, and I said, 'It's time to
go.' It was war."
In the end, Baylor lost to Gir-
roir by 2:35.00 seconds, and 35
seconds to Davis on adjusted
time.
"This course is brutal," said
Steward Baylor. "Three-quarters
of it was sand, whoops, and then
this last part was like survival
mode. There were holes out
there with bikes buried every
-
where. It was a survival kind of
day. The rain came and made it
worse. It was gnarly."
In addition to his earlier crash,
Baylor knocked the bead off his
rim and had to pit to replace the
rear wheel.
"Man, that was a rough day,"
said Baylor. "Wish my guys
would have let me know that we
had somebody sneaking up on
the overall. All I was getting was,
'Save the bike.' I didn't get any
pit board. So, it's kind of tough
when people aren't giving you
what you need out there, but I
knew we were going to have a
tough day right there off lap one.
Just right off the start, I saw my
bike start smoking, and I knew
we were losing coolant. So, it's
all I could do just to try to stay
off the clutch, keep the tempera
-
tures down. I was literally aiming
for water holes and trying to cool
that bike off.
"Looking towards champion-
ship, I'm trying to get as much
points as we can. Then we broke
a bead midway through the race
and I just couldn't hold Johnny
off anymore. I was making a lot
of mistakes. That back end was
all over the place. Then it got to
the point where the bike wouldn't
move. I had to do that wheel
swap, and it was a little longer
than it should have been, but for
everything that happened today,
I guess it's okay. I'll take it. But
pretty bummed."
Russell lost his front end and
ended up landing on his bad
shoulder, forcing him to retire.
The 2024 season is Davis'
first in the Pro class. His second
overall was his best finish ever.
"It was a tough one, especially
when it started raining," said
Davis. "I couldn't see anything,
and then I got new goggles, and
I was behind Jordan [Ashburn],
I think. As soon as I got my new
goggles, he dumped the clutch
and covered them and destroyed
them. So, I rode a whole lap with
-
out goggles. Then Kailub [Russell,
KTM crew] was telling me that
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P87
Brandy Richards (198) won the WXC
class. Korie Steede (444) was the
early leader but ended up second.
