getting better and better. It's not
the last one."
AmPro Yamaha's Ricky Rus-
sell continued his string of great
starts by grabbing the holeshot
in the two-and-a-half-hour event.
The race was shortened by
three hours due to rain and track
conditions.
After a midpack start, Rocky
Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki's
Steward Baylor took over the
lead near the end of lap one,
only to hand it over to Toth in the
woods.
From then on, Toth tried to
keep the hounds at bay for the
remainder of the race.
Girroir jockeyed back and
forth with Baylor but, in the
end, wound up finishing second
overall for the day; Girroir is still
undefeated in the XC1 division,
having won all three rounds so
far.
"It was pretty gnarly out there,"
said Girroir. "I got a pretty decent
start and was just following
the leaders. I found myself in
the lead. Stew had some good
lines and went blowing by me.
I was just tagging along with
him, learning. He went down a
couple of times. I was able to
get around him. Then Ricky and
[Jordan] Ashburn challenged
me again. Me and Ricky came
together. It was just chaos out
there. I just kept getting a pit
board, 'Toth's in the lead, Toth's
the lead.' It's hard to keep track
of the XC2 guys. I was charging
that last lap as hard as I could.
I ended up making a mistake
and going over the bars. I think
it was down to five or 10 sec-
onds, and then I think that's all
it took. Hats off to Josh. That's
awesome. Of course, I wanted
to win, but it was good for him
to make history and do it in the
second round. That's awesome,
so hats off."
With two laps to go, GasGas
Factory Racing's Jordan Ashburn
was locked in a battle with Toth
physically on the track. "I saw a
pit board, 'Plus three on Toth.' I
was like, man, he's coming, said
Ashburn. "I kind of latched onto
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P35
Ricky Russell (212) leads the start of the XC1 class.
