Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/739653
OFF ROAD 91ST INTERNATIONAL SIX DAYS ENDURO OCTOBER 11-16, 2016 KARTING CIRCUITO DE NAVARRA / NAVARRA, SPAIN P68 and AJ Lehr) in ninth; Michigan Offroad Events (Mike Pillar, Luke Ross and Talon Soenksen) in 18th and Elizabeth Scott Com- munity (Senior-class riders Dan Capparelli, Jayson Densley and Brian Storrie) in 21st out of the 123 teams. CN second in C3 and fourth overall Club rider followed by third-place C2 rider Kelley. Other Club teams represent- ing Team USA included the Missouri Mudders (JT Baker, Nate Ferderer and Ryan Powell) that came on strong at the end for fifth; Tony Agonis Memorial (Kale Elworthy, Joey Fiasconaro winning trio's 10:55:42.48. Eric Cleveland Memorial ended up 5:39.97 behind the Trail Jesters for third. Toth turned in the best score/ time of any Club team rider to win the C1 class in only his sec- ond Six Days, with Hepler (who turned in the day's fastest final moto time among all Club riders) My Own Race: 215 STEWARD BAYLOR 6TH E2/18TH O/A "I've never seen anything change so fast!" Steward Baylor exclaimed after day two in reference to how the tests dete- riorated. "There're terraces that were five feet tall that are completely flat now. Definitely big changes out on the track! What we walked is completely different from what we're riding now. It's still good, it's still fun. You learn a lot every time you come here." When it rained that night, conditions swung to the other extreme. 211 LAYNE MICHAEL 6TH E1/21ST O/A "Day one was a little rough," Layne Michael admitted at the end of the second day. "I feel like today wasn't the greatest, but I rode pretty solid all day and I stayed off the ground as much as possible. 236 IVAN RAMIREZ 28TH E2/65TH O/A After riding a rally in Morocco the week before, current Kenda/SRT AMA Hare & Hound National Champion Ivan Ramirez flew straight to Spain in order to ride on Mexico's Junior World Trophy team that eventually finished seventh. He arrived in time to walk a few tests before starting and said, "I was a little bit off the first day, getting used to the KTM 450 XC-F again [after a week aboard the factory KTM 450 Rally racer] and the riding. We didn't sleep for a whole day straight because we had a 10-hour drive then we had a full [day's] flight to get here and got here late the next day, like one in the morning. I got up and walked a couple special tests that day then just chilled. I got to ride the bike in the morning, maybe like 20 minutes, then headed out to walk some more. I actually didn't walk the one we raced [on day three] so I just went and rode it. It was fine, but I'm feeling tired now." 212 TAYLOR ROBERT 1ST E2/1ST O/A At the end of the fifth day, Taylor Robert found himself in a dilemma. "After the first test, we found out that Italy had dropped a rider so now we had a three-minute lead on the next team [which was Great Britain]. So then it was like a huge relief for everybody but me because I'm still battling for the [individual overall win]. I think they were kind of able to tone it down and put it into survival mode, but I was still out there hanging it out because I have a big overall on the line, too. Then in the back of my head, it's also like I've got to make sure I don't cost the team anything so I'm treading this fine line." Asked which would mean more to him, Robert laughed and answered, "The World Trophy is definitely our main focus because we've never [won it] before and the individual [victory] would be icing on the cakeāit's something I've wanted for a really long time. I'm not going to pick one or the other; I'm going to say both!" 213 THAD DUVALL 7TH E3/16TH O/A Asked his reaction to the team winning the FIM World Trophy, Thad Duvall replied, "It's a sigh of relief. It's been a five- year trek for me, starting in Germany [in 2012 on the Junior team]. I feel like we won it in one of the toughest years, having all four scores count. It was a huge bummer when Ryan broke his arm the day before we were supposed to leave. Luckily, Layne Michael got the call and he definitely filled the shoes this week. He had a good week too. To win it is awesome!" He added, "I felt we really gelled as a team all week long. It was a good week for us all, no big mistakes."