IN
THE
WIND
P34
DUVALL TAKES FULL GAS SPRINT
ENDURO TITLE
T
had Duvall headed into
the final round of the 2016
KENDA Full Gas Sprint Enduro
Series presented by Moose
Racing in Union, SC, November
12-13, with a commanding points
lead and could've easily put it
on cruise control and clinched
the championship, but that just
isn't Thad's style. Duvall won two
individual days of racing in this
year's series but hadn't been
able to put together an overall
win, and he was determined to
put an exclamation point on his
title-winning season.
The Union, SC area hadn't
seen a drop of rain in over six
weeks leading up to the event
so riders dealt with very dry and
dusty conditions on day one.
Duvall was the first to hit the
track and used the clear vision
to his advantage, grabbing the
first test win of the day, the en-
duro test, by less than a second
ahead of his ISDE-winning team-
mate, Layne Michael. Duvall's
lead was short-lived as Michael
took the second test win by over
three seconds.
The third and fourth tests of
the day saw new test winners,
as well. Evan Smith took the
second Enduro Test win in his
return to the series after injuring
his shoulder at the third round,
marking his first-ever FGSE test
win. Then ISDE Junior Team
member, Grant Baylor, took the
win by just a second ahead of
Duvall in the second cross test.
Duvall would rebound with the
final cross test win of day one to
move himself to the top of the
leaderboard with a 14-second
lead ahead of Grant Baylor.
Michael sat just another second
back in third ahead of Smith,
Cory Buttrick and Josh Toth all
of whom were separated by just
five seconds heading into the
second day of racing.
Racing conditions did a
complete 180 on Sunday with
rain beginning to fall early in the
morning turning what was one
of the dustiest races of the year
into a much more slippery affair
Thad Duvall was able to seal the
championship with a convincing win
at the Big Buck finale.
