VOL. 54 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 7, 2017 P69
had to do and won both of those
tests, but Baylor managed his speed
with precision—despite dropping the
bike in the fifth test—and ended up
taking the 2017 title with 12 seconds
to spare.
"I was able to gap those guys by
quite a bit after the fourth test and I
knew I could relax a little in the last
two tests, but I made a mistake in test
five and it set me back a little," Baylor
said. "I went down and I was count-
ing as I was trying to get going and I
counted to seven so I knew I was still
in decent shape. Thad ended up get-
ting me by 12 seconds in that test and
at the end of the day, only 12 seconds
separated us in the final scoring so
I'm super happy with how the day
went."
It's been a tough season for Duvall
who saw his GNCC title hopes vanish
after suffering an injury at the ISDE,
and now losing out on the enduro title
by just 12 seconds.
Baylor got down to business right
away. The SRT KTM rider topped the
first test by a whopping 11 seconds
over the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna
Team rider, Duvall.
"The day started surprisingly well,"
said Baylor. "I think in all the years I've
been riding national enduro, I've prob-
ably won the opening test maybe less
than five times, so to start off with the
win in test one was huge for me."
This put Duvall's back up against
the wall, but the Husky rider re-
sponded by beating Baylor in the
second test, but by only six tenths of
a second.
Baylor came back and padded his
lead on Duvall over the next couple of
tests. With just the final two tests re-
maining—the ones that would ultimate-
ly decide the outcome of the enduro
and the championship—Baylor had
amassed a somewhat comfortable
30-second advantage over Duvall.
At that point, Duvall did what he
Thad Duvall gave
it everything
he had to beat
Baylor for
the win and
championship
but came up
just 12 seconds
short.
