OFF ROAD
KENDA AMA NATIONAL ENDURO SERIES
ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 4, 2018
SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA
P80
Ben Kelley
made it a
KTM sweep
with third
overall. It
was his
first-ever
podium.
Ninth went to N-Fab/Am
Pro Yamaha's Ricky Russell,
while 2014 National Enduro
champ Andrew DeLong, now
a member of the GasGas
factory team, rounded out the
top 10.
Five-time National Enduro
Champ Russell Bobbitt start-
ed the race in fifth, but a tree
limb ripped the electrical wir-
ing from his fuel system in the
second test and by the time
the Gnarly Roots Racing KTM
rider got it fixed he had lost
seven minutes. Bobbitt still
scored championship points
with a 20th-place finish.
Trail Jesters KTM Off-Road Racing's Ben Kelley landed
on the third step. Like Toth, it was Kelley's first podium.
Both Toth and Kelley came into the event shooting for
top-five finishes and both riders exceeded their expec-
tations and turned a lot of heads in the process.
Trevor Bollinger came away with a well-deserved
fourth-place finish. The JCR Honda rider was second
fastest in the fifth test and added two other top-five test
times to finish 20 seconds behind Kelley.
KR4 Husqvarna's Cory Buttrick and SRT Off-road
Racing-backed Evan Smith occupied fifth and sixth,
respectively, while AirGroup/Enduro Engineering
Husqvarna's Drew Higgins turned in a ride he was
happy with for seventh.
Grant Baylor, who is coming off of a recent shoulder
surgery and who had only been on the bike for about a
week before the race, grabbed eighth. He admitted that
he made up his bike to compete just two days earlier.
