pushing a little harder."
Despite his improving times in
the enduro tests, Sipes almost
threw it all away in the final en-
duro test on Saturday.
"I was leading Steward Baylor
by 14 seconds going into the
final test of the day on Saturday
and I fell over in a flat turn and
it took me a while to get going,"
said Sipes. "I ended up losing
Saturday's round by 1.4 sec-
onds to Steward, which kind of
bummed me out."
In spite of his snafu on Satur-
day, Sipes won seven of the 12
tests over the course of the two-
day event (all six cross tests and
one enduro test) and took the
overall win ahead of Grant Baylor
by just over five seconds.
"It feels good to get back
on top of the podium," added
Sipes. "I feel like I had a good
day overall, except for that one
tip-over."
Steward Baylor topped two
enduro tests Saturday. How-
ever, the Tely Energy KTM rider
injured his knee in the opening
test on Sunday, which put a
damper on his bid for the overall
win.
"I was riding really good on
Saturday and I think I could have
repeated that performance on
Sunday, but in the first test, I
caught a rut with my front wheel
and I jammed my foot into the
ground," said Baylor. "My knee
swelled up pretty tight and I just
had to coast for the rest of the
day."
Steward finished off the day in
fourth and was fourth overall for
the weekend.
Grant Baylor was the benefi-
ciary of his brother's bad luck
and wound up in the runner-up
slot for the weekend. The Tely
Energy KTM rider won three
enduro tests in all, one on Sat-
urday and two on Sunday, but
didn't exactly get off to the best
of starts.
"I was going good in the first
test of the weekend and then
about six turns from the finish I
went down in a fast turn and the
bike slid a long way, so it took
VOL. 55 ISSUE 24 JUNE 19, 2018 P33
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
DAREN
CHAPMAN
Grant Baylor finished
just a few seconds
behind Sipes and had to
settle for second overall.
