16.05.2021
Round 3 - AMA National Enduro Championship - May 16, 2021
ARRINGTON, Va. – FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Ben Kelley raced his way to the third step of the podium at Sunday’s Dragons Back National to earn a season-best finish at Round 3 of the AMA National Enduro Championship in Virginia. Teammate Josh Toth had a strong conclusion to the day, where he finished just off the podium with fourth overall.
Race conditions proved to be a mixed bag throughout the day as early morning drizzles improved the dusty conditions in some areas but also created vision issues due to wet goggles in the dust. Kelley got off to a strong third-place start aboard his KTM 350 XC-F, where he sat only 12 seconds behind the leader after test one. He battled his way up to a second-place finish in test two, which put him one step closer to the early lead battle. He was up front in test three but an early fall took him out of contention for the test-win and he quickly re-bounded to manage a second-place finish. Carrying that momentum into test four, Kelley overcame another small crash to narrowly miss the test-win by only a few hundredths of a second. He followed it up with another second in test-five before giving it his all in the final test to ultimately secure third overall for the day.
Ben Kelley: “It was a good day overall, I felt like I rode good and smooth. I’m just happy to finally put in a good ride at one of the National Enduros. I had two crashes but they were still good test times and I was able to finally find my flow. The trails were good and flowed really well so I was able to ride how I like to.”
For Toth, the day started off a bit slow as he found himself back in seventh on the opening test. He put his head down and attempted to make up lost time on the second test, finishing one spot higher in sixth. By the third test, Toth was able to get his momentum rolling and he claimed a pair of fourth-place finishes through the next two sections. Test five proved to be the highlight of his race as he injected himself into the top-three battle to come away with third in the test. With another solid fourth in the final test, Toth was able to finish the day off strong in fourth overall.
Josh Toth: “I didn’t feel up to race pace at the beginning of the day but I rode good, stayed off the ground and pretty smart except for a couple little incidents with the lappers throughout the day. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I was kind of just off the pace of the top three but I picked it up at the end but it was already too late at that point.”
Trail Jesters KTM Racing Team’s Jesse Ansley raced his way to a third-straight victory in the NE Pro2 class, while also securing seventh-place overall with a strong ride at Round 3.
Round 4: June 13 – Greensboro, Georgia
NE Pro1 Results
1. Grant Baylor, GAS, 01:43:38.098
2. Steward Baylor Jr., YAM, +16.4
3. Ben Kelley, KTM, +11.3
4. Josh Toth, KTM, +01:22.5
NE Pro2 Results
1. Jesse Ansley, KTM, 01:47:24.333
2. Benjamin Nelko, HQV, +02:10
3. Jonathan Johnson, HQV, +09.2