23.08.2020
Round 6 - AMA National Enduro Championship - August 23, 2020
WELLSTON, Ohio – FMF KTM Factory Racing Team’s Josh Toth has moved into the NE Pro1 Championship points lead following Sunday’s race-winning performance at Round 5 of the 2020 AMA National Enduro Championship in Wellston, Ohio.
Coming off a clean sweep at the previous round, Toth has continued to gain momentum with each round and the Grassman National proved to be no different. Despite a few rain showers earlier in the weekend, Sunday’s track conditions turned out to be dry and silty, creating challenging conditions in the woods.
Toth came out strong with a test-win in the opening section, besting his closest competitor of the day, Steward Baylor Jr., by about four seconds. The duo went to battle in test two, with Toth missing the test-win by about seven seconds to Baylor. Things got tricky for Toth in test three when he took a different line choice to get by a lapper and ended up coming face-to-face with a downed tree log last minute. He was able to slow down in time to avoid disaster but his tire slid under the log causing him to lose substantial time in the overall. Heading into test four, Toth sat in an eight-second deficit but he rebounded quickly with a test-win to regain the overall lead. From there, he went on to secure the final two test-wins to come away with a 19-second victory over the second-place rider.
Josh Toth: “I got off to a good start but it was really tricky to try to push because of the silt and dust. I really worked on limiting my mistakes and being more patient in the dust and the loose corners and it paid off today. I’m happy to get the win!”
Team rider Ben Kelley raced his way to a fourth-place finish with a consistent string of finishes throughout the day. Starting out the day with a top-five finish, he upped the pace in test two to claim fourth heading into the third test. Kelley fell victim to the same downed log as his teammate Toth, but he wasn’t able to slow down in time to miss it and he launched over the bars and onto the ground. Kelley was able to re-mount and keep going but his pace was affected as he finished out the test with bent handlebars. He remained steady between the fourth and fifth spots for the rest of the day to earn a solid fourth overall for the day.
Ben Kelley: “Overall, I’m happy to come away with fourth overall but the goal is to be on the podium. There wasn’t a whole lot of traction out there today with the dry silt so you had to be careful with lines and hit your marks perfectly. I still have a few things to work on to minimize those little mistakes and we’ll get there.”
KTM-supported rider, Mackenzie Tricker, earned her fourth win of the season in the Women’s Elite class to extend her championship lead after five rounds.
Next Round: September 20 – Lead Belt National in Park Hills, Missouri
NE Pro1 Results
1. Josh Toth, KTM, 1:51:10.393
2. Steward Baylor Jr., KAW, +19.276
3. Thorn Devlin, BET
4. Ben Kelley, KTM
Overall National Championship Standings
1. Josh Toth, 115 (3 wins)
2. Grant Baylor, 108 points (1 win)
3. Ben Kelley, 102 (1 win)