a while and was working hard to do that , but had a good fall in test five that rung my bell a little bit . All in all , I felt really good on the bike and I was super happy to be back riding .”
Lafferty turned in a solid ride to start off the season , rounding out the top five .
“ I didn ’ t make a whole lot of mistakes , and I just gave it the berries all day ,” said Lafferty . “ I think we were all really close . I felt like I gave it my all . Just came up a little bit short . But fifth for the first one is solid .”
After running up front for the first half of the race , FMF / KTM ’ s Ben Kelley suffered two big crashes in test four and settled for sixth .
“ I had two good tests , in one and two , and I was feeling good ,” said Kelley . “ I think I was in third , but close to the leaders . Then test four I kind of just fell apart . I had one pretty big crash , and then closer to the end of the test I had another big one and smacked my knee on a tree and it kind of took the wind out of my sails . It was just hard to ride the rest of the day , but I just did the best I could .”
Making his only National Enduro appearance of the year , Trail Jesters Racing / KTM ’ s Jesse Ansley turned some heads by finishing by winning the NE Pro 2 division with a seventh overall finish .
VOL . 6 ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2021 // PAGE 83