hold off Steward , and even gained some time on him , to claim his first win of the year by just over 16 seconds .
“ The Louisiana race was definitely in my head ,” said Grant . “ He got in my head today with test five when he came in ten seconds faster and it was only a four-and-a-half-mile test . You do the math , four-and-ahalf-mile test , ten seconds faster , last test is eight miles … He should have realistically beat me if we ran that same section again . But luckily the last test , I went out there knowing that he was only twelve , thirteen seconds behind me and I knew I had to just make it all connect and bring it home . So that was what I did . I definitely didn ’ t want to throw it away again like I did in Louisiana . That was pretty tough .”
A shaky run in the second test put Steward in a hole he couldn ’ t dig out of , but despite the runner-up finish , the Yamaha rider still maintains the point lead after three rounds , 85 points to 80 , over Grant .
“ I just gave away way too much time in that second test ,” said Steward . “ You have one bad test and it ’ s hard to ever make up that time . Giving up 20 seconds in a section , it ’ s almost impossible to catch up . I that one test was the deciding factor of the day . I went into that last test and I said we ’ ve got to crush this . I actually crashed in the test before and still won , so I knew I had the
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 154