put much of a foot wrong . Overall , it was an amazing weekend for me . I ’ m definitely glad to get a win . I was sick of getting second .”
To add to a stellar weekend that included second overall and first in the Pro2 division , Girroir also posted the fastest overall time for Saturday ’ s round , giving him his first-ever Pro-class “ day win ”.
Girroir won all three of the Enduro tests On Saturday , while Michael won all three Cross tests . When the scores were tallied Girroir came out on top of Michael by . 7 seconds .
“ It was like a huge monkey off my back ,” said Girroir . “ I really wanted to get a win . I was hoping to win the weekend and we started off Sunday with three-tenths of a second separating us . Then Layne just found another gear and definitely walked away with it . But I ’ m happy with my riding . I got my first runnerup finish ever in sprint racing . So definitely building and getting faster and learning .”
Baylor came into the race with an 11-point advantage over Michael in the series standings , having won the first two rounds . However , a crash in the opening Cross test on Saturday put the South Carolina rider in a deep hole that he would spend the rest of the weekend trying to dig his way out of .
“ Lane definitely shines in the Cross tests and I knew he was going to be really good because this was a really fast one ,” said Baylor . “ I ’ m more of a technical rider , so I think I just pushed a little too hard too early and I went down right off the start and then made a few more mistakes . I was like , all right , we ’ ve got to just chill out . I was chilling out too much , I think riding just too conservative . That cost me .”
Baylor came out swinging on Sunday , winning the first Enduro test of the day , but was still unable to make up the distance to Michael .
“ On Sunday , I rode like I knew how to ride ,” said Baylor . “ This really fast stuff terrifies me , so I didn ’ t push it any harder than I needed to . I could have done a little bit better , I think , but I wasn ’ t worried about Johnny [ Girroir ] ahead of me in the overall . I just knew that Layne was ahead of me in Pro1 . Considering the start we got , we came out pretty good .”
Phoenix Honda Racing ’ s Cody Barnes came out on top of the tight battle with Trail Jesters Racing KTM ’ s Jesse Ansley to finish fourth overall and second in the Pro2 class . Barnes was also the top-finishing LOI ( Letter of Intent ) rider , which is for riders hoping to qualify for this year ’ s International Six Days Enduro in Italy .
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 62