Steward Baylor was fourth after struggling with bottlenecks and slower riders .
“ The day was just really tough ,” said Steward . “ Ryder ( Lafferty ) left the door wide open to score some very valuable points , but I was just having an off day . I was riding really , really well , but my mistakes were costly . I tangled with a lot of lappers and every time I seemed to get off the trail to try to avoid getting close to anybody , I would just always seem to find a way to make a mistake . All the bottlenecks , it seemed to happen I always caught the worst of it . Just really struggled all day , mentally .”
Toth was in contention for a podium for most of the day , but made a costly mistake in the final test when he got off the trail and lost nearly a minute , eventually landing the KTM rider in fifth .
Ryder Lafferty came into the race with the series point lead , but a sixth-place finish dropped the Coastal Racing GasGas rider to second in points behind Grant , 141 points to 134 . Coastal Racing GasGas ’ s Ricky Russell topped Beta USA ’ s Evan Smith by 15 seconds to secure seventh .
Steel City Honda-rider Ben Nelko won the NE Pro 2 class with a ninth overall finish .
“ I struggled a little bit in the first couple tests ; I didn ’ t know how hard you could push on the dirt with it
BEN NELKO
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 60