The first loop was pretty fast with some whoops. I could see Kamo and Pearson not too far in front of me, so I knew I was doing just fine. Jacob Argubright was on the gas and caught up to me. Our lines came together and I let him by, because I felt I was holding him up. When we came into the first pit (41-miles) I was in 4th but everyone was still really close. Going out on the second (38-mile) loop, this is where things started to get wild. I don’t even remember how things went down since there were so many different positions that changed. Once we got into the more challenging terrain, I was able to close up on the three guys in front of me. At one point we were all a bike length behind the other rider (which is wild for desert racing). I had a good pace and wasn’t worried about taking the lead, since I knew we still had another loop ahead of us. However, the three guys in front of me were changing positions. Then before I knew it, I saw Kendall Norman coming and Gary Sutherlin not far behind him. It turned into a 6-way battle going down the gnarly downhill they had us on. Jacob went over the bars right in front of me, and luckily he was ok so I was able to make the pass. After the hills they put us in two valleys, and that’s where I wasn’t riding to well.

 

 Kendall made a good pass on me and that dropped me back to 4th again. Then right before the pits all of us got lost and went the wrong way. There were now five of us pinning it back to the start of the pits since we all didn’t know where to go. Kendall got the bad end of the deal, and dropped back to 5th. At this point all five of us were within 5-seconds of each other, and were pitting at the same time (it was like NASCAR racing). Now we just had a 17-mile loop left. I heard it was a national caliber one so I was excited about that, but wasn’t feeling too good. I’m a lot more comfortable in the tighter rockier stuff so this is where I dug deep and tried to go to work. I made a pass on Kamo first, and then right after that I got by Jacob. I was right on Pearson, and was just waiting for the right time. Finally we were going down a big hill and I pinned it into the lead, but a couple miles later he got me in the faster whoops (I was struggling in those today). Then I got my chance again in some rocks and got back into the lead. I was trying to pull away until they put us down this really gnarly hill (which was good), but I went the wrong way and had to stop at this 6-foot rock drop-off. There wasn’t enough room to back up, and go the right way and I was nervous to jump off it so I was trying to figure out what to do. At this point Pearson was able to go the right way, and I knew I was going to lose a lot of time if I had to turn around so I just went for it. I pulled it off, but now was back into 2nd. When we got to the bottom of the hill I could see Pearson and I started to pull away from the group and it was going to be a two way battle. I stayed as close as I could, but it was a lot dustier now and I didn’t want to take any chances. I didn’t have a ton of energy in me and figured I’d just ride smart and hope for the best. I finished 2nd and probably around 10-seconds back from the win.

  
 Overall Summary:
 Considering how I felt coming into this race, I’m actually pretty excited to get 2nd. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to do that, and since there were so many of us that close it could’ve went a lot different. There were 6 of us that could’ve won the race. It was a really exciting race and it was a blast to be able to battle with all of them and we kept it clean (which is always nice)! 
   

 Results (overall):
 1st David Pearson
 2nd Destry Abbott
 3rd David Kamo
 4th Jacob Argubright
 5th Kendall Norman
 6th Gary Sutherlin
 7th Ryan Abbatoye
 8th Nick Burson
 9th Justin Imhof
 10th Justin Morrow
 11th Shane Watts
  

 Other Notes:
 Here’s Beau’s video he did of the race. As you can see there was some great racing! Awesome footage Beau! https://promoto.tv/ 
  
 The club did a pretty good job on putting us through some good national caliber terrain, and I applaud them on making it a 3-loop race. I wish more nationals were like that. Wasn’t a big fan of the whoop sections, but I know they want to mix it up a little. I did really enjoy the challenging sections they put us through, and know it takes a lot of man power to put on a race like that. Great job guys!
  
 The racing was insane as far as how close the top 6-guys were (for most of the race). During the second loop the first four of us just beat the train (yes train) where the course went over the tracks. Gary Sutherlin and Jacob Argubright (who were 5th and 6th) had to stop and wait for it to go by before they could continue on! I know it cost Gary some time and a position. That’s a bummer!

 

   
 Coming into this race I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do and just wanted to get as many points as I could. The last week and a half have been torture! I’ve been sicker then I can ever remember and lost close to 10-pounds in that time. I started to feel better, but was definitely lacking energy during the race and was hurting afterwards. Luckily it worked out and I’m still right there for the championship!
     
 I’m giving away a set of gear (the one-off stuff I used in Portugal’s ISDE) I posted info on my message board this week, so be sure to check it out. Thanks to everyone that checks it out! https://destryabbott.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2017
     
 I’m tied for the championship lead with David Kamo. Considering how things went, the first two rounds, I really can’t complain. We still have seven rounds left and I usually get stronger as the series goes on.
  
 On Friday we went out trail riding, but then Jonny (my mechanic) hit a hidden rock and broke his little toe. It actually blew apart and he was feeling some pain. He still did a great job this weekend and got plenty of sympathy from everyone J
     
 It was cool to see Shane Watts come back out and race a H&H again. He raced a 150 KTM, so I heard Ty Davis decided to bring his 125 Husky and race too. I’m sure they had some great racing until Ty’s silencer broke.

 

     
 We stayed up in Ransburg, which is a small town south of the race. What an awesome place and I have to thank Goat for taking care of us!
  
 Luckily I have this weekend off and then I’ll have round 2 of the WORCS series in Primm, Nevada. 
  
 I posted a photo from the race (thanks to Mark Kariya, Beau, knucklehead, and a few other guys for the photos).
  
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