The second round of the 2016 KENDA Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series presented by Moose Racing took place at the home of the Alligator Enduro in Bunnell, FL, infamous for its seemingly bottomless black sand, the racers were faced with two challenging special tests during the two-day event.
Racing began on the 2-mile cross test with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Josh Strang jumping out to the test win ahead of fellow Australian, and round one winner, N-Fab AmPro Yamaha’s Daniel Milner by just half a second. FMF KTM’s Russell Bobbitt finished the test in 3rd, and Thad DuVall, who finished 2nd-overall at round one placed 4th in the test but dropped 8-seconds to Strang.
The second test of the day was on the 3.5-mile enduro test and it was Milner who posted a blazing 6:53.521 test time through the pines, palmettos, and tricky bog sections, over 6-seconds ahead of test one winner Strang. Milner’s win in that test gave him the overall lead that he would hold for the remainder of the two days of racing.
Milner would go on to win the 3rd test of the day, the riders second lap on the cross test, by 5-seconds over Strang and increasing his lead to over 10-seconds. DuVall would rebound from a disastrous 2nd test that saw him drop 12-seconds to Milner with a 3rd-place finish in the cross test.
FMF KTM’s Russell Bobbitt would keep himself in the mix with a win in the 4th test of the day, the 2nd lap of the enduro test. Strang and Milner kept their consistent day going with 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the test, with RPM/KTM’s Evan Smith putting in his best ride of the day to finish 4th.
As the soft sand began to deteriorate and bog holes claimed some amateur riders, line selection became of the utmost importance and the 5th and 6th tests of the day would set the tone for the remainder of the event with Milner taking the cross test win ahead of Strang, and Duvall taking the final win of the day, and his first test win of the event, in the enduro test to secure 3rd-place for the day.
In the Women’s Pro class Mackenzie Tricker, round one winner, swept the first four tests of the day before Red Bull’s Tarah Gieger was able to claim the final cross test win. Tricker would rebound in the final enduro test to get her 5th test win of the day and head into the second day of racing with a 16-second cushion over Gieger. Ashley Copeland was 3rd followed by Brooke Cosner and Sarah Baldwin.
Daniel Milner started the second day of racing looking to pad his 11-second lead and put himself in a position to claim his second consecutive overall win of the season and he did just that by taking the cross test win by 5-seconds over Strang. Russell Bobbitt was another second back in 3rd with DuVall just a few tenths behind him in 4th.
DuVall would pick up in the enduro test where he left off on Wednesday by taking the win ahead of Milner, Strang, and Bobbitt. The FAR KR4 Performance rider would go on to sweep the enduro tests for day two with Strang finishing 2nd in the final two enduro tests keeping DuVall honest in those tests.
Daniel Milner whose ISDE experience shined in the European-style cross test went on to win the remaining two attempts on the grass track, making a clean sweep of cross test wins for the day. Fellow Aussie and ISDE veteran, Josh Strang, finished second in all of the cross tests on the day and while he didn’t win any tests on day two, he would ultimately finish second overall for the day behind Milner and ahead of DuVall with his three test wins.
At the end of the two days of racing Milner’s lead stretched to nearly 15-seconds ahead of Strang with DuVall another 17-seconds back. FMF KTM’s Russell Bobbitt would secure 4th-place for the event with SRT Off-Road’s Cory Buttrick rounding out the top-five.
Continuing the trend of Aussies on top, Mackenzie Tricker would sweep all six tests in the Women’s Pro class to take the overall win. Ride MPS / Bonzi Racing’s Brooke Cosner would finish 2nd for the day to work her way up to 3rd-place overall. Red Bull’s Tarah Gieger was 3rd fastest on the day and would finish the event in 2nd-place. Ashley Copeland, 3rd-place after the first day of racing, would experience a mechanical and DNF on day two. Sarah Baldwin and Mandi Mastin would round out the top-five.
The Top Amateur for the event was Argentinian Luciano Benavides, who took the win in the Open A class at round one and again at round two. Benavides has been in the United States training with Mike Brown and is planning to return from Argentina to compete in the remainder of the FGSE events in 2016.
The youth overall went to Silas Powers who took the Supermini 12-15 win.
The 2016 KENDA Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series presented by Moose Racing continues racing on April 23-24 in Romney, WV for the Ride-On Moto presented round of the series, which will also act as the East Coast AMA ISDE Qualifier. Registration for the event will open on March 15th on LiveLaps.com.
- Daniel Milner – 1:06:26.731 – Yamaha
- Josh Strang – 1:06:41.241 – Husqvarna
- Thad DuVall – 1:06:58.663 – Husqvarna
- Russell Bobbitt – 1:07:23.929 – KTM
- Cory Buttrick – 1:07:46.192 – KTM
- Drew Higgins – 1:07:54.027 – KTM
- Evan Smith – 1:07:58.605 – KTM
- Garrett Edmisten – 1:08:29.856 – Yamaha
- Jordan Ashburn – 1:08:31.780 – KTM
- Jason Klammer – 1:09:35.576 – KTM
