Factory Beta's Jordan Ashburn threw down some solid times at this past weekend's opening round of the Full Gas Sprint Enduro held in Gaston, South Carolina. Ashburn finished on the podium in third beating out fourth by a mere 2 seconds. Teammates Drew Smith and Nick Davis also raced the series finishing 13th and 16th respectively in what was a stacked field of talent.
Ashburn describes his race, "Day one was a little bit of a struggle from the first test. But after that we started getting the ball rolling a little bit with some top fives. At the end of day one I found myself sitting around one hundredth of a second behind fourth Place. Day two was a good day for learning. I came out strong and determined to try and make some ground up. I was able to make up 17 seconds on Russel Bobbitt and round out third on the podium. I feel we made some good changes this weekend and learned a lot. Thank you to my team for all the support."
Drew Higgins used the race as cross training for his National Enduro series. The Sprint Enduro formats force riders to be at 100% from the start as each special test may only last a few minutes and the racers are divided by very close margins. Higgins improved his times as the weekend went on and had this to say about the event, "The weekend for me was a good step in the right direction, I felt like I made improvements in every test. I started out Saturday a little slow, but found my groove towards the end of the day. Sunday was much better, my bike was working awesome all day and I felt like I was being smoother. I have a little bit more speed to find, but I know what I need to work on for the next round. Looking forward to doing suspension testing next week as I think that will help my confidence a lot. It was a great weekend with the team, and I think we all know what we can do to be better and get Beta on the podium."
Nick Davis struggled early on in the tests, however began to regain his speed finishing strong at the end. The GNCC XC2 racer picked up the pace as the days went on.
"I had a decent weekend. Struggled a little with the sprint pace, these boys are fast and with me never doing these races before I was a little off pace. I can't thank Rodney Smith and Zack Huberty enough for all they did and helped me so much with advice and over seeing my bike. I will be ready and stronger for the next one. I can't wait!" Davis explains.
Out in the West, Beta racer Joe Wasson had a day he would rather forget. Racing Round two of the National Hare & Hound Championship in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Wasson was primed and ready for the event however a bad fall at the beginning of the race forced Wasson into looking for help on the course with a broken arm and a severely dislocated hand. Wasson was transported to El Paso, Texas where he received surgery on his arm and hand and is recovering. Wasson will be out of action for an undetermined amount of time waiting for his arm and hand to fully recover.
Team Manager Tim Pilg had this to say about the weekend, "I was very excited about the weekend until I got the call from my team mechanic Kevin Spina that Joe was in a bad crash and had to get medical attention. Joe is a great pleasure to work with! I have informed our team that we will wait for his recovery and let him come back when he is ready."
Next on the Factory Team's schedule is round two of the National West Hare Scramble championship in Coalinga, California where Max Gerston will try to pull off a win at the technical event. Justin Wallis will compete at round 3 of the WORCS series held in Taft, California. Both of these events will be interesting as the forecast is rain all weekend in the area.
Photo by Shan Moore