Trail Rider Magazine

38 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com flawlessly throughout the day. After another eight hours and six tests I was finished and in one piece and happy to be done. Josh Toth: As soon as we arrived at the scenic farm that the 2 day quali- fier was held at I was very excited to see there was a beautiful 3 mile grass that was freshly mowed and was still untouched by a bike. I was very anxious to rip my new 125 around it the following day but a faulty aftermarket light kit I put on earlier in the week made the bike die in the "jetting area" just hours before impound. After having the whole team wrench on the bike for hours and having no luck getting it to spark I had no choice but to switch classes from E1 to E2 and race a bike I have never sat on before. After riding the Husaberg FE350 around for about twenty minutes I had to go through tech inspection and put it into impound and hope I could adapt in the first special test the following day. The morning of the first day we all headed down to the impound area to get our bikes that were outside all night. We only had one minute to warm up our bikes and start the first special test - the 3 mile grass track. I started on row three so the grass track was very slippery with no dirt showing and morning dew not helping either. I felt fast throughout the test passing riders that started in 15 sec- ond intervals ahead of me until the rear wheel came out from underneath me and I highsided off the bike. The bike was hard to get used to but after many hard wipeouts I learned the suspensions limitations the hard way. In my worst crash I hit something hidden in the grass of a special test which sent me cart-wheeling with the bike 3 or four times and ended up landing on my back exploding my Camelbak bladder. Somehow my watch came off in one of the impacts. After the 120 miles was done of day one I felt great and was feeling better on the bike and excited to start the next day. As day two started I had a much better idea of how the racing format is and was getting more and more comfort- able on the FE350 each mile. After just filling up with gas, lubing the chain, switching air filters and giving the bike an check over I headed off to the first test where I rode much better than the day before. I continued to improve throughout the day and stayed in the top five overall in every test. I only had one bad mistake in a test throughout the day and overall felt good about how I rode. More im- portantly I stayed off the ground. At the end of the two days and 240 miles I finished 3rd in E2 and 5th overall. In the next few days after the race, the guys waited to hear from the AMA to see if they would be asked to be a part of Team USA. They reflected on what they had learned and how prepared they were for the challenges and requirements the six days would place on them. Then the calls came. In the end, Ben Kelley and John Kel- ley learned that they are going to Argentina as members of Team USA! As a side note I must say how bad I feel for Josh Toth. His results for the 2 day Qualifier were superb taking 5th overall on a borrowed bike. But since he was 3rd in class, and the two riders above him accepted, Josh will have to wait for another time to make Team USA. The talented 16 year old took things in stride and is now focused on finishing the NETRA season strong. Ben and John are now in full preparation mode for ISDE 2014. They have a lot to do in the next 18 weeks. Bike prepara- tion and timed maintenance are very im- portant for being ready to run for a Gold Medal at the six days. For instance, a rider must be able to change both tires and their air filter in under 10 minutes! ISDE veteran Billy Burns has been freely lending his advice and tips as part of this preparation. I hope you all will be root- ing for our New England guys this No- vember in Argentina. Josh Toth rode the wheels off a loaner Huasberg FE 350 and sll finished 5th O/A.

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