Nick Burson leads a group of lapped riders into the finish in his second victory of the season to date which vaulted him past Travis Coy, who was third on the day, to second in points. Photography by Mark Kariya
Purvines Racing Beta’s Nick Burson kicked off the second half of the Kenda/SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles Championship Series by dominating the Silver State Trail Blazers’ Sawmill Run presented by Purvines Racing, round five of the eight-race tour.
It marked his second win of the season—the first rider to achieve that distinction—but SRT Off-road KTM’s Cory Graffunder held on to the series points lead thanks to his runner-up finish. Unofficially, Graffunder now has 122 while Burson’s 30-point haul moves him into second with 111. FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM’s Travis Coy finished the day third, dropping to third in points with 105.
Race day included five separate races, starting with a 30-minute Pee Wee competition and ending with the two-and-a-half-hour main event for Pros, A’s and B’s. The Silver State Trail Blazers came up with a course nearly 15 miles long that included a good mix of challenges for the final, with a desert feel. However, rain and even snow in the weeks leading up to the race made for conditions that, for the most part, were far less dusty and desert-y than one might normally expect.
When the green flag waved, Alex Dorsey sprinted down the short start straight and into the lead aboard his Six Five O Racing KTM, though he wasn’t able to hold off the hard-charging Graffunder.
“I passed for the lead in one of the first sand washes; I was trying to check out as much as I could,” TBT Racing/Kenda KTM 300 XC-mounted Graffunder shared.
“By the end of the first lap, I could see Burson behind me. I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do, pit-wise. As I was going out on the start of my second lap, I’m trying to calculate if I can make three or if I can do two or whatever, and I know he can usually go a little bit more than me.”
Graffunder decided to err on the side of caution and pitted after two laps.
That was all that Burson and his FMF/Precision Concepts 430 RR needed—and it decided the race.
“We’d already planned to go three laps and I didn’t know if he could,” Burson said. “I saw him pull into the pits because I was one second behind him, I think, so I got the lead and I just tried to pin it that lap and put down a really fast lap.
“When I pitted, I looked back and didn’t see him anywhere so I just rode out from there.”
Once out front, Burson was untouchable and enjoyed a pace that pulled him away with each lap. Graffunder needed one more pit stop, of course, and had to settle for second. “After seeing how fast Burson was, I couldn’t run that pace,” he admitted.
After getting into third place early aboard his Bonanza Plumbing KTM 450 XC-F, Coy spent most of his race battling with Burson’s teammate Axel Pearson. “We went at it for a couple laps and he made a mistake the last lap and I was able to come out on top,” Coy reported.
Nevada’s Justin Wallis came back from a first-turn crash to take fifth overall followed by Steven Godman, Ryan Smith, Dorsey, FMF 250cc Pro winner Joey Fiasconaro and Open A winner Taylor Stevens.
Looking back at how he predicted this season, Burson observed, “I kind of planned it out, which ones I needed to win. We have two more desert ones and one more tree one so I’ve got to limit the damage at the next tree one then try to win the final two and hopefully someone gets in between us.”
He knows it won’t be easy, though: “Cory’s good all-around.”
Results:
1. Nick Burson (Bet)
2. Cory Graffunder (KTM)
3. Travis Coy (KTM)
4. Axel Pearson (Bet)
5. Justin Wallis
6. Steven Godman
7. Ryan Smith
8. Alex Dorsey
9. Joey Fiasconaro
10. Taylor Stevens
