Taylor Robert

Taylor Robert had his win streak come to an end at the penultimate round of the AMA National Hare & Hound Championship in Lucerne after he battled through a course thick with dust and void of wind to finish second place on the day.

The Arizona native went into this weekend’s event looking to extend the race to the championship as long as possible. After an early season injury forced Robert to miss rounds two and three, he’s been playing catch-up all season. After moving into third place in the points standings in round seven, and winning three races in-a-row to get there, Robert saw his chances of a come-from-behind championship dwindle nearly from the start in Lucerne 

Off the start, Robert was too eager with the throttle before hitting his electric starter, causing his bike to hesitate. By then, it was too late as the entire row of racers headed towards the end of the bomb run. Robert, conceding 10 seconds instantly, soon saw himself behind a wall of dust that simply wasn’t moving. He fired his bike again quickly, but as he tried to gain ground he just couldn’t see—coming to a near stop at one point before abandoning his prepped line of choice and simply heading to the far edges of the racecourse to find clean air. Here, he put on a charge, passing all but the top-five racers in the first two miles.

Once Robert settled into the top five, he couldn’t break the dust barrier of the top runners as easily and had to put in serious efforts to move forward in the more technical second loop. At this point, he was sitting in fourth, two minutes behind race and championship-points leader, Gary Sutherlin. At the end of the second loop, Robert made two more passes on front-runners, putting him into second only 1.5 minutes back. On the third and most-technical loop, Robert’s momentum would fade and, after a few mistakes and minor crashes, he would finish 3.5 minutes behind Sutherlin at the checkered flag. 

Robert: “I didn’t do myself any favors at the start. Lucerne is so gnarly as it is, but when you put yourself behind the wall of dust and there’s no wind, it is just brutal. I got a little throttle happy on the line and cracked it open before the bike fired. That gave everyone else a ten-second head start. It was really bad because I spent about an hour scouting and working on a great line for the start that I couldn’t use, at all. The dust was insanely thick. For how bad it was, it actually worked out pretty well because I passed so many guys in that first mile and sat in fifth or so really soon. The guys out front were much harder to catch and pass through their dust. As I did, I got into some pretty technical situations with some rocks and ditches. I rode the first loop as fast as I could and on the second loop I put in a really big effort to close some gaps. It was a lot tighter and I worked hard to get within a minute-and-a-half of Gary. I pushed so hard on that loop, I don’t think I left much energy in my tank for the third loop.” 

Robert finished second on the day and moved up one more spot to second in the Championship. Sutherlin cinched the championship with his race win.

Next Race: Round 9 – Barstow, California – November 12, 2017

Overall Results

1. Gary Sutherlin YAM (Champion) 
2. Taylor Robert KTM
3. Nick Burson YAM
4. Axel Pearson YAM
5. Justin Morgan HON 

Women 

1. Brandy Richards KTM
2. Kacy Martinez KTM (Champion)
3. Britney Gallegos

Overall Championship Standings 

1. Gary Sutherlin (194 - Champion) 
2. Taylor Robert (154)
3. Axel Pearson (140)
4. Ricky Brabec (131)
5. Justin Morgan (123) 

Women’s Class Championship Standings 

1. Kacy Martinez (191)
2. Britney Gallegos (173)
3. Stephanie Woolslayer (126)