Heavy rainfall came down on Friday night, making for treacherous conditions in some of the shaded woods sections of Sunday Creek Raceway. As a result, riders experienced many different soil conditions throughout the 11.5-mile course, including dry and dusty, deep and slick ruts, as well as sloppy mud sections with the hottest temperatures of the season. These factors all came into play as the tight-knit race came down to its final moments before the checkered flag.

DuVall got off to a great start aboard the FC 450 as he rounded the opening lap in third. By lap two, DuVall had made his way into the lead position where he set his sights on creating a gap over the rest of the field. DuVall swapped the early lead several times with Kailub Russell and by the halfway point he had put a sizeable lead over Russell. Just after the halfway point, his teammate, Bollinger, catapulted himself into the lead, and DuVall dropped back to third for a brief time. It wasn’t long before DuVall reclaimed the top position and he led the freight train into the final lap. As the only front-runner needing to pit, DuVall came in for a quick splash of gas and Russell was able to take over the lead from there. With about two miles to go, DuVall capitalized on Russell’s misfortune as he powered his way past a bottle-necked Russell and into the lead to ultimately secure the win by about 15 seconds.

Thad DuVall: “The track was actually a little bit gnarlier than I anticipated, I thought it would be better dirt conditions-wise but it got super rutty and just made for a long day. I can’t believe I won this race two years in a row and to do it front of all my fans is crazy. The whole-time people were screaming out there, it’s unreal. I love this race and to beat Kailub at his home farm is pretty cool.”