VOLUME 57 ISSUE 20 MAY 19, 2020 P41
Using safety measures set by the
GNCC's Safe-to-Race Task Force, the
Grand National Cross-Country Series
(GNCC) pulled off the Bulldog GNCC
at Aonia Pass near Washington, Geor-
gia with great success and with rider
and spectator safety at the forefront.
Also successful, as usual, was
Kailub Russell, who won the XC1
class, giving the FMF/KTM Factory
Racer his 64th XC1 win, the seven-
time champ had to work hard for it,
trading the lead a couple of times with
Coastal Racing Husqvarna's Ricky
Russell on the final lap, before the two
made contact, leaving Ricky on the
ground with an injured leg.
Kailub made it to the finish with a
four-second-plus margin ahead of
Babbitt's Online/Monster Energy/
Team Green Kawasaki's Josh Strang.
The last time the series visited this
venue in mid-March (the last round),
Kailub had to make a last-turn pass on
Sherco USA's Steward Baylor to keep
his clean record intact, and after this
weekend's race, he is now a perfect
four for four in GNCC competition in
2020.
"It was a tough day," said Kailub. "It
was and it wasn't. It was pretty relaxed
out front there the first three-quarters
of the race. I got the holeshot and led
pretty much the whole first five laps.
But then I got held up just a little bit
behind some lappers, and those guys
sucked right up to me going into the
last lap. Ricky [Russell] was riding
really good.
"I ran into some hydration issues.
I left my water pack at the house and
didn't have it. I thought I would be
okay because we had a pretty good
