VOLUME 57 ISSUE 22 JUNE 2, 2020 P39
lead on the following lap when
Strang pitted for fuel. On the
next lap, it was Russell's time to
pit, and Strang used that oppor-
tunity to re-take the lead.
"I knew I'd have to gas the
next lap, but I was able to get a
good enough gap where I came
out again in front," said Strang.
"I think there were parts of the
track where he was faster and
parts where I was a little bit
quicker. He ended up catching
me, but because he gassed so
early, he had to gas again. So,
once he gassed again, I tried
to go again, but he caught me
again going into the last lap.
With half a lap to go, I had eight
seconds on him, which I didn't
think was going to be enough,
but then he crashed."
Russell was icing down his an-
kle after the race. "Josh was rid-
ing really good," said Russell. "I
couldn't make up a lot of time on
him. I had a couple spots where
I would kind of reel in on him
because I was really flowing in
the rutty stuff. I had a spot picked
out where I made the pass the
lap before and it was really hard
to see, so I didn't know if he
would find the line. I was trying to
stay right on him so when we got
there I could make the pass.
"I was pushing hard, and we
come out of the woods, then
we turned left onto a road at the
bottom. The berm, I got in the
fluff and my bars knifed, and I
endoed over the bars and there
was a fence on my right-hand
side. It threw me into the fence.
My bike almost flipped over it. I
hit it so hard, my chest was stuck
between the post and the mesh
fence. My bike was on my head,
spinning. It was the craziest,
scariest crash I've ever had."
Grant Baylor put his Factory-
ONE Sherco on the podium with
a third. As usual, the South Caro-
linian had to come from outside
the top-10 to get the job done. It
was Baylor's first GNCC podium
on the Sherco.
"I may have been a little over
a minute behind the lead group
there at one point," said Baylor.
"But once I started putting my
head down on about lap three, I
started getting pit boards saying
I was a minute off of the podium.
So I put my head down there and
put in a good charge mid-race
and was able to get around Layne
(Michael) and FMF/KTM's Josh
Toth on the next-to-last lap there
to move my way into third."
Strang's teammate Jordan
Ashburn finished fourth.
Trail Jesters KTM Racing's
Johnny Girroir turned in one of
his best performances of the year
with a fifth overall finish, which
was also good enough for first in
the XC2 250 Pro class. Girroir
led six of his eight laps in the XC2
class, and with his win, he moved
into first in the class standings.
"I think I was more comfortable
than most in the fast, sketchy
straights," said Girroir. "There
was a lot of chop and square-
edged bumps and it was scary,
Johnny Girror
topped the XC2
class in fifth
overall. He's also
the new class
points leader.
