K
ailub Russell (FMF/KTM)
edged out Josh Strang (Team
Babbitt's Online/Monster En-
ergy/Kawasaki Team Green) for
the overall win at round two of the
2020 Kenda Full Gas Sprint En-
duro Series in Glen Daniel, West
Virginia. After two days of compe-
tition, Russell nipped Strang by
just 2.5 seconds.
Russell was, however, far from
perfect over the two days of
racing but still managed to stay
ahead of Strang when it was all
over.
"It was pretty up and down, re-
ally," Russell said. "On Saturday
I couldn't keep it off the ground.
I crashed twice in the first two
tests and I still won them. Each
one was by less than a second.
Luckily, I was still in the fight
there. The woods are iffy and not
my favorite. I had a three-second
lead going into the last test, and
I threw it away. That really kind of
pissed me off."
As a result, Strang was the
leader after the first day of racing.
He held a five-second cushion
going into day two, but it proved
not to be enough. Strang actu-
ally stretched out his lead a bit
Sunday morning when Russell's
bike stalled twice in the first test.
"This morning I felt like I really
should have got that time back
and won the first test, but I had
a little bike malfunction," said
Russell. "So yesterday when I
crashed, we were thinking I dam-
aged my kill switch because my
bike shut off on me twice in the
very first test today. That's the
only thing we could think of was
the wires were shorting out. But it
did it twice and I only lost by four
seconds. I was pretty happy with
that because, like I said, the first
time it did it, it took me three or
four seconds right there just to
get it to re-fire."
Russell used the following
Enduro test, the same test he
fell on Saturday, to take out his
frustrations and ended up being
10 seconds quicker than anyone
else, which ultimately gave Rus-
sell the overall win.
"I just rode that first woods test
today real pissed off," Russell
said. "I knew I was better than
that. I got all the time back in the
lead in the one test. I won by 10
seconds. I just hung it out. It was
actually better that I had some-
IN
THE
WIND
P30
Russell Wins
Glen Daniel
Kenda Full Gas
Sprint Enduro
Kailub Russell squeaked past Josh Strang to win the
Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro, held on the Hidden
Valley Golf Course in West Virginia. PHOTOS: SHAN MOORE
