VOLUME 57 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 P33
with Ben Kelley and Phoenix
Honda's Andrew Delong running
second and third.
Russell took himself out of con-
tention early on when he slid off
the trail halfway into the lap.
"I just kind of went wide in a
turn, and I got hung up in a tree,"
said Russell. "It was bent over, so
I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't
go to the left. There was a ditch
to my left. I couldn't get back on
the track, so I had to get off my
bike and pull it back. By that time,
I was in last."
Kelley was next in line, and the
smooth-riding speedster made a
break for it, although he couldn't
shake Baylor, who was riding like
he was on a mission.
Baylor and Kelley pulled each
other along until they had built
a two-minute gap over the next
group, which included Russell,
AmPro Yamaha's Layne Michael,
FactoryONE Sherco's Grant Bay-
lor, and FMF/KTM's Josh Toth,
who would later drop out when
he aggravated a leg injury he suf-
fered in practice the week before.
In the XC2 ranks, Trail Jest-
ers Racing KTM's Johnny Girroir
broke away early from a four-way
battle with Tely Energy Racing's
Liam Draper, AmPro Yamaha's
Mike Witkowski and Rockstar
Energy Husqvarna's Craig Delong
to take a strong early lead over
the group. At one point, Girroir
moved into third in the overall
standings, but crashes and dehy-
dration late in the race kept him
from maintaining that position.
Up front, Kelley moved to
within a second of Baylor, but
he too struggled with crashes,
and Baylor took the win by over a
minute ahead of Kelley.
Russell rounded out the po-
dium in third.
Grant Baylor came out on top
of a wild battle with Babbitt's
Online/Monster Energy/Team
Green Kawasaki's Jordan Ash-
burn, with Grant taking fourth less
Johnny Girroir was the top XC2
Pro-class rider in seventh overall.
