honest," admitted Ashburn. "I
couldn't really get a flow going,
so I just kind of tried to settle
in and ride my own race. Just
salvaged what we could today.
Some days just aren't your day,
and I feel like that was today."
Coastal Racing GasGas'
Johnny Girroir claimed his
second win in a row in the XC2
250 Pro division with a seventh
overall finish. Girroir battled with
AmPro Yamaha's Mike Witkowski
until Witkowski went down with
two laps to go.
"After Mike went down and I
saw my opportunity to kind of
gap him a little bit, so I kind of
just rode smooth to the end of
the race," said Girroir.
Defending champion XC2
250 Pro class Craig DeLong
turned in a steady ride to put his
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna into
eighth overall and second in the
XC2 250 Pro.
Babbitt's Online/Monster
Energy/Kawasaki Team Green's
Josh Strang battled with Steward
Baylor on the first lap and ran
in second for much of the first
half of the race, but tangled with
Kelley on the trail. The incident
snapped Strang's front brake
line, which slowed the Kawi rider
considerably, and he limped in
for ninth overall.
Making his first appearance of
the season in the top 10, Phoe-
nix Honda Racing's Cody Barnes
was third in the XC2 250 Pro
class with 10th overall.
Magna1 Motorsports/Husqvar-
na's Jonathan Johnson claimed
his third win in a row in the FMF
XC3 125cc Pro-Am class, beat-
ing out Yamaha's Chase Colville.
Multi-time National Enduro
Champ Russell Bobbitt
climbed aboard a 125
Husqvarna to finish third in
the class. "I don't think I've
done a GNCC since 2018 or
so," said Bobbitt. "I became
eligible for the class and I
was like, I'm going to race
my hometown race. I just
decided to give her a go, get
back on the two-stroke and
just go hang it out there. Re-
ally good battles out there.
Just riding different lines
than what I do on the big
bikes. It was a blast."
AmPro Yamaha's Rachael
Archer avenged her loss last
week to BABS Racing Yama-
ha/Fly/Maxxis/Pro Circuit's
Becca Sheets by claiming
her second WXC Pro Women's
division win of the season.
Babbitt's Online/Monster
Energy/Kawasaki Team Green's
Korie Steede turned in a stellar
ride to finish third ahead of Fac-
tory Beta USA's Rachel Gutish
and Rockstar Energy Husqvar-
na's Tayla Jones.
Shan Moore
OVERALL
1. Steward Baylor (Yam)
2. Ben Kelley (KTM)
3. Josh Toth (KTM)
4. Grant Baylor (GG)
5. Ricky Russell (GG)
6. Jordan Ashburn (Hus)
7. Johnny Girroir (GG) XC2
8. Craig DeLong (Hus) XC2
9. Josh Strang (Kaw)
10. Cody Barnes (Hon)
IN
THE
WIND
P44
Rachael Archer got back
to her winning ways in the
Women's class.
