ROUND 10 / SEPTEMBER 17, 2023
BECKLEY, WEST VIRGINIA
OFF-ROAD I GRAND NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
P88
two laps, Russell finished third.
"This was a wild adventure,"
said Russell. "I got off to a
decent start and was able to
kind of pick my way through.
There were a lot of places to
make mistakes, so I was being
patient. Then, before I knew it,
I was in the lead. Just like last
year, I was kind of managing
my race, and then, like last year,
with two laps to go, I started
making mistakes. I got stuck
hesitated on my pass. I should
have just stuck with it. After
that, I was taking a lot of roost,
and I had to ditch my goggles
and that was it."
Ricky Russell jumped into the
physical lead as soon as the
XC1 class hit the woods for the
first time. The AmPro Yamaha
rider led most of the first lap,
taking advantage of clean vi
-
sion. After dropping to third and
then having trouble on the final
and I knew it was going to be a
battle to the end," DeLong said.
"When we got to the pit stop,
it got to be Stew and I battling
for the lead. We went back and
forth so many times. He'd go
to one side of the track, and I'd
go to the other, and it just de
-
pended on which line was better,
who came out with the lead. I
got kind of a run on him on the
last lap and got right up on him
on a long straight, and I kind of
Beta's Jonathan
Johnson captured
his first career win
when he topped
the XC2 class in
seventh overall.
