BY JEN KENYON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN HILL
T
he 2014 AMSOIL Grand
National Cross Country
Series wrapped up its
13-race championship in Craw-
fordsville, Indiana on Sunday
with the legendary Ironman
GNCC. While it recently be-
came the newest stop on the
Pro Motocross Championship
tour, the newly coined Ironman
Raceway has been a significant
part of off-road racing history
for 20 years, as the event cel-
ebrated two decades of GNCC
Racing in 2014.
Nearly perfect weather con-
ditions surrounded the newly
renovated Ironman Raceway
motocross facility where 2,275
riders showed up to compete
over the course of two days. Tal-
lying approximately 200 more
riders than the record-breaking
Unadilla GNCC saw earlier this
year, the 2014 AMSOIL Iron-
man GNCC posted the highest
rider count that GNCC has ever
seen.
Factory FMF/KTM's Kailub
Russell topped off a champion-
ship-winning season at the Iron-
man finale by powering a 150cc
two-stroke into the center of the
XC1 Pro podium. In XC2 Pro
Lites action, KR4/Arrive-N-
Ride/KTM's Nick Davis secured
his career-first XC2 victory.
RUSSELL'S ALMIGHTY
150CC TWO-STROKE
After wrapping up the champi-
onship two rounds early, Rus-
sell made the decision to race
the final two rounds aboard a
KTM 150 XC before raffling it off
at the season finale to help ben-
efit the recovery of GNCC racer
Rory Mead in his spinal cord
rehabilitation process. Most
VOL. 51 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 28, 2014 P69
Briefly...
Kailub Russell, through the help of
Factory FMF/KTM, Shane Watts and
the entire off-road racing community,
was able to raise over $50,000 in
the highly publicized KTM 150 XC
raffle. Proceeds go toward Russell's
race effort at the upcoming ISDE, but
he announced at the race that he will
donate half of the money to his good
friend Rory Mead, who was injured
at the Steele Creek GNCC. Rory
drove his side-by-side machine onto
the podium at the Ironman, where he
drew the name of Ohio native Jesse
Branson, the lucky winner of the now
historic bike. Rory made a heartfelt
speech on the podium, thanking ev-
eryone for their support. "I've been
through hell the last 6 months and to
be able to do this again, coming out
here and even standing on the po-
dium it's just awesome," Rory said.
"It's great, I really appreciate Kailub
including me in his fundraiser and
I'm glad Jesse won the 150 because
he's at the track, he's from Ohio and
he was running around the track all
morning, which is cool. I think it's
awesome that everyone gets behind
it to help Kailub get to Six Days and
for my rehab, so thank you to every-
one. I'm pretty pumped."
World Enduro Champion Alex Salvi-
ni teamed up with Johnny Campbell
and the JCR Honda team to com-
pete in the final round of GNCC. The
Italian native struggled with a few big
crashes early on, and went on to fin-
ish 13th in XC1. Salvini said he plans
to make a return to GNCC now that
he's been through one round and
has a better idea of what to expect.
JCR Honda also brought over Ice-
landic Enduro and Motocross
Champion Kari Jonsson who also
continued on next page
RUSSELL
ICES
THE CAKE
KALIUB RUSSELL TASTES
VICTORY ABOARD A 150CC TWO-
STROKE AT 2014 GNCC FINALE
