VOL. 51 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 28, 2014 P73
"It's frustrating because I have
two completely different injuries
going on in each of my wrists,"
Mullins explained. "My right wrist
just locks up to where I can't
move it at all and the left one has
extremely sharp pain."
With a little more breathing
room, Sipes continued to push
forward but the Kentucky na-
tive was soon joined by a hard-
charging battle between Strang
and JCR Honda/Rockstar Ener-
gy's Chris Bach. That battle was
short-lived for Bach, unfortunate-
ly, when he landed hard in a ditch
and experienced an unfortunate
mechanical issue that took him
out of the running. From there,
it was a head-to-head battle be-
tween the former Supercross
racer Sipes and the 2010 GNCC
National Champion Strang for
second place.
The duo swapped positions
several times in the closing laps,
and heading into the final lap as
they approached the infamous
Ironman Hill and Twin Hill ob-
stacles. Sipes chose the main
line through the center of the
hill climb, which is typically the
fastest, but this time there was
too much chaos and Sipes was
forced to ride back down the hill
for a second attempt.
"I messed up on both hills and
I had to go all the way to the bot-
tom so I probably lost 30 sec-
onds on Josh right there," Sipes
said.
Strang capitalized on Sipes'
mistakes on the hill climbs as he
solidified the second place posi-
tion but Sipes didn't give up as he
charged all the way to the finish,
coming to within 6 seconds of
Strang by the finish to capture his
first career GNCC podium.
"That's something I couldn't do
Briefly...
KTM Support rider Grant Baylor
made the jump into the XC1 Pro class
after wrapping up his second straight
XC2 title early. Riding a 450 for the
first time in the GNCC series, 17-year-
old Baylor finished ninth in XC1 and
tenth overall. "The 450 was good but
I still think I need to put more time
in on the bike. It's completely dif-
ferent starting in XC1 just from the
little amount I rode with those guys,"
Baylor said. "It seemed way more in-
tense, it was an all-out battle from the
start and nothing like XC2 but I think
it helped a lot going into next year. I
can't wait to come back in 2015 and
show them what I've got!"
Factory FMF/KTM's Kacy Marti-
nez wrapped up the WXC Champi-
onship earlier in the season so she
decided to try her hand in the 3-hour
afternoon race at the season finale.
Martinez lined up with a highly com-
petitive 4-Stroke A Lites class, where
she finished only two minutes behind
the class leader in 15th place.
