IN
THE
WIND
P40
RUSSELL CELEBRATES 25
TH
CAREER WIN
T
he 16th running of the FMF
Steele Creek GNCC took
place on Sunday at the beauti-
ful Steele Creek Campground,
where Kailub Russell saw his
third straight victory of the 2015
AMSOIL Grand National Cross
Country Series. Russell extend-
ed his points lead in the XC1 Pro
class to earn his 25th career win
in front of a hometown crowd in
Morganton, North Carolina.
N-Fab AmPro Yamaha's Jordan
Ashburn put himself into the early
lead after grabbing the $250 All
Balls Racing Holeshot Award, but
Russell quickly made his way to
the front on the opening lap. The
two-time GNCC National Cham-
pion created a gap on the rest of
the field early on, leaving the field
behind him to once again battle
for second place.
AirGroup/Rockstar Energy/
Husqvarna's Ryan Sipes jumped
into second on the opening lap,
with Ashburn and his AmPro
teammate Daniel Milner right in
the mix. Rocky Mountain ATV/
MC KR4/FAR's Thad DuVall also
put himself into a favorable posi-
tion off the start, positioning his
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KR4/
FAR Husqvarna with the front-
runners early on to engage in a
battle for the podium.
Eventual second-place finisher
Josh Strang had another consis-
tent performance, but definitely
had his work cut out for him after
getting tangled with another rider
just after the start. The Rockstar
Energy Husqvarna Factory Racer
got knocked to the back of the
pack, but set to work making his
way back up through it.
JCR Honda's Chris Bach
made an early run for the
podium, but it was DuVall who
surpassed both him and Ash-
burn to take over second place
as the race neared its halfway
mark. Strang had successfully
navigated his way through the
pack by that point, and joined
DuVall in what turned out to be
an exciting battle between the
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEN
HILL
FMF/KTM rider
Kailub Russell is
on a roll—having
dominated three
consecutive rounds
of the GNCC Series
in as many races.
