VOL. 52 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 6, 2015 P23
Baylor, Ashburn's N-Fab
AmPro Yamaha teammate, took
over second with Ashburn re-
entering the race in the top five.
Baylor then turned up the boost
and slowly reeled in the leader
Duvall and was just 10 seconds
behind him with Duvall darted
into the pits for a splash of gas.
This gave Baylor the lead but it
wouldn't last for long.
Duvall chased down Baylor
and passed him for the lead,
which he held for the remaining
four laps. Duvall took the check-
ered flag nearly a minute ahead
of Baylor, who held a comfort-
able two-minute gap on third-
place finisher, Ashburn.
"Going into today's race I was
already excited because I tend
to ride good in conditions like
these," Duvall said. "I don't nec-
essarily like riding in the mud,
but I always seem to do good.
Baylor caught back up to me
with two laps remaining and we
battled it out, but I felt like I had a
lot to give and I ended up in the
middle of the box."
Ashburn was feeling the heat
from behind in the late stages of
the race. The Yamaha rider had
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's
Josh Strang bearing down him
on the last lap but managed to
hold the point.
Strang finished just five sec-
onds behind Ashburn in fourth
but had a comfortable two-min-
ute or so margin on fifth place –
Chris Bach on the JCR-backed
Honda.
Ryan Sipes' run of wins came
to an end at this one. Sipes, on
the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna,
had issues with his handlebars
that slowed him down. He still
finished sixth in the XC1 class.
Absent at the Mountain Ridge
GNCC was Kailub Russell. The
dominant FMF/KTM rider who
has already captured the 2015
championship, is taking time to
heal his injured knee, suffered at
the recent ISDE.
In XC2, Jason Thomas
clinched the class champion-
ship with a second-place finish,
sixth overall. Up to this point,
Thomas has had an insurmount-
able points lead, having already
won six races and finishing on
the podium three other times.
He's only had one "bad" race
all season when he finished 13
th
(round four).
"It's been a long year, and
we've done a lot of hard work
behind the scenes. Everyone
has been a big part of this, it
wasn't just me," said Thomas.
Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/
KR4/FAR's Nick Davis ended up
taking the win after grabbing the
holeshot and battling back and
forth with Thomas and Raines
Riding University/Atlas Yamaha/
OffRoadViking.com's Ricky Rus-
sell. Davis finished more than
two minutes ahead of Thomas,
who crossed the finish line three
minutes ahead of Connecticut's
Benjamin Kelley. Kelley made
his GNCC debut at the previous
round at Unadilla.
Factory FMF/KTM's Kacy
Martinez captured her 10th
Women's-class victory of the
season, followed by N-Fab
AmPro Yamaha's Becca Sheets
in second, and her teammate
Tayla Jones came in third for her
first podium appearance of the
season. CN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEN
HILL
Jason Thomas clinched the XC2 title.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEN
HILL
