IN
THE
WIND
P28
RUSSELL CLINCHES
FIFTH STRAIGHT GNCC TITLE
W
ith still one round re-
maining, Kailub Russell
clinched his fifth consecutive
GNCC Championship after top-
ping the Polaris Ace Powerline
Park GNCC in St. Clairsville,
Ohio, October 8. Russell, on
the FMF/KTM Factory Racing
Team 350 XC-F, took the lead
for good on the second lap and
from there, even in rainy and wet
conditions, never looked back
for his 46th career victory, which
ties him with Scott Summers on
the all-time GNCC win list.
"I got off to a top-five start and
got into the lead just before the
rain started to come down too
much," Russell said. "I put in a
few solid laps to build a lead and
held on to the finish. It was a
really fun technical track with the
rain and I just had a good time
riding my bike today. It's been
a great year; I'm happy to get
championship win number five
and tie the all-time win record."
Russell made the race a little
more difficult on himself than
he wanted when he fell after
having just taken the lead away
from Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/
KR4/Husqvarna's Grant Baylor,
who got his bike stuck in the
mud. Russell got up sans a front
fender that had broken off in the
fall and passed Jordan Ashburn
who had just gotten around the
downed rider.
"I made a dumb mistake and
fell over and broke my front
fender off, and then I was just
roosting myself out," Russell
said.
Despite having no front fender
Kailub Russell clinched the
title with one round to spare.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEN
HILL
