Trail Rider Magazine

untaineer Run GNCC back of the pack. Factory FMF/KTM's Russell also got hung up in the first two turns, entering the woods in nearly last place. However, Russell immediately began picking off riders on the opening lap. By the end of Lap 1, Russell had passed through the entire XC1 field where he put nearly ten seconds on the second place of FMF/RPM/KTM Team Maxxis rider Rory Mead. Just behind Mead was Whibley, FMF/KTM's Mullins, Rocky Mountain ATV/MC's Josh Strang and Shenandoah Honda/USWESports.com's Thad DuVall, all fighting for an early position up front. As DuVall made his way inside the top five, the West Virginia native experienced mechanical issues that Lailub Russell is only 8 points out of the champiwould later send him onship lead Photo: Ken Hill pushing his bike back held on to take a third place position to the pits. DuVall's crew made some for the day. adjustments to the bike and he was Despite riding through injury again able to return to the race but the machine ended up giving out once again. this weekend, Whibley was able to salvage a fifth place finish for the day. After two full laps of competition, Ashburn finished sixth, while Litz DuVall was forced to sit out the remainder of his home state GNCC due Racing Honda's Takeshi Koikeda came in seventh. to a mechanical issue. KTM Support rider Grant Baylor got Meanwhile, Mullins made his way caught up in a second corner pile up into the second place position with and the young gun was forced to Strang and Carolina KTM/RidePG.com's Chris Bach close make his way through the pack all afternoon. Baylor eventually caught the in tow. As the race wore on, Mullins began to lose ground on his teammate rear wheel of F.A.R Husky's Nick Russell and on the white flag lap Bach Davis and Morgantown Powersportsmade the pass on Mullins to take over backed Layne Michael where he applied the pressure. Davis experienced second place. At that point, Strang a mechanical issue after the halfway had dropped back to the fourth place point that left him out of podium conposition but less than five seconds separated all three riders heading into tention and Michael and Baylor were left to battle it out for the second the final lap of the three-hour race. place position. Bach ran into some issues getting Experience prevailed after three hours through lapped riders, giving Strang of racing as defending champ Jason the opportunity to take over the secThomas captured his first win of the ond place position. Bach's last lap season, closing the gap on the points misfortune arguably cost him the leader. Baylor's second place finish alpodium position at Round 8 but the lows him to maintain the points lead Indiana native was able to hold onto heading into Round 9 in two weeks, fourth place for the day, salvaging while Thomas sits second in the class championship points. standings and DeLong holds the third In a dominant fashion, Russell seplace position, despite missing the last cured his second straight victory of two rounds due to injury. the season at the Mountaineer Run Indiana's Zach Love captured the 250 GNCC, where he now sits just eight A class win, also securing the Top points behind Mullins in the overall Amateur honors with 14th overall. standings. Strang finished out strong The next finishing amateur was West with a second overall, while Mullins June 2013 33

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