Kailub Russell added to his Championship points lead with a dominating Round 10 performance in the 2014 Grand National Cross Country series on Sunday at Unadilla Raceway in New Berlin, NY.
Russell didn't grab the holeshot but he quickly passed Paul Whibley for the lead and never saw second-place again. The win, the 20th of his career, puts him 77 points ahead of Josh Strang with three rounds remaining. A Round 11 win in two weeks easily locks up a second consecutive championship for Russell.
"I'm glad I was able to get the win today and increase my points lead heading into the final three rounds," said Russell, a MotoSport rider. "I'm already looking forward to a rock race in a couple weeks in Pennsylvania. It's going to be fun."
Russell's biggest competition came from Chris Bach who managed to get within 15 seconds of the lead but lost his position to Thad Duvall and eventually went down after getting tangled among lappers and gave up third to Strang. The win is Russell's fourth-straight which includes leading 26 straight laps.
"At the end of the race I was a little more worn out than usual but it was a brutal track," Russell said. "I'm just going to work on some cardio stuff these next couple weeks and get ready for a tough rocky race and go out and execute another win to put a stamp on things."
Mullins, Russell's FMF/KTM teammate and primary competition, remains inactive after breaking his wrist earlier in the year. Mullins is now 83 points behind Russell and dropped to third-place in the Championship standings after Strang posted a third-place finish on Sunday. Duvall took the runner-up spot for the second time this year. Russell is also trying to win out to give KTM a season sweep. Duvall coincidentally prevented that last year after grabbing one win from Mullins and Russell.
Round 11 of the 2014 GNCC series heads to the Mountain Ridge Trails Resort on September 21 in Central City, PA.
2014 GNCC Round 10 XC1 Pro Results
- Kailub Russell
- Thad DuVall
- Josh Strang
- Chris Bach
- Andrew Delong
- Paul Whibley
- Takeshi Koikeda
- Jordan Ashburn
- Ryan Sipes
- Adam Bonneur
2014 GNCC Overall National Championship Standings
- Kailub Russell (263)
- Josh Strang (186)
- Charlie Mullins (180)
- Jordan Ashburn (166)
- Grant Baylor (152)
- Paul Whibley (137)
- Andrew Delong (134)
- Ricky Russell (117)
- Chris Bach (108)
- Steward Baylor (102)
