After using the summer break to heal an injured shoulder, Josh Strang made his return to GNCC racing a successful one, taking his first win of the season. Photography by Ken Hill
After a three-month hiatus, the 2015 AMSOIL GNCC Series resumed with the Parts Unlimited Unadilla GNCC – round 10 of the series. Despite the generous summer break in the championship, many of the racers far from rested, having come straight from the ISDE, including Kailub Russell, Thad DuVall and overall ISDE winner Ryan Sipes.
Despite suffering a knee injury while in Slovakia, Kailub Russell made his return to GNCC racing a successful one, even if he didn’t lead the way. The Factory FMF/KTM rider officially announced that his injury at the ISDE was, in fact, a torn ACL, but the points leader still lined up for the Pro race. All he needed was a top-five finish to wrap up the title, and Russell was able to claim a fourth-place finish to collect his third-consecutive GNCC National Championship.
“I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel on the bike, because anything can happen to make my injury worse,” said Russell. “It took me about an hour and a half to feel like I had warmed up and get my momentum going.”
Fourth place was more than enough for Kailub Russell to wrap up the 2015 GNCC Overall championship with three rounds left to spare. Photography by Ken Hill
Russell’s fourth-place finish left the battle for the lead wide open. Josh Strang showed he was back on point after using the summer break to fully recover from a shoulder injury. After a string of second-place finishes in the first half of the season, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory racer was finally able to take the final step up on the podium to claim his first win of the season.
Strang led the charge from start to finish, claiming the $250 All Balls Racing XC1 Holeshot and never looking back. AirGroup/Rockstar Husqvarna’s Ryan Sipes wasn’t far behind Strang, but Sipes had his hands full fending off the advances of Thad DuVall who moved up to challenge him for the runner-up position on the second lap. The duo had a good battle throughout the three-hour race, but second place honors would eventually go to DuVall and his Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KR4/FAR Husqvarna.
“Anytime I get to race I have fun, but especially today,” said DuVall. “Ryan [Sipes] and I have become pretty good friends in the last few weeks during our time in Slovakia, and racing against someone that I knew I could trust was just awesome.”
Sipes held on for third, making for an all Husqvarna podium in Unadilla. Russell collected fourth ahead of the Rockstar Energy Factory Husqvarna of Andrew DeLong, who rounded out the top-five.
In the XC2 Pro Lites class, it was Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KR4/FAR Husqvarna’s Nick Davis who took the $100 Hot Cams Holeshot award. Davis secured the early lead and made a run for it, but couldn’t escape DirtWise KTM’s Jason Thomas, who eventually made his way around Davis for the lead. Davis’ run for the lead was also impaired by a bobble on the second lap that caused him to fall back to fourth. Davis made his way back up into second behind Thomas, but he couldn’t regain the lead.
E&H Honda’s Trevor Bollinger had an impressive ride, worked his way up to third after getting out to a poor start. Bollinger had an unfortunate encounter with barbwire on the first lap which caused him to fall back to 20th place, but he recovered to round out the podium.
In the morning race, Kacy Martinez continued to dominate the WXC division, leading the way by three minutes. Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KR4/FAR rider Sarah Baldwin finished second ahead of NFab AmPro Yamaha’s Becca Sheets. The AmPro team has another featured rider in the WXC class – Australian rider Tayla Jones – who will be contesting the remaining rounds of the series. Jones handily won the Women’s overall at the recent ISDE, and celebrated a win at last year’s GNCC finale. Jones finished fourth ahead of Brooke Cosner who rounded out the top-five.
Unadilla GNCC Top Ten Overall:
1. Josh Strang (Hus)
2. Thad DuVall (Hus)
3. Ryan Sipes (Hus)
4. Kailub Russell (KTM)
5. Andrew DeLong (Hus)
6. Chris Bach (Hon)
7. Jason Thomas (KTM) XC2 Pro
8. Nick Davis (Hus) XC2 Pro
9. Grant Baylor (Yam)
10. Tyler Medaglia (Hus)
