2022 Ironman GNCC Round 13 Results

Cycle News Staff | October 24, 2022

Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ricky Russell closed out the 2022 Grand National Cross Country Series in grand style by claiming a wire-to-wire victory at the Yamaha Racing Ironman GNCC in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It was the 13th and final round of the series. After a year full of ups and downs and riddled with injuries early on, Russell ended the year on a high note, with his second victory of the season.

2022 Ironman GNCC Results Ricky Russell Action — **Russell capped off the season with the Ironman win and third place overall in the championship.** Photography by Ken Hill.

In contrast to last year’s wet and muddy race, this year’s Ironman was dry and dusty. Russell took advantage of the conditions by grabbing the holeshot and jumping to the head of the field right off the bat, quickly pulling away to a clear lead.

On lap one, FMF/KTM’s Josh Toth was running a fast pace in second ahead of AmPro Yamaha’s Steward Baylor, but by the end of the lap, Russell had pulled out a 58-second gap on the duo. Baylor moved into the runner-up slot on lap two and tried to run down Russell, only to find himself down by one minute and 34 seconds at the end of the lap. And while Baylor closed the gap slightly on lap three, Russell stretched it to 1:38 heading into the sixth and final lap.

Cooling his heels a bit to avoid an unnecessary mistake, Russell crossed the finish line with 44 seconds to spare over Baylor.
“No better way to end the season than a win, and especially here at Ironman,” said Russell. “It’s just such a big event; it’s crazy the amount of people out there and everyone here. We’ve been so close so many times. We got that one win earlier, but finally did it again.”

Russell has been in position to win several other times this year and would lead the race only to crash out of the lead like he did two weeks before at the Buckwheat 100.
“The last race, the hillclimb got me on the final lap, but everything was just clicking today,” said Russell. “When I got to the two-lap board I was just really trying to avoid the silt and save the bike. The times kept staying the same and I was just able to bring her in. It kind of felt like an eternity to get that last lap over with. I was just like, don’t throw it away. We never fell down once today and we were able to keep the bike running, so that’s all that counts.”

Baylor got off to a decent start, and everyone kept waiting on the South Carolina rider to make his notorious late-race push for the win, but it never came.
“I threw it away on the hillclimb on the first lap, like Ricky did in the last race,” said Baylor. “That made my work tough today. I was able to make it back to second and kind of settled in. I felt pretty confident I could hold pretty much anybody off, so I just made a charge at Ricky. I think we got it down from 1:40 to 1:15 in a lap there in the middle, and I was like, there’s no more. I don’t think I can catch him, so I just started cruising.”

2022 Ironman GNCC Results Steward Baylor Action — **Baylor worked his way to the front but couldn’t catch Russell and settled for second place.**

Once Baylor started cruising, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Craig DeLong started to reel him in. “I saw Craig catching up,” said Baylor. “He was closing and getting antsy, so on that last lap, I just put my head back down and tried to do what I could to make sure that he wasn’t close enough to capitalize whenever we got out towards the end of the track where it was a little less dusty.”

Despite Baylor’s late push, DeLong still closed to within 22 seconds of Baylor at the finish. “I was trying my best, that’s for sure,” said DeLong. “Some places weren’t as bad as others, but it seemed like when I got close enough to Stew, we got right back into the dustiest part of the track. I got close to him a couple of times, but never was really able to get alongside of him and give him that challenge. I tried my best and that’s all we can ask for.”

DeLong capped off a solid year, as well, finishing second overall in the final standings.“My trainers Jacob and Kailub sat me down on summer break and they told me that I needed to change my mindset,” said DeLong. “They told me I needed to think like a contender. Ever since that, it kind of clicked in my head. That was a big changing point for me. Just trying to be that guy. I really do. I want to be that guy and challenge these two. Next year we’ll be ready.”

2022 Ironman GNCC Results Craig Delong Action — **Dust was quite the contrast compared to last year’s mudfest. Craig DeLong finished out the day on the podium and second in the championship.**

After wrapping up the XC2 Pro 250 Championship at the previous round, Babbitt’s Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Lyndon Snodgrass capped off his season with a fourth overall finish and his fourth class win of the year. “I knew today the start was going to be crucial,” said Snodgrass. “I didn’t really get the best jump, but I went off into the woods and made a few quick passes. I got up into first a couple miles in and didn’t look back from there. Kind of just tried to ride my own race and just stay out of the dust as much as I could.”

2022 Ironman GNCC Results Lyndon Snodgrass Podium — **Lyndon Snodgrass celebrates the XC2 Pro-class win.**

Tely Energy Racing’s Liam Draper was second in the XC2 Pro 250 class, and posted his best finish of the year in fifth overall. “I knew I had to get a good start and I did that,” said Draper. “I think I was third going into the woods, but I got into second pretty quick when I went up the big hill on the first lap. From there, me and Barbosa battled all day. We went back and forth. Surprisingly we stayed together all day with the dust. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much blue groove in my life.”

Phoenix Honda’s Ruy Barbosa matched his best overall finish with a sixth and was third in the XC2 Pro 250 class. “Today was a tough day for me,” said Barbosa who is from Chile. “I liked the conditions, the dusty and the dry and the hard-pack, but I’m not happy with my result. It’s my second year in America and I learned a lot. So, we will see next year.”

Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ryder Lafferty came in seventh, 50 seconds behind Barbosa, while Babbitt’s Online Monster Energy Kawasaki’s JoJo Cunningham was eighth overall, and first 250 A rider, another two minutes back. Chilean Ben Herrera was ninth overall on a Kawasaki, while Cooper Jones grabbed his first top-10 overall with a 10th and second in the 250 A division.
Toth dropped out mid-race with a mechanical. Meanwhile, Magna1 Motorsports/Husqvarna’s Jordan Ashburn, who wrapped up the XC1 title at the previous race, did not compete due to an injured hand.

Dakota Devore (KTM) topped Jake Froman (Hsq) to win the FMF XC-3 125 Pro-Am, with Beta-mounted Jason Lipscomb in third. Magna1 Motorsports/Husqvarna’s Brody Johnson, who wrapped up title at previous round, dropped out with an injury.

The title was on the line when Rockstar Energy Husqvarna/Surge Off-Road Coaching Team’s Tayla Jones and AmPro Yamaha’s Rachael Archer lined up at the start of the WXC race on Sunday morning. When the two-lap board came out, Jones held a 12-second lead over Archer with Raines Racing Yamaha’s Prestin Raines in third. However, it was Archer with the lead when the front-runners took the white flag, having made the pass on Jones during the third lap of the race when her fellow Aussie went down.

At the finish, Archer took the win ahead of Jones, wrapping up her first WXC championship. “I’ve been working for this title the last three years and this year has been a long one, with some ups and downs, but it’s good to finally get it done,” said Archer. “I got the holeshot to start the race, but I tried to go too tight in the second turn and Tayla got around me. I tried staying on her wheel, but I went down in the silt on the second lap, and it twisted my bars pretty good. On the last lap, Tayla must have went down, but I was able to get into lead and hold on to the finish.”
Jones held on for second with Raines in third another 11 seconds back, while Kayla O’Neill (Kaw) and Taylor Johnston (KTM) rounded out the top five.