Thad DuVall showed he still has the speed to run up front and battle for race wins.

In the XC1 Pro Class Thad DuVall did his best to runaway hide from the field pulling out to a 49 second lead over Josh Strang by the end of the 3rd lap. On the 4th lap Strang cut the lead down to 31 seconds, and on the 5th lap actually passed DuVall after he crashed. DuVall was able to get back past Strang, but ended up crashing again, even harder this time and pulled out of the race after lap 5. In a similar fashion to the first round, Josh Strang played it cool the first half of the race then turned on the heat in the final laps. In laps 4-6, Strang was the only rider to dip into the 22 minute range of lap times, stretching his lead to over a minute. While he cooled it off on laps 7 and 8, Strang continued to extend his lead to over 2 minutes at the finish. It’ll be interesting to see in the coming weeks if riders will continue to try and check out in the early stages of the race as Mullins and DuVall have done in the first two rounds, or if they’ll play it a bit more cool as has worked out so well for Strang thus far.

Kailub Russell couldn't find his groove until late in the race, but it was good enough for the fastest lap time and the race win.

The XC2 race was a heated battle early on, with Steward Baylor, Jesse Robinson, Jason Thomas, and eventual race winner Kailub Russell all leading laps through the first 6 laps of the race. Kailub Russell complained about arm pump on the podium, and we actually saw him come through the pits on the first lap and literally coast down pit row while attempting to shake both of his arms out. It must’ve worked as Russell put in his fastest lap, and the fastest lap of the class on the 7th lap of the 8 lap race. If Russell is able to fix his arm pump problem (one he mentioned in Florida as well), Jason Thomas’ wrist heals up, and Jesse Robinson can improve his fitness in the next two weeks we should be in for some more good racing in the XC2 class at Steele Creek. We also can’t forget about riders like Steward Baylor, Josh Weisenfels, Scott Watkins, and Jake Korn who are all podium contenders that have yet to find their groove this season.