The Stopwatch: Steele Creek GNCC

The Steele Creek GNCC was Josh Strang’s 3rd straight win of the season, and incidentally the 3rd race in a row where he did not set the fastest lap time. The first lap of the race was short, so we only compared laps two through five for this week’s Stopwatch. While Strang pulled his 2nd-ever GNCC holeshot, and first on a 450, and had a clear, slippery track ahead of him to navigate, eventual fastest lap winner and 3rd-place finisher Charlie Mullins was forced to come through the pack for the 2nd race in a row. Lap 2 proved to be the best for lap times as nearly everyone in both the XC1 and XC2 classes put down their best lap then. Strang had clear track in front of him for his 25:56 lap, Charlie Mullins was hammering through the pack and managed to post a 25;55 a mere 1 second faster than Strang. After each of the first 3 rounds, Josh Strang has emphasized his confidence in his speed and that he has yet to feel concerned about a gap set by another rider to really push the envelope. If he keeps nailing great starts like this, we may not get the chance to see his true speed as he’ll continue his plan of racing smart (despite the awful conditions in NC, Strang did not have a crash all day) and going fast enough to win.

Kailub Russell got his 2nd win and a row, and also set the fastest lap time.

In the XC2 Pro Lites class, Round 2 Winner and defending champ Kailub Russell came through the barrels after a short lap one in 2nd place, then turned on the after burners and began a charge to not only the front of his class, but to the front of the entire race. Russell’s 2nd lap of 26:19 was good enough for the fastest lap in his class by 18 seconds, and also good enough to situate him into the top-3 overall in the race, not only on adjusted time but physically on the track. When the race was called in the middle of lap 5, Russell was the 3rd pro to get to the huge bottleneck behind XC1 Pros Josh Strang and Kailub Russell. A couple of things to keep an eye on in XC2 as the season progresses will be if any of the XC2 riders can do what has never been done before, claim an overall race win from the second row. The second thing to watch is the battle between the four stroke and the two stroke. At Steele Creek the two stroke claimed 7 of the top-10 spots, but missed out on the one that matters most, the top of the podium.

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