The Stopwatch: Yadkinville GNCC

Thad DuVall proved he has the speed to run up front, but also that when you crash at that speed it can hurt!

After pulling only his 3rd holeshot ever, it looked like Josh Strang might run away with the Yadkinville GNCC for his 5th win of the season. But somehow through the dust, a charging Charlie Mullins got Strang in his sights and it looked as though we might see an epic battle to the finish like last year’s Somerset GNCC when Strang and Mullins, then teammates, battled tooth and nail to the finish. Unfortunately, Strang took a digger at the end of the 2nd lap that ended his chances for a win, but not before he was able to post the 2nd fastest lap of the day. While Mullins kept a great pace throughout the rest of the race to keep the rest of the contenders at bay, he also set the 3rd fastest lap of the day, on the last lap of the race showing his excellent fitness, and keeping XC2 rider Kailub Russell from being able to nab him for the top spot in the overall standings. All that’s left for us to talk about is the fastest lap of the day, and there’s no real surprise here as Thad DuVall laid down a blistering 29:33 on lap 2, which coincidentally ended up being his last lap of the race as DuVall crashed out with a possible torn rotator cuff on lap 3. As we’ve mentioned before in The Stopwatch, in GNCC racing it rarely matters who can lay down the fastest lap, but rather who can continuously put down fast laps without landing on their head.

Kailub Russell is proving his championship run of 2009 was no fluke as he grabbed his 5th win of the season.

There has been a lot of talk over the past 2 years about an XC2 rider winning an overall GNCC, and it looked like this past Sunday could’ve been the day. Kailub Russell came out of the blocks flying and before the first lap was over was riding in the middle of the XC1 pro pack. While Jason Thomas and Jesse Robinson were left in the dust battling for 2nd and 3rd in the class, Russell was pushing hard all day long for 2nd and 3rd overall. While he came up just short of the overall, finishing 2nd-overall and a mere :52 seconds behind Mullins, KR did manage to set the 3rd fastest lap of the day with a 29:47, making him the only XC2 rider to dip into the 29-minute range, and 1 of 4 riders to do it all day. Young gun Steward Baylor set the 2nd-fastest lap in the XC2 class with a 30:25, with Jason Thomas 3rd with a 30:26 and Jesse Robinson 3rd with a 30:30. Kudos go out to Thomas and Robinson for battling so hard to the finish, it’s pretty cool to see two guys charging and battling so hard on the last lap of a three-hour race.