The Stopwatch: 2011 Power Line Park

KR set the fastest lap for the second race in a row, only this time he was able to get the W.

At quite a few races this year–Big Buck, John Penton, Unadilla, Somerset–Kailub Russell and his teammate Charlie Mullins have gotten out front and set a blistering pace, separating themselves from the pack, only for Russell to succumb to Mullins or another XC1 veteran (like Paul Whibley at the Penton) in the closing stages of the race. It seemed inevitable that if he continued to run up front for the majority of the race he would eventually win a race, and this past Sunday was definitely Kailub Russell’s day. On one of the most slippery tracks I’ve ever ridden (in the morning) KR put together solid lap after solid lap. On a track with multiple notorious mud bogs and tricky hill climbs that wreaked havoc with nearly every rider on the track, including the second through fifth place riders in XC1, Russell didn’t have a single crash in the entire 3-hour race. He said afterwards he was riding cautious, which is what you needed to do on such a treacherous track, and it worked as his mistake-free strategy gave him the fastest lap of the day with a 24:22 five laps into the race, a testament to his fitness, and he tied for the best worst lap with Thad DuVall at 25:05. I can’t wrap this up without giving a mention to DuVall, who after enduring another tough year in the XC1 Pro Class, proved he still has the speed to run with the top guys in the series carding his first podium finish (and first top-five) since the second round of the series in Georgia back in March.

After a tough 3-race stretch, Steward Baylor took control of the XC2 championship with his win at Power Line Park.

After grabbing four wins in the first six races of the season, Steward Baylor hit a bit of a slump missing the podium in three consecutive rounds (The Penton, Unadilla, and Somerset) but he found his early season form in Ohio jumping out to an early lead and never looking back, leading every single lap of the race and taking the win by over 2-minutes over Jordan Ashburn with Jason Thomas another 1:25 behind him. Baylor put down his fastest lap of 25:14 on the second lap of the race making a break from the pack, but got some company from a charging Ashburn in the middle stages of the race and responded with another quick lap on lap 6 of 7 to stretch out the gap again. The win was a devastating blow to Jason Thomas’ title hopes as Baylor now sits 38-points ahead of Thomas whose lead over 3rd-place Jordan Ashburn has shrunk to only 9-points with the very consistent Andrew Delong only another 3 points back. While all hope isn’t lost for Thomas, he really needs to win these last three races to still have a shot at the title and to at the very least secure 2nd place in the points.