With the monumental weight of a championship on his shoulders, and the very recent memory of his KTM seizing during Friday’s race, Charlie Mullins went out and absolutely dominated the final race of the season, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind why he was the series points leader and soon-to-be champion of the series. All Mullins needed was a 9th place finish to secure the championship, he could’ve ridden around at a comfortable pace and wrapped up the title, but he instead chose to push for the entirety of the race, you’ve got to respect that! Kailub Russell also put in a strong performance after going from 2nd to 4th on the last lap on Friday, KR was looking for some redemption and he got it. Running his fastest lap on the 5th lap of the race proves that Russell is figuring out how to run fast in the XC1 class and I’m convinced he’ll be a player in the championship in 2012.
XC1 PRO CLASS LAP TIMES | ||||||
| Lap Time Rank | Finish | Rider | Best Lap Time | Lap # | Worst Lap Time | Lap # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | CHARLES MULLINS | 0:26:48 | 2 | 0:27:40 | 4 |
| 2 | 2 | KAILUB K RUSSELL | 0:27:19 | 5 | 0:27:58 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 | PAUL WHIBLEY | 0:27:34 | 2 | 0:28:30 | 6 |
| 4 | 11 | CORY BUTTRICK | 0:27:34 | 2 | 0:27:53 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 | TOBY PRICE | 0:27:35 | 3 | 0:28:29 | 4 |
| 6 | 6 | JEDEDIAH HAINES | 0:28:23 | 3 | 0:30:10 | 6 |
| 7 | 5 | JESSE ROBINSON | 0:28:58 | 5 | 0:29:24 | 6 |
| 8 | 7 | SCOTT WATKINS | 0:28:58 | 2 | 0:30:28 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 | CODY M WEBB | 0:29:01 | 2 | 0:33:30 | 6 |
| 10 | 12 | THADDEUS DUVALL | 0:29:35 | 2 | 0:29:38 | 3 |
| 11 | 9 | ERIC C BAILEY | 0:30:14 | 6 | 0:32:37 | 4 |
| 12 | 10 | KENNETH S GILBERT | 0:30:28 | 4 | 0:58:52 | 3 |
| 13 | 13 | JOSHUA V STRANG | N/A | |||
| 14 | 14 | JIMMY JARRETT | N/A | |||
| 15 | 15 | NATHAN KANNEY | N/A | |||
With the championship already wrapped up in the XC2 class, and Steward Baylor back on his actual race bike instead of the borrowed bike he raced on Friday, it would’ve been easy to assume that Baylor would pin it on Sunday and go for one last win of the season, but that wasn’t the case. Jordan Ashburn, Friday’s race winner, switched to a YZ 250 2-stroke to do some testing to see if he wanted to run it for 2012 and jumped out to an early lead on the smoker, but was run down in the end by charging FAR/Husqvarna teammates Jason Thomas and Andrew DeLong. The Husky boys would separate themselves from the pack, and DeLong would lay down his fastest lap of the race on the last lap, using that burst of speed in only his third race on the Husqvarna to take his first-ever XC2 Pro Lites win. With Baylor, Ashburn, Delong, Thomas, Morgan Moss and more all returning to the XC2 class for 2012, it will definitely be a dogfight for that championship!
XC2 PRO LITES CLASS LAP TIMES | ||||||
| Lap Time Rank | Finish | Rider | Best Lap Time | Lap # | Worst Lap Time | Lap # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | ANDREW R DELONG | 0:27:27 | 6 | 0:29:06 | 4 |
| 2 | 4 | STEWARD BAYLOR JR | 0:27:36 | 6 | 0:29:23 | 5 |
| 3 | 3 | JORDAN ASHBURN | 0:27:52 | 2 | 0:29:23 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 | JASON THOMAS | 0:27:57 | 6 | 0:28:28 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 | MORGAN MOSS | 0:28:10 | 2 | 0:30:04 | 4 |
| 6 | 18 | JASE A LEWIS | 0:28:42 | 2 | N/A | |
| 7 | 14 | TED E MULLINS | 0:28:46 | 3 | 0:42:41 | 4 |
| 8 | 6 | AJ STEWART | 0:28:56 | 3 | 0:30:11 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 | JUSTIN BONITA | 0:29:03 | 3 | 0:30:14 | 5 |
| 10 | 10 | RORY MEAD | 0:29:11 | 2 | 0:31:07 | 6 |
| 11 | 9 | ZACK NOLAN | 0:29:14 | 2 | 0:30:15 | 4 |
| 12 | 7 | STEVEN SQUIRE | 0:29:20 | 2 | 0:30:39 | 6 |
| 13 | 11 | ZACKERY SMITH | 0:30:02 | 3 | 0:30:43 | 5 |
| 14 | 15 | ALEX DORSEY | 0:30:04 | 3 | 0:43:08 | 4 |
| 15 | 16 | NICK DAVIS | 0:30:15 | 3 | 0:31:05 | 2 |
| 16 | 12 | RYAN LOJAK | 0:30:19 | 3 | 0:33:17 | 5 |
| 17 | 17 | JARED JORDAN | 0:31:13 | 2 | 0:41:53 | 3 |
| 18 | 13 | TREVOR COBB | 0:31:23 | 3 | 0:31:48 | 5 |
| 19 | 19 | ROMAN DUMONTIER | 0:38:26 | 2 | N/A | |
| 20 | 20 | CODY GRAGG | N/A | |||
