The Stopwatch: Limestone 100 GNCC

KR557 took his 4th-win of the season and is now tied for the points lead with Paul Whibley.

Three laps into the Limestone 100 GNCC it looked like we were going to see a showdown between FMF/KTM’s Charlie Mullins and Kailub Russell. The duo had hooked up and pulled out to nearly a 30-second lead over AmPro Yamaha’s Paul Whibley and were charging hard, until Mullins ran into bike issues that would ultimately drop him 11th-place on the day and an entire lap off the of the lead. While we didn’t see the battle between these two for the win, we did see Kailub Russell reaffirm his position as the man-to-beat in the XC1 Pro Class after a disappointing 4th-place finish at the Mammoth GNCC two weeks prior. KR set the fastest lap of the race on lap three to reel in his teammate, then laid down his 2nd-fastest lap of the day on lap 6 to give himself a cushion over Paul Whibley and Andrew DeLong in the overall. This proves that Russell has speed that is tough for the rest of the field to match and the endurance to last for an entire 3-hour race.

Andrew DeLong broke Steward Baylor's win streak and set the fastest lap in the process.

Through the first five rounds of the series Steward Baylor proved he was the fastest man in the XC2 Pro Lites Class (and one of the fastest riders in the entire series) but in Indiana FAR/Husqvarna’s Andrew DeLong put Baylor to the test throughout the race, actually setting the fastest lap in the class and the 3rd-fastest lap of the day. Baylor would ultimately break reeds in his bike that kept him from battling with DeLong for the win on the last lap (and then crashing and reportedly breaking his wrist after fixing his bike) but with the day DeLong was riding I’m not sure it would’ve mattered, he was simply on it. Baylor currently holds a 43-point lead in the class over 2nd-place rider Jason Thomas and a 68-point lead over DeLong who missed the first two rounds of the series due to injury. Coming into this round you never would’ve thought there’d be a chance for the Husqvarna rider to be a threat for the title but if Baylor is forced to miss any rounds with his wrist injury DeLong could sneak right into the points chase with a few more rides like he had on Sunday.