| July 23, 2020
2020 Hidden Valley Full Gas Sprint Enduro Results: Kailub Russell (FMF/KTM) edged out Josh Strang (Team Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Team Green) for the overall win at round two of the 2020 Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series in Glen Daniel, West Virginia. After two days of competition, Russell nipped Strang by just 2.5 seconds.
Russell was, however, far from perfect over the two days of racing but still managed to stay ahead of Strang when it was all over.
“It was pretty up and down, really,” Russell said. “On Saturday I couldn’t keep it off the ground. I crashed twice in the first two tests and I still won them. Each one was by less than a second. Luckily, I was still in the fight there. The woods are iffy and not my favorite. I had a three-second lead going into the last test, and I threw it away. That really kind of pissed me off.”
As a result, Strang was the leader after the first day of racing. He held a five-second cushion going into day two, but it proved not to be enough. Stang actually stretched out his lead a bit Sunday morning when Russell’s bike stalled twice in the first test.
“This morning I felt like I really should have got that time back and won the first test, but I had a little bike malfunction,” said Russell. “So yesterday when I crashed we were thinking I damaged my kill switch because my bike shut off on me twice in the very first test today. That’s the only thing we could think of was the wires were shorting out. But it did it twice and I only lost by four seconds. I was pretty happy with that because like I said, the first time it did it, it took me three or four seconds right there just to get it to refire.”
Russell used the following Enduro test, the same test he fell on Saturday, to take out his frustrations and ended up being 10 seconds quicker than anyone else, which ultimately gave Russell the overall win.
“I just rode that first woods test today real pissed off,” Russell said. “I knew I was better than that. I got all the time back in the lead in the one test. I won by 10 seconds. I just hung it out. It was actually better that I had somebody catch in front of me. So I was super focused in that test, and I absolutely smashed it. I felt like I threw it away there on Saturday, but Josh was riding good. He kept me honest all weekend. It was tough.”
Strang settled for a hard-earned second overall.
“Overall, the weekend was good,” Strang said. “I lost the overall by two and a half seconds. I didn’t do anything wrong. I had a few small mistakes but all my tests were pretty good. Kailub had a killer first enduro test today. He was ten seconds faster than everyone all weekend. That’s Kailub. He can pull it out, he must have been on edge. He does it everywhere. He’s good at it.”
Johnny Girror (Trail Jesters Racing KTM), competing in the Pro2 class, edged out Layne Michael (AmPro Yamaha) for the last step of the podium.
Jordan Ashburn (Team Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Team Green) rounded out the top five overall.
Shan Moore
2020 Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series
(Round 2)
Glen Daniel, West Virginia
RESULTS (July 18-19, 2020)
OVERALL
1. |
Kailub Russell |
(KTM) |
2. |
Josh Strang |
(Kaw) |
3. |
Johnny Girroir |
(KTM) |
4. |
Layne Michael |
(Yam) |
5. |
Jordan Ashburn |
(Kaw) |
6. |
Liam Draper |
(KTM) |
7. |
Cory Buttrick |
(Hus) |
8. |
Ben Nelko |
(KTM) |
9. |
Jesse Ansley |
(KTM) |
10. |
Andrew Matusek |
(Suz) |