North Wilkesboro, NC - Round 9 of the 2008 GNCC Series took the KTM/Powersport Grafx team to the rough and rocky Mountain Ridge ATV Resort in Somerset, PA. The course lived up to its reputation by providing racers with one of the gnarliest courses on the GNCC circuit. The GNCC Series takes a two month summer break following this round, and all team riders will head into the summer with their heads held high after solid performances on Sunday.

After being edged-out for the Thumpertalk.com $100 holeshot by a wheel, Kailub Russell quickly moved into the lead in the XC2 Pro Lites class on the first lap. A mistake dropped Kailub back to 3rd place for two laps, but he moved into 2nd on the 4th of 5 laps and had a comfortable lead. Unfortunately, a crash in a very rocky section of the course dropped Kailub back to 4th place. At the finish, Kailub was again edged-out by less than a bike length for 3rd in the class. Kailub finished the day 12th overall, and now sits in a solid 3rd place in the overall championship hunt.

Kailub Russell.

Cory Buttrick got off to another of his signature holeshots in the 4 Stroke A Lites class. Even though he only needed to finish 1 lap to secure the class championship for the season, Cory was pushing hard on the first lap and ended up going down. Cory came through the finish in 5th place on the first lap, but put his head down and charged into the lead on lap three, and never looked back to take the class win by over a minute. Cory was again the top amateur with a 15th place overall finish. Look for Cory to make his XC2 Pro Lites debut at the Snowshoe GNCC in September.

Jordan Ashburn led every lap of the 250A class, crossing the finish line 5 minutes ahead of his nearest class competitor for his 6th win of the 2008 season. Jordan was 20th overall, his 3rd top-20 overall finish of the year. Heading into the break Jordan sits atop of the class championship stands with a 24 point lead.

Lee Rowland came through on lap 1 in 4th place in the 200B class and held that position for the entire 3 hour event. Lee sits in 5th place in his class championship standings, a mere 1 point behind 4th place.

After wrapping up the Overall Youth Championship at the previous round in Yadkinville, NC, Steward Baylor made his GNCC afternoon race debut in the very competitive 200A class. Steward ran second place in the class early, before slipping into 3rd on the 2nd lap, a position he would hold through the finish. Steward finished a very impressive 41st overall.

Grant Baylor did his best impression of his big brother, Steward, by leading the 85cc 7-11 class wire-to-wire, taking the win by over 7 minutes. Steward heads into the summer break with a 19 point lead in the overall class points.

We would like to thank our sponsor partners: KTM, PowersportGrafx, KTM Hard Equipment, KTM Genuine Spare Parts, Pirelli, SCOTT goggles, Alpinestars, FMF, IMS products, Motorex, NGK, Synergy Seals, and CV4 products.

Cory B.