The three-time GNCC National Champion immediately began to sprint in hopes of opening a gap on the rest of the field. However, Russell made a mistake and blew a turn, where he got caught up in a bunch of trees and ultimately lost two positions. After remounting, Russell reclaimed the front position and went back to work in establishing a comfortable lead over the rest of the field.

Russell maintained a steady gap through the first half of the race until the 2nd place rider of Josh Strang put on a charge to close the gap. Russell responded by dropping the hammer in the final two laps, where he ultimately finished over two-minutes ahead of Strang.

“I knew Josh was starting to make a charge near the end so I dropped the hammer and tried to create a bigger gap on him,” Russell said. “The track conditions were perfect today. It’s always fun to race at the John Penton GNCC, I’ve got a lot of friends here and it was nice to come back to my grandpa’s farm.”

FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Russell Bobbitt, current National Enduro Series points leader, joined his teammates for Round 7 of the GNCC Series where he finished 6th in the XC1 Pro Class and 10th overall. After getting a good jump off the line aboard his KTM 250 XC-F, Bobbitt got pinched off the start to begin the race at the back of the pack.

Bobbitt made up some ground early on but a crash sent him back once again after spending time re-entering the course where he came off. From there, Bobbitt worked his way back up to 6th and despite a couple of small crashes, the Georgia native finished solid in 6th place. Bobbitt has plans to race a majority of the remaining GNCC rounds as a replacement rider for the recently retired Charlie Mullins.

In the 10 a.m. race, FMF KTM Factory Team rider Kacy Martinez immediately put her KTM 250 XC-F out front after grabbing the WXC holeshot and early lead. Australian rider Tayla Jones passed Martinez for the lead on lap one and the duo continued to battle as Martinez got back around Jones on the same lap.

Martinez eventually settled into a comfortable lead over Jones, where she maintained her position for a majority of the race. Jones made a charge on lap four, where she came within 35 seconds of the leader Martinez but in the end, Martinez extended the gap to over one-minute as the checkered flag flew.

“It feels good to be on top of the box again,” Martinez said. “I had a couple struggles the last few rounds but I stayed with Charlie Mullins the week before this to train and work on some things and I felt really good today.”