From there, Edmondson played it smart as he closely followed Jason Thomas through the rough Georgia woods and as the two-lap card came out, only one second separated the top two riders. Edmondson capitalized on a crash by Thomas late in the race where he was able to take over the lead on lap four. Edmondson continued to push his way through the overall pack where he eventually caught the front-runners in the XC2 250 Pro class. After three tough hours of racing, Edmondson secured his third-straight win in the XC3 division, while also capturing an impressive career-best 10th overall for the day.

"I got off to my best start yet, running 2nd behind Whibley early on but the first lap was rough, I missed lines and dropped back into 3rd," Edmondson said. "Thomas and I were able to get into the lead and push on together for most of the race. With two laps to go he crashed and I got around him and really started to give it all I had all the way to the finish. I'm so happy my efforts got me my third win and my best overall finish in 10th."

Husqvarna-backed Coastal Racing's Ryan Sipes had a stellar start to the day in the XC1 Open Pro class as he jumped into the 2nd place position right away off the start. Sipes engaged in the lead battle for the first half of the three-hour race until a run-in with a tree put an early end to his day.

"I actually didn't crash - just came out of a corner and swung a little bit wide and hit my arm on a tree," Sipes said. "It was the same arm I broke last year and the same one I hurt in Florida two weeks ago and just couldn't hang on anymore. I tried, I kept riding but my hand kept coming off in the rough stuff and I felt like I was going to really get hurt. Another weekend that's a big bummer for me, super disappointed because I know I have the speed to win - I just need to be healthy enough to do it. I'm going to go home, do some rehab and get back to it here in two weeks."