Round 4 – AMA National Enduro Series – June 4, 2017

GREENSBORO, GA – After landing on the podium with a third at the previous round in Louisiana, FMF KTM Factory Racing Team’s Russell Bobbitt was slightly off his mark at this weekend’s Cherokee National Enduro in Greensboro, Georgia, where he registered a fifth place finish.

The Cherokee Cycle Club-organized event offered a mixed bag of weather, with the day starting off with hot and muggy conditions, before a hard rain moved into the area just after the halfway mark of the race.

Bobbitt got off to a great start on the fast and flowing first test, posting the third-fastest time on his KTM 250 XC-F. However, when the trail tighten up in test two, the Georgia native was not as comfortable, admitting later that he was struggling with his setup. Bobbitt settled for the sixth-fastest time in the second test. Things got only slightly better for the five-time national champion in the remaining tests, as he recorded a 6^th, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th in tests three through six, leaving him with fifth overall for the day.  

With the finish, Bobbitt maintains fourth in the series standings with five rounds remaining.

KTM-supported Steward Baylor Jr. continues to sit atop the series point standings after claiming the runner-up slot at the Cherokee. The South Carolina rider never finished lower than second in any of the six tests and won the fourth test by three seconds over eventual winner, Thad DuVall, despite spending all of the previous week in the hospital due to a virus. Meanwhile, Baylor’s SRT/KTM teammate Cory Buttrick just missed a top-five finish, crossing the line 1/10^th of a second behind Bobbitt for sixth. The Ohio rider came into the sixth and final test sitting 13 seconds behind Bobbitt and ended up beating him by 12 and nine-tenths of a second to come up just short.

Counting Buttrick, KTM riders ruled the second half of the top 10, with Jesse Groemm in seventh, Evan Smith in ninth and Zach Hayes in 10^th.

Bobbitt: “It was kind of crazy conditions with the heat and humidity and then later with the rain, and I think I just missed my setup. I wasn’t exactly comfortable in some of the tests and that made it a little bit tougher to find that edge. I was riding within my comfort zone but I don’t think I rode up to my potential. We’ll just go back now and work on our setup for the next round and go from there.”

Baylor: “I came in a little bit behind the eight-ball, after spending last week in the hospital, but I rode well today. I wasn’t expecting to do this well, but we kept it tight and hopefully we can bounce back from this and get back on top of the podium. It’s good to come out here and come away with a good finish.”

Buttrick: “It’s pretty tough with you get beat by a tenth of a second, but Russell was riding well. There was a clear-cut section where I wasn’t willing to put it all on the line, but I had some good rides. Tests four and five didn’t go all that well for me, I crashed in both of them. When it started raining, I just wasn’t comfortable.”

Next Event: Round 5 – Cross Fork, Pennsylvania – July 23, 2017

 Overall Results

1. Thad DuVall
2. Steward Baylor Jr. (KTM)
3. Josh Toth
4. Grant Baylor
5. Russell Bobbitt (KTM)
6. Cory Buttrick (KTM)
7. Jesse Groemm (KTM)
8. Thorn Devlin
9. Evan Smith (KTM)
10. Zach Hayes (KTM)

Overall Championship Standings

1. Steward Baylor Jr. (105)
2. Thad DuVall (97)
3. Grant Baylor (75)
4. Russell Bobbitt (66)
5. Cory Buttrick (65)
6. Kailub Russell (58)
7. Jesse Groemm (56)
8. Josh Toth (46)
9. Evan Smith (35)
10. Thorn Devlin (34)