XC1 Open Pro
It wasn’t the strongest start for Kelley, who sat in seventh-place early on as he struggled to make passes throughout the first half of the three-hour race. At the two-hour mark, he fought his way into a top-five position as he ignited a big charge into the final hour of racing. As the two-lap card fell, the Connecticut native positioned himself into podium contention and he held strong all the way to the checkers, finishing only 1.5 seconds back for third overall. Despite missing the first five rounds due to injury, Kelley has shown great consistency and speed in his rookie XC1 season, where he holds five podiums and two fourth-place finishes for seventh overall in the championship standings.

Ben Kelley: “Today was crazy, the track was super-fast and the whole XC1 pack was all together and going really fast. I struggled in the beginning to find a flow but about halfway through I picked it up and I felt really fast but it’s hard going through the pack when everyone is riding well. I’m happy with how I rode in the second half. I know I can win and I’m riding good, I’m just kind of working out of a slump but there’s one more race and I’m going to do all I can to get that win.”

After wrapping up the 2020 GNCC National Championship at the last round, eight-time champ Kailub Russell lined up for his final Ironman GNCC as a full-time XC1 contender and he put forth a valiant effort despite racing through a knee injury and a series of other obstacles along the way. Russell got off to a second-place start aboard his KTM 350 XC-F and he actually battled in the early lead but with over 300 riders on the course for the afternoon race, the leaders quickly came into contact with lapped traffic on lap two and Russell got tangled up with a downed rider and went down early on. Despite dealing with a jammed throttle tube, Russell was able to fight his way back up to second as he nursed the bike into the pits for an extended stop, making a few adjustments before continuing on his way with a nearly 30-second deficit. From there, Russell battled hard to make up lost ground where he latched onto teammate Ben Kelley to charge his way to a fourth-place finish.