August 2020 -- Vol 4 -- Issue 8 August 2020 | Page 143

On The Pegs VOL. 4 ISSUE 8 - August 2020 143
It’s certainly an off-roader’s dream to turn a knobby on a golf course, and Kailub
Russell not only got to churn up some beautiful fairways, but the FMF/KTM
rider also came away with a win at the beautiful Hidden Valley Golf Course in
Glen Daniel, West Virginia; round two of the 2020 Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro
Series, edging Team Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Team Green’s Josh
Strang by 2.5-seconds after two days of racing.
Russell set the stage by winning the opening cross test by just .4-second ahead
of Strang, which would be an indicator of the two days to come. Russell admittedly
made his share of mistakes over the weekend, and Strang kept him honest.
“It was pretty up and down, really,” said Russell. “On Saturday I couldn’t keep it
off the ground. I crashed twice in the first two tests and I still won them. Each one
was by less than a second; just minute wins. Luckily, I was still in the fight there.
The woods are iffy and not my favorite and I had a three-second lead going into
the last test and I threw it away. That really kind of pissed me off.”
Strang took the win on Saturday, finishing a little less than five seconds ahead of
Russell. Meanwhile, Pro2 rider Johnny Girroir turned some heads by finishing third
overall for the day, the Trail Jesters Racing KTM rider finishing 13 seconds ahead of
Team Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Team Green’s Jordan Ashburn,
with AmPro Yamaha’s Layne Michael, who is rebounding from a shoulder injury a
few weeks ago, rounding out the top five overall, another three seconds back.
On Sunday, Russell came back strong, but stalled his engine twice during the first
test, the Cross test, having damaged his kill switch from the crash on the previous
day. This gave Strang a little more daylight, as Michael finished second and Russell
rebounded for third. However, Russell took out his frustrations on the Enduro test,
where he had crashed the afternoon before, and won the test by an amazing 10
seconds.
“This morning I felt like I really should have got that time back and won the first
test, but I had a little bike malfunction,” said Russell. “So yesterday when I crashed
we were thinking I damaged my kill switch because my bike shut off on me twice
in the very first test today. That’s the only thing we could think of was the wires
were shorting out. But it did it twice and I only lost by four seconds. I was pretty
happy with that because like I said, the first time it did it, it took me three or four
seconds right there just to get it to refire. Then, I just rode that first woods test today
real pissed off. I knew I was better than that. I got all the time back in the lead
in the one test. I won by ten seconds. I just hung it out. It was actually better that I
had somebody catch in front of me. So I was super focused in that test and I absolutely
smashed it. I felt like I threw it away there on Saturday, but Josh was riding
good. He kept me honest all weekend. It was tough.”