On The Pegs March 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 3 | Page 45

On The Pegs VOL. 5 ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2020 45 FMF/KTM Factory Racing’s Kailub Russell drew first blood in the 2020 Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series with a decisive victory at the opening round at the GTR Complex in Gaston, South Carolina. Nearly 500 riders competed in the racce, making it the biggest in the history of the series. Kailub celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday after topping the time charts by nearly a minute over Coastal Racing Husqvarna’s Ricky Russell, while Team Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki Team Green’s Josh Strang finished third. Kailub backed up that performance on Sunday by winning five of six tests for the overall victory. “I felt pretty decent and I was pretty happy with where I was on the track and physically,” said Kailub. “Everything was kind of flowing and I was not try- ing overly hard to put in the times that I was putting in. So that was a plus. We made a bunch of changes throughout the weekend with the bike, playing around with it. Just trying to figure out which direc- tion to go when the track gets a certain kind of con- dition. We went back and forth and made a bunch of changes and everything seemed to work pretty well all around for the most part. It was a really solid weekend of tuning and testing and having good results, too.” On Saturday, Kailub won four of the five tests, finish- ing second in test three when he dropped his front wheel in a hole and went down. Am Pro Yamaha’s Layne Michael took advantage of the situation to nip Kailub by about 1.5 seconds at the finish for the test win. Kailub took Saturday’s win by 6.3 seconds over Coastal Racing Husqvarna’s Ricky Russell, who went