Layne Michael and Jordan Ashburn would battle back and forth for the second-place position through the first half of the race, still staying within 20-seconds or so of Russell. Unfortunately, Michael would suffer a mechanical issue on lap four, ultimately ending his day early. This would push Ashburn into the second-place spot in the latter stages of the race, when another challenge would come along, this time from Baylor, who had spent the first part of the race hovering around the fifth and fourth place positions.

Baylor would battle with Ashburn all the way down to the finish, with Baylor ending the day in the second-place spot and Ashburn rounding out the podium in third. Round three winner, Delong, would stay true to his ‘consistent top five’ reputation to come away in the fourth-place spot while Kelley would salvage a fifth place after experiencing some struggles throughout the day, coming from as far back as tenth place around the halfway portion of the race.

What Does This Do to The Championship Chase?

Obviously it’s still very early in the hunt for the GNCC championship to pick a clear favorite, especially when four different riders have been able to claim overall wins. However, with these four rounds in the books it looks as if consistent podium finishes are key to success in the 2023 season. Yeah, that’s the case for any season, but with a full field of healthy and capable talent, it seems to be especially important this year.

With these four rounds in the books, Baylor now controls the championship points lead by six points over Kelley. Delong sits in the third-place spot, seven points behind Kelley and 13 points out of the lead while Russell is fourth, 16 points behind Delong. Defending series champ, Ashburn, rounds out the top five just five points behind Russell. This means there’s a 34-point spread from first to fifth, and an overall win at a GNCC event pays a total of 30 points.

Additionally, the championship is determined by the overall finishing order of the day (the XC1 and XC2 classes race at the same time) and not just the XC1 Class, so if you have one freak mechanical issue and finish outside the top 20, you’re left scoring zero points for that event. This is why consistently finishing GNCC events makes a big difference, as there are many, many factors in a long, three-hour GNCC event that can come into play and make or break an entire race in the matter of seconds!

Shaking Things Up in XC2!

The XC2 250 Pro class continues to provide excitement as there’s now been a huge shake up after round four. Ryder Lafferty has been the man to beat thus far in 2023 after two wins in the opening two rounds, before some struggles at that nasty and muddy round three would leave him in the seventh-place spot. Regardless, Lafferty would still hold the XC2 Class points lead coming into round four, where things would go south a bit as he lost a ton of time due to, yes, one of those freak mechanical issues we mentioned. Lafferty would end up a lap down and while he did finish the race, he ended the day 17th in the XC2 class, which only netted him four championship points.

This would help open things up for a big battle for the XC2 class race win, as a number of riders would challenge each other back and forth throughout the race. It would first be Liam Draper leading the opening lap before Ruy Barbosa would take over the lead on lap two. Draper would then take the lead back on lap three. It would then be Barbosa’s Phoenix Honda teammate, Cody Barnes, working his way into the lead on laps four and five as an all-out battle would shape up for the race win.

When the white flag flew, Barnes held the lead by just one second over Barbosa and three seconds over Draper in third. These three would continue to battle through the final lap, with Barbosa ultimately taking the lead away to claim his first-ever XC2 class win, just ahead of Barnes in second (about only one second behind!) and Draper in third. Mason Semmens would ride to his best finish of the 2023 season with a fourth-place finish while Angus Riordan rounded out the top five of the XC2 class.

Much like the battle for the GNCC National Championship, the battle for the XC2 championship is heating up as well. With Lafferty’s misfortune at round four, Riordan takes over the XC2 class points lead by just two points over Barbosa. Lafferty drops to third but is still just five points out of the lead, which just so happens to be the spread from first place to second place, so a race win at round five very well could put him either back in the XC2 lead, or tied for the lead, depending on Riordan’s finish. Things could get very interesting for the XC2 leaders in the coming rounds.