A mere 2.624 seconds was the margin of victory for N-Fab AmPro Yamaha’s Daniel Milner after two days of racing special test racing at round three of the 2015 Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series at Staunton MX in Brazil, IN.
FMF/KTM’s Kailub Russell came out swinging on day one taking the win on the first test of the weekend, the cross test, by two seconds. Milner struck back taking the second test win by four seconds, a trend that would continue throughout the weekend with the pair going back and forth with test wins and ultimately taking ten out of eleven wins for the weekend. After the first five tests on day one Milner held a 2.623-second lead over Russell setting the stage for an intense second day of racing.
Milner headed into day two in familiar territory, he had won the first day of racing at round one in South Carolina only to be bested the second day of racing by Russell, losing the overall. With that surely in the back of his mind, the Australian laid down a blistering first test putting nearly three seconds on the KTM rider to give himself a five-second cushion.
Russell struck back in the second test of the day, the enduro test, to take the win by just one second, only to see Milner put 2.5 more seconds on him in the following run of the cross test. With the event looking to be securely in Milner’s grasp, Russell laid down the fastest time (at that point of the weekend) on the enduro test to cut 3.1 seconds into Milner’s lead, then took another second off in the following run of the cross test, although he lost that test to Sipes.
Heading into the final test of the weekend, the enduro test, the tension was palpable as Milner held just a three-second lead over Russell. Knowing that the FMF/KTM superstar had beaten him in the last run of the cross test Milner let it all hang out as he took off onto the test first. Russell, mounted on a 2015 KTM 250-XCF could be heard bouncing off the rev-limiter for the majority of the test, obviously pushing and wanting the test win and the overall as well.
Milner crossed the test of the finish and registered a 7:23.012 time on the enduro test, two seconds faster than Kailub’s previous time on the enduro test which was the fastest at that point of the weekend. Kailub Russell came flying into the finish almost exactly at the fifteen-second gap he left the test behind Milner and rushed to the timing and scoring screen only to see that he had lost the test by four-tenths of a second, giving Milner the overall win, and the win for the day by an insanely close one-thousandth-of-a-second.
The only rider able to steal a special test win away Milner and Russell was Rockstar Energy AirGroup Racing’s Ryan Sipes who finished the weekend in a solid third-place, including a win in the last time on the cross test on day two.
“The weekend was awesome, the tracks were the most fun I have ridden here in the U.S so far, and the racing between myself, Kailub, and Ryan was awesome and would have made it not just interesting for us guys but everyone there and at home watching,” said overall winner, Milner.
KR4/FAR/Husqvarna’s Thad DuVall finished fourth for the weekend just over a minute behind Sipes. Ride MPS/Honda’s Layne Michael rounded out the top-five ahead of FMF/KTM’s Russell Bobbitt, Factory Beta’s Cory Buttrick, and AmPro Yamaha rider Jordan Ashburn.
The top amateur for the weekend was Lites A rider Triston Landrum, who took an impressive ninth-overall finish. Mike Witkowski would round out the top ten overall.
Round four of the Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series will take place August 8-9 at Rockcrush Farm in Young Harris, GA. For more information on the series visit sprintenduro.com.
Overall Results
- Daniel Milner 1:12:39.419
- Kailub Russell 1:12:42.043
- Ryan Sipes 1:13:15.313
- Thad DuVall 1:14:21.258
- Layne Michael 1:15:08.684
- Russell Bobbitt 1:15:17.930
- Cory Buttrick 1:15:41.960
- Jordan Ashburn 1:16:02.729
- Triston Landrum 1:17:12.900 *Top Amateur
- Mike Witkowski 1:17:23.293
