2025 GNCC Round 12 Results

Shan Moore | October 13, 2025

Thirty-five-year-old Kailub Russell made a remarkable comeback by winning his first GNCC race since retiring from full-time professional racing four years ago. Russell somewhat surprisingly took the overall victory at the John Penton GNCC, round 12 of the 13-race series in Millfield, Ohio. Riding for AmPro Yamaha, Russell took the lead on the fourth lap of the five-lap race, finishing just three seconds ahead of his teammate, Liam Draper, and four seconds ahead of XC2 rider Cody Barnes from Phoenix Honda after adjusted time.

Kailub Russell at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **Kailub Russell, who recently came out of retirement, got back to his winning ways, topping the field at the John Penton GNCC in Ohio.**

Photos by Mack Faint

“I need to remember this one,” Russell said. “These are getting harder to come by. I just stuck with it and kept trying. There were times when I wanted to give up, but I just kept fighting. Man, I have to thank the whole team, Cory and Ryan and everybody underneath the tent. It’s been a struggle trying to get used to this bike and dealing with some issues. I just chipped away, chipped away. I’m to the point where I’m riding my motorcycle and I’m having fun with it, and I’m not just thinking about what the motorcycle is doing the whole time. Then I honestly just willed myself to get that one.”

Coming into the race, most of the talk surrounded the battle for the overall championship between FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Grant Davis and FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Ben Kelley. Kelley had wrapped up the 2025 GNCC XC1 Open Pro title with a runner-up finish at the previous round in September, the Mountaineer GNCC; however, the former champ was still in a fierce fight for the series overall championship with XC2 250 Pro division rider Davis, who was leading the overall standings by 20 points ahead of Kelley. So far, Davis had secured four overall wins (in addition to eight XC2 victories), compared to two for Kelley. According to both riders, the only two with a mathematical chance, the overall title was the only thing that mattered.

Held under a cloud of the recent passing of the event’s namesake, John Penton, who died on September 7, 2025, 19 days after celebrating his 100th birthday, the event played out under beautiful weather on a perfect racecourse, which included some never-before-used trail, as well as the notoriously rugged “John Penton Section.” A celebration of life was held on Friday before the event for Penton.

Grant Davis at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **GNCC points leader Grant Davis (1) crashed out of the race and now heads the championship by just seven points with one race to go. He did clinch the XC2 title.**

To start the race, each of the two overall contenders grabbed the holeshot in their respective classes, possibly leading to a potential showdown for the win.

Kelley led Draper early on, trying to extend his lead enough to cover the time difference between the XC1 row and the XC2 row. Following came Phoenix Honda’s Mike Witkowski and Flatrock Motorclub GasGas Factory Racing’s Jordan Ashburn.

Crossing the scoring line after lap one, six XC2 riders had turned faster lap times than Kelley, partly due to the XC1 riders having to break in the new trail, but the times indicated an ultimate battle royale for the overall.

Defending champion, FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Johnny Girroir, still recovering from injury, made his return to racing and was running at the rear of the XC1 class.

Draper passed Kelley for the lead on lap two and opened a gap over the KTM rider.

Liam Draper at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **Liam Draper made it an AmPro Yamaha 1-2.**

Lap three was pivotal in the five-lap race, causing a major shakeup. Kelley tightened up and dropped back to sixth physically on the course. Even more importantly, Davis crashed heavily at the FMF Power Point portion of the course.

Russell took over the runner-up position behind Draper during the upheaval. Witkowski held down third, with Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green’s Grant Baylor in fourth and Liquid-Moly Beta’s Josh Strang in fifth, physically.

On lap four, the distance between Draper, Russell and Witkowski tightened up, though Phoenix Honda XC2 rider Cody Barnes and FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Gus Riordan now held down the top two overall positions after Davis’ get-off.

Russell was on the move and finally displaced Draper for the top position, dropping Draper to second, with Barnes now holding the overall lead on adjusted time.

At the finish, Russell took the checkered flag first and then waited for Barnes to finish, hoping he had made up enough on the adjusted time to claim his 68th GNCC overall victory. After calculations were made, Russell had taken the win by three seconds over Draper, with Barnes in third overall and first in the XC2 class.

Cody Barnes at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **Cody Barnes captured his first XC2-class win of the year in third overall.**

“It felt good to even win the XC1 class, but to win the overall, I’m so stoked,” said Russell. “I didn’t think it was going to happen, to be honest with you. Hopefully, we can just stay healthy and build some momentum for next year. I want to come out and fight for the championship. I believe I can do it.”

After passing Kelley, Draper controlled most of the race until Russell went by on lap four.

“After the start, I went into the woods behind Kelley, and I passed him in the Penton section on the first lap, and then he got me back, so I was kind of riding behind him,” said Draper. “Then Ben dropped back, and I saw KR coming, and he got me at the end of the Penton section.”

With a third overall, Barnes claimed his first overall podium.

“I just tried to hang with Grant [Davis],” said Barnes. “He made some passes, and luckily, one of the hills got a bottleneck in it, and we took a different line and got past a bunch of guys, but then he ended up going down pretty hard, and I got into the overall lead. I got hooked up with Ben, and he made a good push at the two-lap board. I’m pumped to get my first XC2 win of the year. This place has been good to me.”

On the last lap, Barnes and Kelley banged bars. “Last lap, we got to the Penton section and took an alternate line around some briars, and we both came together,” Barnes said. “Man, I feel so bad. There was nothing I could do; neither of us could see each other. We lost some time. That was a bummer.”

Strang was fourth overall and third overall in XC1. “I pushed it a little hard today, but I felt good,” said Strang. “I felt comfortable for the most part, and there was a gap there with, like, two laps to go, and I was able to catch up to the top three. And on the last lap in the Penton section, there was a big log that we were going over on the first few laps, and the last two laps I saw the boys were going high and right, and I just went over the main line again and passed Witkowski there and was able to catch Liam and Kailub. Overall, I’m happy.”

Ben Kelley at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **Ben Kelley, eighth overall on the day, also trails Grant Davis by seven points in the overall GNCC Championship.**

Kelley finished eighth overall and gained 13 points on Davis in the race for the overall championship, with Davis still leading the overall standings but by only seven points over Kelley. Despite not finishing the race, Davis was able to lock up the XC2 class title.

Witkowski held on for fifth overall, with Riordan, Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green’s Grant Baylor, Kelley, Brody Johnson (Honda) and Enduro Engineering Triumph Racing’s Ricky Russell (Triumph) rounding out the top 10.

Heading into the series finale at the Ironman, Davis holds the lead in the overall standings with 247 points, followed by Kelley with 240. Barnes sits third with 182, followed by Riordan with 181 and Draper with 175.

Canadian Philippe Chaine won the XC3 125 Pro-Am class on a KTM, topping Jayson Crawford (Yamaha) and Isaiah Brown (Yamaha) in the process.

Korie Steede at 2025 John Penton GNCC — **Korie Steede (444) topped the WXC class and trails Rachael Archer by just seven points in the championship with one to go.**

In the WXC Women’s Pro Division, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Korie Steede topped FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Brandy Richards by two seconds for the victory, with Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green’s Rachael Archer bringing home third.

“I started off in second on the first lap, but I never stopped fighting,” said Steede. “It was technical, and we were really struggling with lappers. But I just kept pounding away.”

The WXC Championship will come down to Steede versus Archer. Whichever one wins the Ironman GNCC October 24-26 will be the WXC champ.CN