Grand slam - Knight Conquers America
By TMX Archives on 2nd Nov 07
The 13-round US Grand National Cross Country series came to a climax at the weekend when Manxman David Knight topped the Ironman GNCC to take over from Finland's Juha Salminen at the top of the United States largest off-road racing series.
BRITAIN'S David Knight is the 2007 US Grand National Cross Country champion. Claiming victory at the 13th and final round of the series in Crawfordsville, Indiana - his seventh win of the season - David joined Australian Shane Watts and Finland's Juha Salminen as one of just three riders to have claimed a World Enduro Championship title, an overall ISDE win and a US GNCC championship.
''Although it's taken a little longer than it should have done, it's great to have finally won the GNCC title,'' explained Knight from the podium.
''It's weird that having had so much bad luck all season that it was Barry Hawk who was the one to have some bad luck for once. I didn't really care if I finished outside the top ten as long as I won the championship, but once I got as good start and I knew Hawk was out, I was able to just go for it.''
The race to win the final round of the GNCC series quickly turned into a two-horse affair as early leader Paul Whibley was quickly passed by Yamaha's Charlie Mullins and Knight.
With Mullins doing all he could to pull away at the front of the Pro class, Knight followed him closely, never more than a few bike lengths behind. With the pair pushing each other hard they soon moved away from Australia's Glenn Kearney who held third and began to open up a sizeable lead over the rest of the Pro class.
Then on lap two, with five laps of the race still to run, the championship battle ended as Yamaha teamster Barry Hawk, the only rider with a mathematical chance of stopping Knight from winning, went out of the race with a broken chain.
With Knight then the series winner whether he finished the race or not, the KTM rider moved passed Mullins and towards his seventh win of the season. Not putting a foot wrong during the closing stages, David crossed the finish line exactly one-minute ahead of Mullins and in doing so ended the GNCC series exactly as he'd planned - with a win.
US GRAND NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY SERIES
Rd 13 - Crawfordsville, Indiana (Ironman GNCC)
Overall: 1 David Knight (KTM) 2:50.01, 2 Charlie Mullins (Yamaha) 2:51.01, 3 Paul Whibley (Honda) 2:53.54, 4 Thad Duvall (Yamaha) 2:54.11, 5 Scott Watkins (Kawasaki) 2:54.15, 6 Justin Williamson (KTM) 2:56.15, 7 Garrett Edmisten (Kawasaki) 2:59.26, 8 Dustin Gibson (KTM) 2:59.52, 9 Wallace Palmer (Kawasaki) 3:01.24, 10 Jimmy Jarrett (Suzuki) 3:01.32,...
Final Series Standings: 1 David Knight 282 points, 2 Barry Hawk (Yamaha) 231, 3 Charlie Mullins 221, 4 Jimmy Jarrett 199, 5 Garrett Edmisten 197, 6 Paul Whibley 186, 7 Glenn Kearney (Suzuki) 184, 8 Josh Strang (Suzuki) 140, 9 Justin Williamson 130, 10 Jesse Robinson (Kawasaki) 123,;..
See T+MX News, Friday, November 2, 2007 for full report and pictures.