{"id":148315,"date":"2025-09-16T21:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148315\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:41:13","slug":"ricky-russell-delivers-triumphs-first-win-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148315\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Russell Delivers Triumph\u2019s First Win in Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tEnduro Engineering Triumph Off-Road Racing Team\u2019s Ricky Russell claims the overall win at the Red Line Oil Lead Belt National where Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green Riders Capture NE Pro2 and Women\u2019s Elite Victories.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>With three rounds remaining in the 2025 season, the Redline Oil AMA National Enduro Series, presented by MSR and Beta Motorcycles, headed to Missouri where intense heat and dust were the theme of the day, as racers struggled to maintain a clear line-of-sight.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>The Missouri Mudders put together six sections, totaling nearly 44 miles, for competitors at the Red Line Oil Lead Belt National Enduro to tackle. Two 6.5-mile tests opened the day. Racers then took on two 8-mile sections. Nearing the end of the day, racers carved their way through a 7.5-mile section before concluding with a 7-mile test.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Overall Podium&#13;<\/p>\n<p>After a podium finish at the prior round boosted his confidence, Enduro Engineering Triumph Off-Road Racing Team\u2019s Ricky Russell claimed the overall in Missouri after dominating the day aboard his Triumph 250x. He won all but the last test, taking second to finish out the day. It marked the NE Pro1 rider\u2019s first-ever National Enduro win and also signaled the first individual race win for Triumph in the series since the early 1970s.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI finished the Rattlesnake [National] with a good win on that last test,\u201d said Ricky Russell. \u201cI just knew that if I could just do that today and just ride like I know how, we\u2019ll be good. I got out there, and it was definitely dusty and tricky. So, you got to know where to push and where to kind of back off and not take the chances. I got sketchy a few times, but I held on to her. No crashes until the last test where I crashed twice. Almost had the sweep on the day, but Grant [Baylor] snuck in there and got that sixth test win. I\u2019m really happy to get this done, though. It\u2019s my first-ever NEPG win, so I can\u2019t really complain\u2026 I\u2019ve been on the podium here and there quite a bit but was never able to click off that win. So, I\u2019m really happy to do it the way we did today.\u201d&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"lead_belt_national_enduro_2025_grant_baylor\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lead_belt_national_enduro_2025_grant_baylor.jpg\"\/>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Grant Baylor of Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green went 4-4 in NE Pro1 through the first two tests. He then picked up the pace and collected a pair of second-place results through the next two sections. He went 3-1 to round out the day, taking away Russell\u2019s chance of a clean sweep on the day.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRicky [Russell] was on rails all day today, and it was a battle for second place between me, Ben [Kelley] and my brother [Steward Baylor Jr.],\u201d said Grant Baylor. \u201cI\u2019ve come here over the years, and I know this place is sketchy and it\u2019s one of those that can jump up and bite you really quick. So, my goal today was just to get through in one piece. You couldn\u2019t really see anywhere where you\u2019re going out there. It was all just blind dust. There was a couple spots of clear trail there in like test five and test six. It got a little bit more rocky, so the dust wasn\u2019t as bad. It was a long day out there struggling with the heat and the dust. I hadn\u2019t been that hot on a dirtbike in years, man. I mean, it was pretty brutal out there towards the end of the day\u2026 I got a test win at the end of the day and that was cool. Hadn\u2019t won a test in one of these in a couple years. So, I\u2019m excited to be back in the mix with the guys and get up here on the podium again.\u201d&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ben-kelley-3\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ben-kelley-3.jpg\"\/>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>FMF KTM Factory Racing Team\u2019s Ben Kelley opened the day with a strong second-place finish. He followed it up with 2-3-4-2 results before taking third in the last test of the day in Missouri.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first half of the day, I was pretty solid,\u201d said Ben Kelley. \u201cI was right there in the fight. I was sitting second a lot. Then in test four, I had a pretty big crash. I\u2019m lucky to be okay. I had another solid test five. Then test six, I was &#8212; I think &#8212; eight seconds down on Grant [Baylor] for second. So, we were having another close battle for that second-place spot, and I think I just overrode it a little bit. Tried a little too hard. I had two crashes out there. And man, that test was tough. It was super tight, super physical and it was a long hot day. But yeah, overall, I\u2019m happy with the way I rode. Just a few mistakes but happy to come away from here with another podium finish and be in the fight again.\u201d&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ne-pro-2-podium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ne-pro-2-podium.jpg\"\/>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>NE Pro2 Podium&#13;<\/p>\n<p>With the NE Pro2 win at the Red Line Oil Lead Belt National Enduro, Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green\u2019s Nicholas Defeo secured his fifth podium of the year while also taking fifth overall. He kicked the day off with a test win before going 2-4-2-2-1 on the day, as he battled visibility issues amid the dusty conditions.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Beta USA\u2019s Jhak Walker also collected his fifth podium of the season, taking second in class with 5-4-2 results through the first three tests. He snatched the NE Pro2 wins in Tests 4 and 5 before rounding out the day with a runner-up result. \u00a0&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Kawasaki-mounted Will Sievenpiper of Georgia rounded out the NE Pro2 podium. Fifth in the opening test, he went on to earn fourth in Test 2. He pushed his pace in the third section to take a runner-up finish, then claimed wins in the next two tests. He capped the day with a second-place result in the final test, despite experiencing a loss of braking power after he sheared off the rear master cylinder.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"rachael-archer\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rachael-archer.jpg\"\/>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s Elite Podium&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green\u2019s Rachael Archer never fell below second on the day. The Women\u2019s Elite reigning champion went 1-1-2-2-2-1 to earn her third win of the year. She swapped places with Enduro Engineering\u2019s Shelby Turner throughout the day.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Although Turner has yet to collect a win this year, she\u2019s been close. She was just 17 seconds off of Archer on the day. The Canadian has notched five podiums this year, including this round, aboard her GasGas.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Brooke Cosner of Maryland rounded out the Women\u2019s Elite podium on her Kawasaki. Consistency was key, even while she battled the scorching heat, as she took third through every test in Missouri.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Top Amateurs&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Notching his fifth 250A class win of the year, Missouri\u2019s James Jenkins also claimed 13th overall aboard his Kawasaki. After taking third in class for the first test, he went on to top every test for the remainder of the day.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>TJ Gould of Arkansas won the AA class and secured 14th overall. The Sherco rider went 2-1-1-1-2-1 on the day in his class.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Overall Results \u2013 Red Line Oil Lead Belt National (top 20)&#13;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"lead_belt_national_enduro_2025_results_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lead_belt_national_enduro_2025_results_.jpg\"\/>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>View full event results and series standings at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalenduro.com\/scoring\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">www.nationalenduro.com\/scoring<\/a> \u00a0&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Pro Podium Interviews:&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Words credit: Heather Wilson Schiltz&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Mack Faint&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enduro Engineering Triumph Off-Road Racing Team\u2019s Ricky Russell claims the overall win at the Red Line Oil Lead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[100055,64,63,87132,100058,806,805,803,804,100056,100057,85],"class_list":["post-148315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-ama-national-enduro","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baylor","tag-enduro-engineering","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nepg","tag-ricky-rusell","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}