2026 Ironman GNCC Results: Russell Leads a Yamaha 1-2 as the Title Fight Tightens to 11 Points

Jordan Ashburn's Ironman went wrong in the first turn. The GNCC points leader went down on his Phoenix Honda before the field had even reached the woods, and for a while it looked like the title fight was about to flip. It didn't, quite. Ashburn rode back to sixth, Steward Baylor's own afternoon came apart behind him, and Liam Draper took second. With one round left, three riders are separated by 11 points, and the last race is about an hour from Draper's house.

Up front, Kailub Russell won the Yamaha Racing Ironman GNCC at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on Sunday, October 25, leading an AmPro Yamaha 1-2 with Draper, per the official GNCC race report. It was round 12 of 13 in the Progressive GNCC series, and it was Russell's first overall win of 2026.

Ashburn's turn-one crash and Baylor's long day

Ashburn's crash should have been the story of the day. Instead it was Baylor's. The Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki Team Green rider started the weekend second in points and was running in a podium spot for a while, according to Racer X's race story. Then he crashed and damaged his air box, which matters a lot in dust like Ironman's. He got that fixed, then later ran out of gas, pushed to the pits and lost more time in a long stop there.

Somehow he still finished seventh overall. The Racer X results put him just 3.7 seconds behind Ashburn at the flag, 3:16:30.894 to 3:16:27.236 after more than three hours of racing. Sixth paid Ashburn one more point than seventh paid Baylor, so the gap between them went from eight points to nine.

Both of the top two had a bad day, and Ashburn still left Indiana with a slightly bigger lead.

Draper is back in it

The rider who really gained was Draper. Before Ironman he was third in the standings, 21 points behind Ashburn, per the GNCC Mason-Dixon report. Second place on Sunday took 10 of those points back. He's now two points behind Baylor and 11 behind Ashburn.

"I knew the start was going to play the biggest role in today's race," Draper told Racer X. "I got a good start, third going into the woods, then Kailub and Grant [Davis] got together, Kailub got away first but I got a free pass around Grant. I feel like me and Kailub yo-yoed all day, and I knew on the last lap it was going to be tough to get to him, so I brought it home in second."

The Overall National Championship standings after round 12, which decide the 2026 GNCC National Champion:

1. Jordan Ashburn (Honda) - 202
2. Steward Baylor Jr. (Kawasaki) - 193
3. Liam Draper (Yamaha) - 191
4. Craig Delong (Husqvarna) - 159
5. Ben Kelley - 157
6. Michael Witkowski (Honda) - 137
7. Kailub Russell (Yamaha) - 129
8. Grant Davis (KTM) - 120
9. Angus Riordan (Honda) - 119
10. Jhak Walker (Beta) - 119

Those numbers come from the official GNCC report and match Racer X and Dirt Bike Magazine. Riordan and Walker are tied on 119, and the published lists don't agree on which of them goes ninth. Delong is 43 points back in fourth, so this one is down to three riders.

Russell finally gets one

Russell's return from retirement has had rough patches, and he'll tell you so. He won a race in his first comeback season last year, per Racer X, and Ironman makes it a win in both seasons. This one took a while to come.

"Man, it's awesome, it feels great to finally get one," Russell told RacerTV and FloRacing. "This year was looking pretty dismal at times. Started out rough, then I got going, then I got banged up. I just fell into a hole. I couldn't get starts and I just wasn't riding well."

He'd also moved back to a 450 for this one. "First win on the 450, too, we switched it back up and got back on the 450. I knew this place was going to be fast, so I needed the extra power," he said.

The former champion also admitted he doesn't have the old killer instinct in traffic. He singled out Baylor and Grant Davis as riders who are "so aggressive at picking guys out and doing it fast," and said, "I just don't have that dog in me anymore, I'm getting old!" On a dusty day when the start mattered more than usual, he didn't need it. Russell won in 3:09:42.690, 1:27.040 ahead of Draper, per Racer X's timing.

Witkowski's home-state podium, Davis's heartbreak

Third overall went to Phoenix Racing Honda's Michael Witkowski, who lists North Liberty, Indiana, as home, so this was a podium in his own state. It almost wasn't his. Grant Davis was running third until a bike problem stopped him less than a minute from the finish line, per Racer X. Davis is still listed eighth in the Open Pro class results.

Witkowski earned the spot the hard way anyway. "Yeah, man honestly just a poor start and bad vision in the early laps, that made it so tough today," he said. "I just kept chipping away, but then we had to change a filter. Kept chipping, and right there at the end we got there. I'll take it, I just stayed steady all day."

Top 10 overall

Times and gaps from Racer X's results page, with the order matching the GNCC report. Racer X's table header shows October 24, the start of the race weekend; the Pro bike race ran Sunday, October 25.

1. Kailub Russell (Yamaha) - 3:09:42.690
2. Liam Draper (Yamaha) - +1:27.040
3. Michael Witkowski (Honda) - +4:20.388
4. Jhak Walker (Beta) - +5:09.884
5. Craig Delong (Husqvarna) - +5:32.521
6. Jordan Ashburn (Honda) - +6:44.546
7. Steward Baylor (Kawasaki) - +6:48.204
8. Jason Tino (KTM) - +7:03.311
9. Ryder Lafferty (Honda) - +7:46.530
10. Toby Cleveland (Husqvarna) - +7:57.402

Delong, who won the non-points Mason-Dixon round this month, was fifth. In the Open Pro class it finished Russell, Draper, Witkowski, Delong, Ashburn, Baylor, Lafferty, Davis, Evan Smith and Korey McMahon.

Walker wins XC2, and that title is tied

Liqui Moly Factory Beta's Jhak Walker won the XC2 250 Pro class and finished fourth overall in the combined Pro race. FMF KTM's Jason Tino was second in class and eighth overall, and Toby Cleveland took third in class and 10th overall on his Bells Electric/Beaver Creek Cycle Husqvarna, per Dirt Bike Magazine. That's three 250s in the overall top 10.

The XC2 points fight is about as close as it gets. Walker and Angus Riordan are tied on 251 after Riordan finished fifth in class, and Tino is 14 back on 237, per the Racer X standings.

WXC goes down to the wire

In the morning race, FMF KTM's Brandy Richards won WXC ahead of AmPro Yamaha's Danielle McDonald and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Korie Steede. Richards leads the standings with 265 points, with Steede and McDonald tied on 249, so that title also goes to the final round, per the GNCC report.

Brayden Baisley took Top Amateur honors in 12th overall, and earlier in the weekend Phillip Arnold clinched the Youth Bike Overall National Championship.

What to watch at the Buckwheat 100

The finale is the Buckwheat 100 at CJ Raceway in Newburg, West Virginia. The weekend opens Friday, November 6, per the GNCC schedule. Here's what the Overall title comes down to:

1. Ashburn controls it. Nine points over Baylor and 11 over Draper means a clean, steady ride probably gets it done. Ironman also showed he can recover from a first-turn crash.
2. Baylor needs to beat Ashburn by enough and keep Draper behind him. He came back from a crash, a damaged air box and an empty tank to finish seventh, so nobody should count him out.
3. Draper has the momentum and the home ground. "CJ Raceway, that's home for me, it's an hour from my house and I'm good friends with the family that owns the property, so I'm looking forward to it," he said after Ironman.

Add a tied XC2 fight and a three-rider WXC race, and it's a weekend worth watching. Earlier rounds are on our GNCC hub.

Further reading

• Yamaha Racing Ironman: Motorcycle Race Report - GNCC Racing
• Kailub Russell Nets a 2026 Win, Title Drama Continues - Racer X
• Ironman results and standings - Racer X
• 2026 Ironman GNCC results - Dirt Bike Magazine
• 2026 GNCC schedule - GNCC Racing

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