Quick Fill #36: This Week in GNCC

Welcome to Quick Fill. And welcome back to the races!

It's on this weekend at Unadilla. Not only the biggest race of the year in terms of riders, but the full-on return to the championship battles we watched closely from March through June. This is the final push for wins, titles and momentum, and Unadilla provides the perfect setting.

Mud has been a part of the proceedings ever since we started racing at 'Dilla in 2005, but this year we've moved the date up a bit to try to improve our odds of getting warm, dry weather. Last week at the Steel City round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, I met up with Unadilla owners Jill and Greg Robinson and asked about this weekend's event. As luck would have it, the forecast called for sunshine all week this week with chances of rain beginning on the weekend. Wouldn't you know it!

Actually, it's not as bad as you think, just a small chance of showers each day. Should be better than usual there.

Don't expect too many track changes at 'Dilla compared to previous years, but we never really had any complaints about the track anyway. You get to ride the famous motocross track, of course, and the dirt in the woods is nice and loamy. There might not be a motocross track in the world that has hosted the level of talent Unadilla has, everyone has raced there, from Roger DeCoster and Bob Hannah, to Rick Johnson, Jeff Stanton, Jeremy McGrath, Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed and Travis Pastrana. The ATV motocross series has been racing there for the last few years, as had the GNCC tour.

We've had some good races there, too. I think Nate Kanney's breakthrough pro win against Juha Salminen in 2006 may be the most memorable, but so many other great ones come to mind: Bryan Cook's win at the first event back in 2005, when everyone was getting stuck in this massive swamp down by the railroad tracks. Or Chris Bithell's maiden Can-Am DS450 win last year. And David Knight just stomped everyone the last two years-he won't be here this time so we will either have a new winner, or a Kanney repeat.

You've got to be looking forward to the return to this torrid battle for the bike championship, with Paul Whibley, Josh Strang and Charlie Mullins glued to each other in points. Jimmy Jarrett is usually right there. Then you have spoilers-Kanney, Barry Hawk and Thad DuVall have to be bummed about the way their seasons have gone thus far, and this weekend could be the start of their revenge. All three have the speed to do it.

"I will definitely have to go out there and put in some good results," Whibley told us this week.  "It's hardly sewn up. I've been training hard. I'm confident I'm in good as shape if I have been but I'm sure they've been doing the same. It's going to be close right down to the final round."

"I think these tracks suit me better than the other guys," Strang told us. "Making a comeback, and winning the championship, is my goal. My confidence is very high. I'm definitely ready to go."

The bike XC2 class has cooled a bit from the crazy early-season charge when the 250F guys were mixing it up for overall leads and wins. Kailub Russell still holds a big points lead. A few weeks ago a rumor surfaced that KR had broken his arm in a crash, but I talked to him this week and he says he just hurt it pretty bad, but it's not broken. He even rode some motos at Steel City's amateur day on Sunday to test it and he said he felt fine. Russell has a 56-point lead right now, and if he wraps the crown up early he said he'll race a 450 in XC1 ASAP.

The usual suspects will be at Unadilla to try to stop Kailub from wrapping it up early: Cory Buttrick, Jason Thomas, Scotty Watkins and Jake Korn. Korn is a relatively local product, so look out for him.

On ATVs, the points race is not that tight, but the history on the line makes this all just as dramatic. Is doesn't look likely that Bill Ballance will pull off his tenth GNCC Title. It does look likely that Chris Borich will be the man to end Ballance's streak, and if the racing Gods are fair at all, Borich will be the guy to do it because no one has come closer than he has to derailing Bill. But he still has to get it done, and the man has been cursed down the stretch in year's past. Blown motors, bent spindles, busted shocks, you name it, Borich has watched the late-season points lead slip through his grip too many darned times. I bet Taylor Kiser and Adam McGill couldn't care less about Borich's place in history and just want to beat the guy for the championship!

Read more about Borich with Rachel "Icing" Fluharty's Tuesday Toolbox with him.

http://www.gnccracing.com/articles/1633_tuesday-toolbox-chris-borich

In XC2, Brian Wolf now gets to test the "once you win one, the others come easy" mantra, although he won't have the crazy Snowshoe starting order to help him get the overall this time. And honestly he's just more concerned with beating Josh Kirkland for the XC2 Championship, anway. Waiting in the wings? Walker Fowler, who needs a third or better this weekend to wrap up the College A class, and Walker will run XC2 as soon as he wraps up College A.

We've got youth racing here, too. Chris Meadows has a quite run going this year, with six overall wins in nine races. The Youth ATV series has been all over the darned map with overall winners. The latest run comes from Doug Howarth, who is a New York native, and won the last two races overall. Lot's of good racing in both Youth divisions.

Parts Unlimited will host a dinner Saturday night at the track, as mentioned here last week. Should start at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Bike guys, load up the day before you race. ATV guys, get a free bite to eat before you hit the road. Big thanks to Parts Unlimited for supporting the sport, and big thanks to Frank from the ever-famous New York Pizzeria for putting all the food together. And when you're traveling through downtown New Berlin, stop by his restaurant. It's good!

The Can-Am folks are going to have some 2010 models on display this weekend. Stop by their display truck to check out some of the new technology, including their new DPS power-steering system. Some of the Can-Am GNCC guys have been testing this system for a year now, and Bryan Buckhannon told me it filters out impacts to the bars as well as a steering-dampner set on full stiff, but it doesn't take nearly as much effort to turn the bars.

I just wanted to share these photos because they're so amazing. Doug Henry, the all-time legend of motocross and supercross showed up and won the Florida GNCC in 2005, is back on a bike! Doug is paralyzed from a supermoto accident near Daytona a few years ago, but he has rigged up a cage system and electric shifting for his WR450 so he can still ride. And, of course, Doug only rides one way: wide open! CLICK HERE FOR SOME CRAZY PHOTOS.

We found this cool event report on an ATV and Side-by-Side event in Tennessee, and discovered that GNCC Women's racer Jesi Stracham had taken the win in the Women's mud bog! CLICK HERE.

Another one of our female racers, Women's Bike racer Kelly Hall, is headed to Spain to study for college for a few months. She'll be back racing next year. Have fun and be safe over there, Kelly!

A few weeks ago we mentioned that two doctors are going to volunteer their time to attend the ISDE and support the American riders. This will be a huge benefit to the riders, because when you ride for six days, injuries will happen, and having doctors you're familiar with really helps out. Riderdown.org is looking to raise $3000 to get Dr. James McGee, an ER physician and Mike "Spook" McGee, a certified life flight paramedic/massage therapist, to the event. Donna Macan, our own GNCC sign-up women, is spearheading the effort. Donate, please, and help our riders out! CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

Don't forget with the return of the GNCCs comes the return of Track Smack Live! Hosts Rodney Tomblin and David Smith will have a bunch of guests lined up for ATV night (Friday) and bike night (Saturday). Tune it in at 6 p.m., we will have a link to the show right here on GNCCRacing.com

Have you checked out our social network sites? www.twitter.com/gnccracing and myspace.com/gnccseries

With that, we better go, because you folks need to get on the road and so do we. The Racer Productions bus leaves the office in about an hour and I need to get on board. See you at the races!