Going to be a good weekend this weekend, as the good folks of Union County always roll out the red carpet for GNCC Racing. This will be the 14th annual Big Buck GNCC, with presenting sponsorship once again by our friends at Pirelli. Track owner Henry Turner gets really into this event, and over the years he has solicited the help of Union County officials and dignitaries to make this event even better.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Henry Turner (next to the soldier in camo) always treats the GNCC family like his own.
Unfortunately, we won't have nine-time GNCC Champion Bill Ballance in the mix this weekend. Word leaked out early this week that Bill had taken on a major crash in practice, I believe on Monday, and is in bad condition. Could be two broken arms and a broken vertebrae for all-time winningest GNCC racer ever, his condition is still being evaluated. This could potentially end Bill's season, or worse yet, end his career, as he was expecting this season to be his last (and an injury like this may only make him think it should be). We wish Bill the best in a speedy recovery, even if it only means we see him at the track soon and not on it.
And yes, in the standard cruel reality of racing, Bill was coming off of his best run of the season at Steele Creek two weeks ago. Perhaps more wins were in store for him...but now we can only guess.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Bill Ballance is down and down hard.
Thanks Jason! Ready! Set! Here we go again! It's time for the Pirelli Big Buck GNCC and the excitement is building all around Union County, South Carolina. It's like a spring time holiday here and Mother Nature is sure to greet us with some beautiful scenery. The Trees are blooming and flowers are popping out everywhere. If you have allergies, better load up on your "anti-whatever it is" that helps and get ready for a great weekend of racing.
This year we begin our third year of the UTV racing series. As this will be the second of 6 rounds this year, expect the gloves to come off as these guys and gals lay it all out on the line for the chance to win in this relatively new form of off-road racing. Former ATV Pro and Inaugural UTV Champ, William Yokely in his National Guard, Dragon fire, Polaris will line up against the most competitive field of competition to date. Yokely is coming off a lack luster 2nd season performance and is now totally dedicated to the new sport. William won the championship the first year, but could only back that up with a 10th overall finish last year. One thing seems to be apparent though, and it that we should see the National Guard driver trying to make up for lost ground and should translate into quite possibly the best seaon in this series so far. Team Starret, steered by Josh Starrett is going to be hard to beat, even for Team Yokely. There are several teams to keep an eye on this year and Scott Kiger's team is going to be in it to win it. Kiger and his crew are about the most serious as any team I have ever seen. I mean when you show up the races in a new hauler with 5 built to the hilt UTVs at nearly $20,000.00 each in your double stack trailer, I think that you may be out to do something big. So this UTV season could be a good one to catch the UTV Fever.
On the more traditional GNCC side of things, the stage is once again set for an epic championship battle. On the pro side of things, we know that Borich is blazing fast right now and seems to have all the bases covered. Kiser is definitely in this championship hunt and unfortunate for him (and all GNCC ATV fans), his teammate and team manager, Bill Ballance is out for what could be a long time. And as far as the bike side of things goes, whoa; is anybody going to stop Josh Strang? Strang is hoping to make it 4 in a row here at the Big Buck, but even Juha Salminen found his gremlins here in South Carolina. Will Josh avoid the noids and keep the streak rolling? Sure is going to be fun to see.
Another race I think folks are going to be watching closely will the 10:00 a.m. race on Saturday morning. The season has started out to be one of the most exciting events of the day. I am talking everyone from the Women to the 4X4 Utilities and now Super Senior 50 Plus.
Photo By: Courtesy Big Buck Racing
Ms. South Carolina even came to the races last year!
The 4X4 Utility ATVs have once again left us on the edge of our seats. And the good thing for us as fans is that the season is still young and plenty will still happen. One thing for sure that will not happen this year is that Michael Swift will not have a perfect season. Swift came up short in North Carolina finishing his worst finish in at least 2 years with a 4th. As cool as it would be to have a second perfect season, Michael knows that winning the 4X4 Limited championship is the goal. Two riders do however still have the chance at a perfect season. Those riders are 4X4 Lites point's leader, Kevin Trantham and U2 Class newbie and points leader, Clifton Beasley. Trantham finished 2nd to Beasley last year in the Lites Class who nearly had the perfect season with 12 wins and is looking to dominate the class in 2010. If you were wondering how Beasley would hold up with the class change, I think the question has been answered. He is going to do just fine!
And lastly, I have to give a shout out to the Super Senior 50 Plus class. One of the last conversations that I had with the late John Gallagher Sr. was one about this class and what we saw happen a few weeks ago at the Steel Creek GNCC. That was of course the most highly anticipated graduations we have ever seen in a Senior class. I read about it all winter long and watched the debates in the forums as to who was going to be faster and who was going to be "The Man" as far as the Super Senior class goes. The battle that folks were so keyed up over was the ensuing battle between defending class champion Glen "Jody" Pritchard and top senior class rider, Dave Simmons. We had to wait till round 3 when Simmons was finally 50 to see it all finally come to fruition.
I felt goose bumps as the Super Seniors took off and I could hear in my mind John G chuckling with excitement as Pritchard and Simmons left us all wanting more after the spectacular battle through the first 4 turns and into the woods. Pritchard got the early jump, but Simmons was right there, slamming into Pritchard who was ready to answer back. The North Carolina race fans erupted in cheers and whistles as these two went at it "Wheel to Wheel". The track crew even stopped what they were doing to radio updates in from the amazing battle. I spoke with Jody after the race and he said he had the most fun he has ever had racing ATVs till a mechanical failure (I think it may have been something electrical...but not sure) took him out of the battle and left Dave to race his heart out on his way to capturing the morning overall win. I for one cannot wait to see how the next showdown between these two will unfold. And it happens this Saturday at The Big Buck GNCC.
Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs!!
Thanks, Rodney. Now onto Rachel "questions for you" Fluharty.
I love the Big Buck GNCC. Henry Turner and his crew really make the event very special for the GNCC family and his farm is beautiful. To make it even better is the continuation of some really great battles in the youth classes. The Girls (8-15) class has a lot of great young talent in it. Kamren Bobb, Cassie Rudisull, Deanna Canipe and Kira Campbell are seeing a lot of time in the front of that class.
Another cool chick that recently spent some time on the podium, is Emily Wise, who grabbed third overall in North Carolina, behind Levi Coen and Hunter Hart, the two that have been battling for first place overall. Coen is leading the 90 Mod (12-15) class by several points but I think he's been surprised to see Hunter up there challenging him for the overalls. Hunter's dad told me in Georgia that Hunter might start getting into bikes too.
Photo By: www.racedaypix.com
Still praying for Cheyenne Smith. Visit www.racedaypix.com
Speaking of going 3-3, most of the bike classes seem to be straight-up taken by one rider. Grant Baylor is out front in the Super Mini (12-13) class, the 1-2-3 of Austin Lee goes 3-3 (Ha! Say that 10 times fast!) in the 85 (12-13) class, and and Triston Landrum is dominating the 85(7-11) class.
It'll be great to see these guys move up to the AM race and then the Pro ranks!
OK, I better get off here and send out a few more press releases before I hit the road to S.C. One of those press releases will be the announcement of the location and date of our 2010 GNCC Awards Banquet. That PR should go out today. Just to give you a heads up, the banquet will be held December 10-11 at Lakeview Resort, in Morgantown, W.Va.
See you guys tomorrow at Registration!
That's it from Rachel. Now onto Shan Moore.
Thanks, Jason. I was talking to FMF Suzuki team manager Mike Webb at the Steele Creek event and he was telling me what a great testing grounds the GNCC series is and that they were, in fact, testing different race settings for the new RMX450Z with Rodney Smith in the Sportsman A class. "We are having Rodney and Shane Nalley riding the RMX, it's a brand new bike and we want to learn everything about it for set-up" said Webb. "The way we've set things up, for the sportsman racer, we feel this bike has everything you need. For the elite trail racer the RM-Z is the choice and that's why we have Josh Strang on the RM-Z. But for the average sportsman the RMX is what you need. So we are using these races to get some time on the X and get a good set-up. Rodney and I did the actual testing and development on the X and we had the option of testing the 2010 RM-Z frame and the 2009 frame. We ended going with the 2009, we felt it was better set up for woods. It has a quicker feel to it, if you wanted to go slamming though the woods. The 2010 was a more solid chassis, that we felt was kind of slow to respond for woods, so that's why we went with the '09 chassis. So we basically took the RM suspension and put lighter springs on it, because we still want it to react to big bumps. So we kind of retained the motocross handling that Suzuki's are known for, but we added just enough off-road to make what we think is the ultimate sportsman off-road bike."
Photo By: Shan Moore
Rodney Smith putting the RMX through its paces. The new bike is GNCC proven!
And our final contributor is Jason "Digitaloffroad.com" Hooper, our TV producer (and reminder, shows start April 25 on Versus--and yes, Versus is back on DirecTV!)
If you've been paying attention to the overall bike results lately, you've certainly noticed that Jordan Ashburn is quietly putting together a really solid start to his season. Jordan called me earlier today for an interview on digitaloffroad.com and he is really pumped with the start of his season. Many of you may not know, but Jordan got pretty banged up about a month before the Florida GNCC and was unsure if he'd even make the first two rounds. "I got together with another rider while riding motocross down in Florida. He hit me from behind and we went down, I couldn't really avoid it. It was on my mom's birthday! I ended up with a bruised liver and I bruised a lung." After initially being told that he wouldn't be able to ride for 3 to 4 months, Ashburn headed to Florida uncertain of his fitness and walked away with a win, and has done the same at the last two rounds. Jordan's got his sight's set on the overall amateur award that Chris Bach snagged from him last year. If he wraps up the Open A class early, look out for Jordan to bump up to one of the pro classes.
If you're wanting to demo a new ride, then Big Buck is the place for you to be! Jason Raines will be on hand with a slew of Yamaha bikes for folks to ride and Can-Am will be on display all weekend as well with a bunch of their models for people to check out. Big Buck always has one of the best pit atmospheres on the whole circuit, and these demos will definitely help out on that aspect!
That's it for Hooper and that's it for Quick Fill this week, I think that about covers it. Don't forget live timing and scoring here on the site all weekend (look for the link on the main page). Have fun in South Carolina!
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