Quick Fill #15: This Week in GNCC

Welcome to Quick Fill. Good stuff at the Big Buck.

First of all, it's crazy how much racing now gets jammed into one GNCC weekend, with Youth, Amateurs, Pros and now UTVs getting together a few weekends a year. It is truly sun-up to sun-down GNCC racing all weekend long. I've long wondered how many people follow it all, though-we know most of the ATV crew leaves on Saturday when they're done, and most of the bike people show up on Saturday late to get ready for their race. But that usually leaves an overlap on Saturday afternoon, and these races are really big during those times.

What's also cool is that each of these races has developed its own personalities, stars, winners and general feel. Many of Sunday's bike racers aren't even at the track yet when Levi Coen is winning ATV Youth overalls (three out of four this year). But during those moments, Levi is the center of the weekend. Same when the ATV morning race kicks off, when Dave Simmons may be the star, or the Women's battles (Angel Atwell back to victory lane in SC), or the 4x4 and Utility gang (Congrats to Zac Zakowski on the Open 4x4 win. And Darryl Rath is now the Open 4x4 points leader on his Sportsman! Great racing in that class). Then it's XC1 (another win for Borich, another great battle with Taylor Kiser), XC2 (Walker Fowler is starting to figure it out), and the A and B classes (Matt Hanna was the highest-placing Amateur) the UTVs (congrats to Team Coastal Drilling), and then a repeat on Sunday. In the morning we run Youth (Grant Baylor has to be pumped to have his long-time class rival Aaron Plessinger out of his class, but he proved he still has what it takes to battle the older kids, anyway, with the overall win!). Then, for a few minutes, Rodney Smith gets to be a GNCC star again (if he's not dealing with young guns like Tyler MacDonald, who won the morning overall twice this year, including Big Buck). Then it's the pro bikes, XC1 (Strang leads a Thad DuVall breakthrough) and XC2 (KR is back on top), but maybe you're pulling for an amateur rider like Ryan Belue, who topped Four-Stroke A Lites class and took top amateur overall honors with 15^th.

So much to see and do and watch. It's really fun.

Here are some updates on some classes: In Open 4x4, we were anticipating a big battle with current champ Bryan Buckhannon and former champ Rick Cecco, but Rick missed Big Buck for a big reason...he became a daddy!

Hi, Jason. My son was due on April 13^th and all of our hopes for a week early delivery so that I could make the Big Buck GNCC vanished so I decided to stay home in fear of missing my son's birth.  Deni went into labor Saturday evening and delivered Kane Richard Cecco on Sunday 4/11 at 12:34PM - I'm a daddy!

As for Buckhannon, he had trouble, too.

Hi Jason,

Yes only three laps out of five completed.  The race was very disappointing for me.  Every time I leave the line I race to win.  My quad is always ready for battle.  Unfortunately, this race I had a part failure on the third lap.  It had to do with the clutch system.  I have been using the same type of part for years with no problems at all.  Warnert does however change this part before most races just to be safe.  But on my practice quads they have never been changed.  So the bottom line is, we had a very well prepped quad and I was in the position to be able to win and a part broke.  That's racing!  Can-Am makes the best quad ever but nothing is perfect!  We look forward to TN!

Things are really heating up in that class with Rath and Zakowski continuing to step up. Remember, those guys were really closing the gap at the end of last season, and it looks like they haven't stopped!

The local press and community really, really gets into the Big Buck. Here's a quick example with this Paul Whibley story filed over the weekend

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20100408/NEWS/100409656/1088/sports?Title=New-Zealand-s-Whibley-back-to-ride-the-Big-Buck

And here's another story I found on Kenny Gilbert, our favorite South African GNCC Racer.

http://www.easterndirt.com/?p=3154

I'll pass it on to our reporters now. First up is Shan Moore, and by the way, Shan has now posted photo reports from each round of the GNCC Series. Check them all out here, they're really good! Now here's Shan with a few scoops from the weekend:

Thanks, Jason. Probably the biggest buzz circulating the pits at the Big Buck involved the injury Bill Ballance suffered in practice the week before the race. Elliott Skaggs of Ballance's team told me about the circumstances surrounding Ballance's injury.

"Taylor [Kiser] and Bill were out practicing one evening and he was coming around a real fast corner and the bike started to swap on him and he tried to correct and he over-corrected and high-sided over a berm," said Skaggs. "Taylor got to him a little bit before I did and we didn't really know what was going on with him. We knew he was in a lot of back pain and neck pain and we decided to go ahead and call the ambulance. They ran a few tests and we ended up taking him to University at Louisville."

On the 9th, Ballance had surgery on his wrist with good success, and it appears that the extent of his injuries amount to two broken wrists, broken ribs, broken vertebrae in his back and neck. It appears that it may be a long healing process. We hope for nothing but the best for Ballance, including a speedy recovery.

Can-Am's Adam McGill had one of his best rides of the year, and when I was talking to Can-Am's Jimmy O'Dell, he told me that the team had recently changed things up a little. According to O'Dell, the team has modified the rider's training programs; the team is working with its riders on everything from diet to sleep to physical training. During the week the riders are doing more cardio during the early part of the week and then getting more rest during the later part of the week, to allow the riders to recover in time for the race. "Each rider has their own program as far as riding through the week, but we are working more with some of the other details," said O'Dell.

Jason Hooper is here with a TV reminder. Yes, TV is BACK in just over a week!

Get your DVRs, Tivos, VCRs (does anyone really still have one?) set, we're only 10 days out from the 2010 RacerTV premier on Versus! We're wrapping up the Florida ATV show today and getting it shipped off, and I really think this might be one of the better shows we've produced. It seems like it was a year ago when we were in the sands of Florida, but editing the show and intense racing action with Adam McGill, Chris Borich, Chris Bithell, and Taylor Kiser made me feel like I was there again. The show airs the Sunday of the Loretta Lynn's GNCC, April 25th, at 3:00EST and repeats the following Tuesday, April 27th, at 5:00pm EST.

And now Rachel Fluharty with some youth and amateur news:

The youth and amateur ATV classes saw a lot of great battles this weekend. One notable race is the 10 a.m. overall bike race that went down between Matthew Nix, Tyler MacDonald and Rodney Smith. MacDonald took another podium bow, this weekend in first place and showed again how much he looks up to those older Pro riders. I think every time he's just a little surprised he's beat them! In North Carolina, MacDonald churned out an identical lap time with Shane Watts, who MacDonald said he grew up looking up to. This week, he beat out Smith.

You can check out some great amateur and youth bike coverage with Charkie Huegel (Of OffroadJunkies.com) and his report right here.

http://www.gnccracing.com/articles/2082_charkie-huegels-pirelli-big-buck-gncc-amateur-bike-report

Now, on to the ATVs. After 3 rounds of holding strong in second place, 70 CVT (6-11) rider Tyler Mcconnaughy finally hit pay dirt with a first place win in South Carolina. I'm sure it's a relief for the young rider after an early season of battling up front for a win.

And, surprise! Hunter Hart still at it! He took first in his class, and got up on the podium again for third overall. I bet Levi Coen was pumped to take back 1st overall though. Beau Cagle got second overall. Kamren Bobb roared to another first place in the Girls class and 5th overall.

We also got some great news about the Hugs for Cheyenne campaign that was held during the Big Buck GNCC. Here's a letter from Bill Gerhard about the collection.

Hello. I just wanted to let you know the out come of the fund raiser for Cheyenne. Cody collected $1,100. Everyone was very nice about it and were happy they had a source to give to Dave. I believe the factory Yamaha riders and Josh Strang are going to donate their jerseys to be chanced off at Loretta's. Have a great day.

Bill Gerhard

And we got this note:

Shane Watts and the DirtWise Academy of Offroad Riding schools are stoked to announce the addition of our YouTube Channel. Be sure to check it out for some awesome practice footage of two of our favorite Aussie pro's in action, Josh Strang and Glenn Kearney! Also featured on our channel are other great videos of DirtWise Riding school students practicing the skills learned at the schools and Shane Watts demonstrating free riding tips! Follow these links for easy viewing:

http://www.youtube.com/dirtwiseridingschool
http://www.youtube.com/user/DirtWiseRidingSchool#p/u/9/T5wo_OYYWyQ

I also talked to Ellen and Glen Pritchard yesterday. It seems that when Super Senior 50+ rider crashed at Big Buck, he not only broke his collar bone, but also 7 ribs and he has two breaks in his pelvis. When they did x-rays on Glen they also found an underlying medical issue. Glen was in really good spirits, and was confident he'd be out there competing as soon as possible. I reminded him that he did have a class title to defend along with Dave Simmons. Those guys have had some thrilling battles in that class. Glen is at the St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, W.Va. and I'm sure they would appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers directed their way.

Great, thanks, Rachel, and get well soon to the talented Mr. Pritchard. He and Simmons had only begun their fight! And now onto Rodney Tomblin.

Thanks Jason! It seems like only a few weeks ago we were talking about what the upcoming season of GNCC Racing would bring. And here we are now a quarter of the way through the season and the amazing things that have happened are mind blowing. Racing has been everything expected and more. We have seen everything from break out rides to unfortunate injuries. I know the prayer chains have certainly been busy this year, but there are silver linings there somewhere, we have just got to look for them and have faith and hope for the best to come from it all.

Once again we were treated with a weekend of great racing. The weather was perfect, but dare I say...a little dry. Not complaining, just saying. This was especially good for the Pirelli Big Buck GNCC because we had a lot of races to run with the second round of the UTV racing mixed in with an already busy GNCC weekend. And again UTVs left us with a big smile on our faces as we wrapped up Saturdays racing. I will talk more next week about that in next weeks Quick Fill.

As far as the morning ATV racing goes this past weekend, let me just explain it the best way I can, "WOW!!" Did you see that?" There is definitely something to be said about the 10:00am race at a GNCC. It seems every class has something special to offer.

First though, let's look at the morning overall. Dave Simmons comes out on top again, but not without a fight. First the fight was with Super Senior class rival and defending champion Glen "Jody" Pritchard. Pritchard and Simmons locked in a heated battle in the first two laps running at most 3 seconds apart when Pritchard clipped a stump in the "Bin Laden Section" of the track on lap 2. Glen clipped a stump and then recovered only to lay on the throttle and square off a second stump that ejected him off the ATV. The crash ended up breaking his collarbone, 7 ribs and 2 breaks in his femur near the ball joint of his hip. A most unfortunate incident, but if you have not heard it looks as though the crash may have been a blessing in disguise. It appears that the doctors found a more serious condition. He is Saint Mary's Hospital in Huntington, WV and this could all be a good thing for Glen and his family. Pray for them in dealing with the obstacles that lie ahead in their fight. Both Glen and his wife Ellen are top rate people and definitely the heart of what GNCC is all about.

After Pritchard's get off, Simmons was left to battle with the Women and 4X4 class riders. Simmons came out on top by about 28 seconds after time adjustments, but the battle in the women's class was another classic. Angel Atwell, Kristen Atwell, Traci Cecco, Lexie Coulter and Jennifer Albright once again gave the race fans a race to watch. In the first lap women's class champ Angel Atwell held off the field of contenders by only 12 seconds through top 5. Kristen Atwell struggled early back in 3rd, 4th and 5th before passing Cecco for 2nd midway through the race. She then laid chase to her Auntie Angel running only 2 seconds off the pace until dropping to a mere gap of 8 seconds at the checkers after a few last ditch efforts in the final lap. Cecco held on for 3rd with Coulter in 4th, Coulter holds the points lead after 4 rounds of racing in that class.

Michael Swift, who was running on a 15-race win-streak and ran undefeated last season, has met some challenges in the early runs of this season. Swift opened up with two wins, but has seen the point lead begin to shrink with strong runs by Ken Robey and the two wins that Scott Kilby was able to snag in the past two rounds. A look at the points has Swift with only 4 points separating him and 3 places. Kilby is back in 4th as far as the points read, but with the drops they are nearly neck and neck for the championship right now.

Two riders continue to be undefeated after 4 rounds in Utility class racing and they are Clifton Beasley, new to the U2 Class, and Kevin Trantham who leads the 4X4 Lites class. Always fun to watch that U2 class and the mix of Can-Am Renegades and Kawasaki KFX700 V-Forces. Guys like Robert Smith, Danny Jesse and Jordan Phillips are still flying the Kawasaki flags. But Beasley and Trantham are going to be hard to beat, but we will see if they can keep the streak alive as the season rolls on.

One last note in the morning race I will leave you with is this: Watch this new Schoolboy 13-15 A/B class. We are seeing a number of former top Youth ATV riders in this class and also seeing them become a part of the top ten working there way toward maybe and eventual overall. Braden Henthorn finished 8th overall and alerts me that we could be a surprise later in the season with someone from this class. But as I always say "Time will Tell!"

Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs!!

 

Thanks, Rodney. That's Quick Fill for this week; hope you enjoyed the weekly update. Now, get set and get ready for the big one at Lorettas!