Welcome to Quick Fill. That was a tough.
The Moose Racing Mountain Ridge GNCC featured mud and boulders, the kind of stuff that makes a tough race, well, tough. Our reporters are here with their views, and we also have news and notes from a few others. So let's not waste time and get started now-first with Rodney Tomblin.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Mullins is riding better than he ever has!
On Saturday morning we awoke to some cloudy overcast conditions, but the forecasted rains had yet to fall. Trail Boss Jeff Russell and Lt. Trail Boss Buren Hamrick had anticipated it to be wet so the course was laid out with this in mind. However, with extremely rocky conditions, the trail offered plenty of obstacles regardless of the layout.
In Youth ATV, Levi Cohen won his 5th overall of the 2010 season with another strong and impressive ride. This race however may have meant more than any so far. The number 3 ranked rider from 2009 wore a new number this weekend. He rode with the number 763 in memory of his friend Ryan Early. It was a tough day but one that will most assuredly hold a special place in Levi's racing career.
As I watched the youth ATV young guns finish the race, I could not help but keep my eye on the ladies of the youth ranks to try and see how things unfolded. And once again I was not disappointed as we saw Emily Wise take another strong top 10 on the day with 5th overall and 4th in her 90 modified (12-15) class. Emily took a podium earlier this season with third overall at Steel Creek. She came close again this weekend, so you know the fire is burning there and should not be long before she makes another visit.
The 10:00 a.m. ATV race was another barn burner with the stage set for a Utility Class over all win. The conditions were right with the rocks and the forecasted rain that began to fall early in the race. We saw Bryan Buckhannon capture the win from the 4X4 Open class. Also from the 4X4 Open class, Zach Zackowski and Rick Cecco took 2nd and 3rd overall. I can say one thing, I know that Cecco's new baby boy is named Kane, but dad has sure been raising some of his own on his Can-Am lately. Way to go Rick-o!
The Women's class was another smash'em up battle right down to the wire. Yamaha's 7-Time Women's class champion Traci Cecco had a strong start and was leading early in the race, but in the end it was defending Women's Champ Angel Atwell in an all slug fest with her niece "Lightening" Kristen Atwell. Heading into the last lap, Angel had a 2 second lead over Kristen, but "Lightening" struck two races in a row, battling right down to the final corner to win by a second and half win over her aunty at thecheckers. That ties her at 126 points with Angel and only 3 out from the points leader TraciCecco. What a battle!
Photo By: Shan Moore
Chris Borich starred in Tuesday Toolbox this week.
In the UTV racing, as I mentioned last week, I had my first opportunity to ride as a co-pilot in the Team Faith #316. I know I said that I would opt to ride in Ohio and override a request bymy announcing teammate Hannah Reid (look Hanna, I spelled your name right for once!) to ridein Ohio. But she was complaining of some shoulder pain and I turned soft and said okay I would ride The Mountain Ridge GNCC.
As the podium celebrations dwindled away I ran to the Team Faith transporter (8x10 box trailer)and jumped quickly into my race attire. As I headed over to sign up to pick up my announcingsheets, Momma Rita saw me and commenced to reminding me that I had to work the next day's bike race so I had better not get myself hurt! I laughed and told her that I was not worried because I was riding in the "Team Faith #316." What could go wrong?
Photo By: Shan Moore
The Hawk flew back up onto the podium. Awesome.
Early in the race we began to catch other teams that had started ahead of us (we got the early lead on our row) and my faith was tested again. The ever gentle Preacher Chuck we know fromGNCC Chapel services was an aggressive beast behind the wheel. The first lap was the longest30 minutes of my life, especially considering it was only an 11 minute lap! Leave a door open andChuck was coming in. We had amassed a lead of almost 2 whole seconds over our competition when he left a door open himself. We had two between us now and then a lapped Honda Pilotrider nearly made us exhaust a roll of film strip on our Scott Goggles. I told Chuck to pick it up. He told me to finish first you must first finish and motored along.
On the last lap Chuck put the hammer down. About halfway through, the Rhino wewere riding in started to feel really loose. He yelled over, "We got a flat!" I yelled back "Keep it pinned!" As we rolled across the line for the checker flag we had won our class and finished 10th Overall! The best he had ever finished and the first time he finished there in PA. Chuck was pleased and said that it was the roughest track ever so far in GNCC UTV Racing. In my opinion it is one of the roughest out there, period.
I must say a hearty Thank You! to Chuck and Brian O'Rourke of Team Faith Ministries for allowing me the opportunity to ride along. I hate to say it, but I am will not be unhappy if Hannahstill has shoulder problems in Ohio so I can ride again. (At least guilt free!?!)
Before I go a got this message earlier this week from our friends at Tire Balls:
Hi Rodney. I wanted to give you more info about the youth give away. We did give a set of front tire balls to Gary Myers # 53 who rides in the super mini (12-13) class at the last race. We went around and looked at some kids before the race and got some kids we wanted to watch and we felt that young Gary was a good pick and it was really cool to see him win his class. Ror the next give away we are going to give a set of rear tireballs for a youth quad rider and a youth bike rider and Pirelli has offered to match our give away to the youth bike class. So we will be giving away a rear set of tireballs and a Pirelli tire to one lucky kid at Snowshoe. So we would like to let the kids know for the next two rounds we will be watching the youth quads and the youth bikes to pick one in each to win a some tireballs. I would like to let every body know that the guys from the track side support are doing this out of there own pocket. We wanted to give some thing back to the future of our sport. So kids, don't be shy and stop by the Tireballs and Pirelli rigs at the track and talk to us. Look for Barney at the Pirelli rig and Pat Sr., Pat Jr. or Brian at the Tireballs rig. Good luck and be safe.
That's it from me. 'Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs!
Now, two notes about some of our top "experienced" bike pilots. First Master's A contender Randy Riggs:
Photo By: Courtesy Riggs
Randy Riggs rocked in Rockin' Randy.
-- Randy's biggest fan and pit crew, his wife, Kathy.
It's been awhile since we've heard from Kathy, who is no doubt a huge GNCC fan!
GNCC Champion Steve Thaxton getting some love in WV Executive Magazine.
GNCC Senior A (40+) racer Steve Thaxton, is featured in the spring sports issue of West Virginia Executive magazine. Thaxton, a chiropractor in Sissonville, WV and national mountain bike champion, is highlighted in an article about how "executives use their hobbies to find motivation and success in the business world." Steve won the 40+ A class last year, you may remember our stories about his close title fight with Brian Temple.
In the same issue, Fairmont-native and GNCC overall trophy-maker, Logan Martin, is recognized for his pro motocross accomplishments by being inducted into the WVE Sports Hall of Fame, sharing the accolades with such other WV sports stars as
Second page on Thaxton.
Now onto Shan Moore.
Thanks, Rodney. This past weekend I was quite impressed with the ride that Barry Hawk Jr. turned in at Somerset. The 36-year-old gave nothing away to the kids and, urged on by a partisan crowd, the AM Pro/FMF Yamaha rider was in the hunt for the win until late in the race. It was cool seeing Barry's kids on the podium with him, and it was even cooler seeing all the Barry Hawk t-shirts in the woods pointing the way for J.R. through the bottomless mud holes.
Also turning in an impressive ride (in addition, of course, to Charlie Mullins) was Cory Buttrick. The factory FMF/KTM rider got a great start (he was just barely edged out by Jedediah Haines for the Motorcycle-USA.com Holeshot Award), and then he proceeded to lead almost all of the opening lap, setting the pace in front of the likes of veterans Hawk, Nate Kanney, Glenn Kearney, Paul Whibley and Mullins. It's easy to forget that Cory is still in his rookie season in the big class; and he seems to be creeping ever closer to that first XC1 win.
This week, Cory talked to me about the Somerset race - how tough it was, and what it was like to be leading on the first lap.
"That was definitely a brutal race; you were holding you breath, wondering if you were going to be able to make another lap," Buttrick said. "You knew when you could hammer down and you knew when you couldn't, so you mainly just tried to go as fast as you could in the fields to make up all your time there, and then hope and pray you made it through the really nasty rocks and mud sections. It was definitely nasty, and you were always thinking that if you watered out your race could be done, so you pretty well had your fingers crossed the whole time. Anytime you got to a bad waterhole or rock section it was better to just take your time, because going slow is better than watering out or crashing or breaking something. You really had to play it cool."
Photo By: Shan Moore
Cory B might get an overall soon.
Cory told me he feels he's picked up his speed since last year, but his biggest improvement over previous years is in his ability to run flat-out for the entire race. "In the Lites class in previous years the pace was pretty fast for the first couple of laps and then we would start pacing ourselves for the finish," he said. "This year in the XC1 class, it's pretty much hammer down for the entire race. If your not running flat out the whole time then those guys will get away from you."
Cory also credited good starts for his recent success. "Tony Hall has been doing a great job with the bike," Buttrick said. "He's got some good batteries working in the bike and the thing is lighting and getting out of the hole good, which makes my job easier."
Like I said earlier, Cory is getting closer to that first win, and the next race is about 30 minutes from his house in Logan, Ohio, which might make for the perfect storm. "It's definitely the best feeling after coming off a good race to be racing a hometown race," Buttrick told me. "There's no better feeling than having a bunch of friends cheering you on and pointing the way. It keeps you motivated. I was even getting excited last week, seeing people with Barry Hawk shirts. I was thinking it would be cool to the have fans cheering like that at the Ohio race."
Look for the Cory Buttrick shirts to be everywhere in Ohio... and lookout for a potential first-time winner.
A couple of other riders I want to acknowledge this week are Jordan Ashburn in the bike class and Aarol Bright on the ATV side. Ashburn is leading the points standings in the Open A class, and after this past weekend he has six class wins to his credit out of seven rounds. He has also won the Amateur Overall Award five times. The 19-year-old is taking welding at a technology school in Tennessee and trains on his own when he gets out of class. Ashburn says getting his bike set-up the way he wants it has been the key to his wins this year.
As for Bright, also a Tennessee racer, he races the College A 16-21 division, and he took over the lead the point standings this past race because he skipped his high school graduation to go to Somerset. "I was one point out of the lead, behind Jamie Bithell, and I would really like to win that championship this year so I decided to skip my graduation and go to the race," said Bright, who ended up winning the race and now holds a four-point lead over Bithell. "At first my mom was pretty ticked off at me, but then she remembered how much I love racing. She actually came to the race and she got to see me win."
Bright had to go to school on Monday morning to get his diploma, but he said his teachers were cool about it when they found out he won.
That's good, stuff, there, Shan. Those of you who went to Mountain Ridge probably noticed the windmills in the area. Intrepid GNCC photographer David Scearce sent us this report on how that all works:
Photo By: David Scearce
The PA windmills near the track.
-- They are about 280ft tall.
-- Each blade is made from balsa wood and fiberglass weighing each about 16 tons, 130 feet long and 1 revolution of blades turns the generator 75 times.
-- The generator on top weighs 85 tons and takes an 800 ton crane to lift it to the top.The generator will turn to catch the wind and each blade can be turned to slow down the rotation, such as in high winds like a storm.
-- The shaft that holds the blades to the generator is 3 feet in diameter.
-- The concrete pad is 30 feet deep in the ground.
-- It takes only 2 days to assemble the windmill.
-- The cost of each is $2 million dollars!
-- They are monitored 24/7 by a company in Texas
-- They produce 1 to 2 mega watts of power and the power is bought by the local power station when needed.
-- I thought these were really cool seeing them far off during recent visits, but up close you can see how huge the things really are!
Nice, work, Scearce. That's it for Quick Fill. It's Memorial Day Weekend, don't forget all of the soldiers who have given up so much so we can still have our American freedom. And enjoy the weekend!
Share