The one thing that sets GNCC Racing apart from all series of it's kind is the factor of the "Everyman". When GNCC was conceived it was not only for the world premier riders, but also for the common woods rider who might on any given race day rise to the top and be one of the best of the best. The ultimate goal was to have good challenging race and to just go out and have as much fun as you possibly can, no matter how well or how not so well you ride. Junior B 22+ class racer Garon Davis and a group of good ole boys from Southern Indiana have captured the essence of what GNCC Racing is all about.
GNCCRacing.com: What's going on today?
Garon Davis: I am finishing up some Christmas shopping and doing a little work in between shopping trips.
You ready for Christmas?I am as ready as I can be. My mom sprung a last minute decision that we were having Christmas tonight with my family so we had to make a run to Wal Mart and Family Dollar to buy all those lovely family Christmas presents. (Laughs)
Photo By: Xcountry Photos
Garon and his wife Amber living the life at The Snowshoe 2010.
Santa actually already brought me a new four wheeler and it is sitting in the garage. So now I guess I am asking for parts. (Chuckles)
What kind of a new Four Wheeler did you get?
I got a Honda 400 EX. It's a brand new one and I going to run the Sport Class. Mainly so I can help out with the guys in the afternoon. I am not a super competitive person so I think I get more into watching everyone else race and cheer everyone else on. I still like to ride so I'll go run the sport class in the morning and pit for everybody and cheer everybody on and throw in an occasional moon for someone when they ride by in the afternoon.
Didn't you get a new KTM this past summer?
Yeah I did. I had the KTM and apparently the economy is really bad right now and I couldn't sell it. So I just parted it out and after I finally got it parted out I just went ahead and bought a new 400.
You got a new four wheeler, what is Santa got to bring your wife?
Umm...That's a good question. We don't normally get each other gifts for Christmas. Normally we get each other stuff throughout the year. But ummm.... it's kind of looking like furniture I'm guessing. She knows now that I have a new toy that I will be spending all my time in the garage so she wants to be really comfortable watching HGTV and coming up with more projects for me. So I'm sure furniture will be here in the next couple of weeks.
Aren't you afraid she will read this before Christmas?
I hope not! (Laughs) No. She already knows. It's a done deal man. She has already been and looked and picked it out I just haven't said okay yet. (Sounds like an okay to place the order...Merry Christmas Amber!)
How about this S.I.C.C. gang you hang with, how did you guys all get together?
Photo By: GNCC Archives
The S.I.C.C. pits look like a pro team. These boys are a little more serious than it seems sometimes.
It started several years ago, Todd Demaree who has ran GNCC's since I think probably since it began. We kid with him about that all the time. He has been to every track that they have ever had. He got started with just a group of guys from Southern Indiana, hence the name Southern Indian Cross Country Racing Team. (S.I.C.C.) And the five or six of us that are normally on the team ride together to all the races and that's always fun to ride in the truck with six guys who smell like feet on the way home from the race. We always stay at the track, we cook our dinners at the track, we ride our bicycles around till someone almost passes out or wrecks and we play a lot of jokes. It's kind of like a little family is what we have. We get together quite a bit and this past Sunday my wife and I met up with Josh Beavers and his wife in Indianapolis for dinner. Josh and his wife are expecting and we were going to Babies "R" Us but first we went to J.C. Penney's. He is really worried about this whole having a kid thing. So we were sitting in J.C. Penney's and he was lying in a lounge chair and I was sitting in a chair acting like we were having a counseling session right in the middle of the store. (Chuckling) We laugh a lot. There is not a whole lot of seriousness until probably about the time they say 10 seconds. Any other time we are having a lot of fun.
So did you get Josh calmed down any?
I think we got calmed down. He was doing good until we were walking around Babies "R" Us and not even joking I looked around and said, "Dude this crap is expensive!" He just looks at me and says, "Really? I'm really not feeling so great about this and you are telling me how expensive this stuff is? You're doing me no good whatsoever!" (Laughs) I didn't really think about it because we don't have any children, we have two dogs. They are pretty cheap and we can just put them in their cages. So he is on a different level than I am.
What are some of the wild things you guys get into at the races?
I used to dress up for every race and I would dress up like the Village People and everyone would follow me around and we would wait until someone wasn't with their quads and then we would sneak over and have a little photo shoot with it. Then the pictures would mysteriously appear online somewhere. We did that a bunch of times. Most of the trips getting there and getting home are always insane. On the way to Yadkinville once we had a flat tire, which we have more flat tires than anyone has ever had. It seems like we have one every race. That is why we now carry three spare tires with us everywhere we go. Anyway on the way to Yadkinville we had a flat tire and stopped right by a highway garage. Right there beside us was huge pile of salt they use in the winter to treat the roads. The other guys were changing the tire and they turned around and Beavers and I was sliding down salt mounds on a piece of cardboard that we had found. We spent maybe an hour there screwing around on the salt mound.
Now who exactly are the core S.I.C.C. members right now?
There is Todd Demaree, Josh Beavers, Fred Marley, his little brother Mike Marley, Josh Stonebraker and me. That is normally the core group that goes. We always have a lot of different people that show up for different rounds but that's the group that always goes.
How did you guys all meet?
I met Todd at a race in Ohio one year and I just thought he was the coolest person in the world. He ran Pro Class and everyone that runs the Pro Class is just a whole lot cooler than I am. But there I was trying to unload my quad and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have ramps or anything. I was unloading and ended up dropping the four wheeler on myself and as I am laying underneath my quad, Todd Demaree walks over and he was like, "Hey man? You wanna use my ramps?" (Bursts into laughter) So that's kind of how it all started with Todd. Then he introduced me to the other guys. The Stonebrakers, Jake and his dad who races every once in a while actually only live about 10 minutes from me and we didn't even know each other until we started racing.
I see from the pictures on Facebook that the cold weather has not slowed you down this winter with all the hunting and ice fishing pictures.
Yeah, I almost want to say that I like to ice fish and hunt more than I like to ride. I like to deer hunt but I like to ice fish even more. I think I like it better than just finishing in the water probably just because of racing. We had a good deer season this year between my dad and I, my cousin and my uncle and a couple more. There were six or seven of us that got deer this year. We've gone ice fishing 4 times and we've got over 100 already in freezer.
Photo By: Garon Davis Mobile Upload
Looks like that Blue Gill may be part whale!
That's the biggest Blue Gill I have ever caught. I am having that one mounted. That is another of my Christmas presents too I guess. My elementary school bus driver holds the Indiana state record for the largest Blue Gill and when I caught it I took it over to him to show him and he was pretty impressed. He said with a smile," Couple more ounces and you will be able to beat me." It was 3lbs. 4.oz. it was enormous.
Are you getting to ride any with the weather the way it is right now?
Riding right now for me is not an option. There is probably like a foot of snow on the ground here in Indiana right now. We will probably get to go down and start doing a little indoor motocross next month sometime.
So how do you Indiana boys feel about the recent announcement of two rounds of GNCC in Indiana?
That is the greatest thing that the GNCC has ever come up with since electronic scoring. That is awesome to have two events so close to home. I know where it is and I guess we raced there a couple of years ago. I think there will be a big turnout and I like they way they are mixing things up with the different locations that keeps things fresh. It's just nice to see something new and not the same old things all the time.
What is the new place like?
It will be a combination of a lot of things. There are some good hills there. I know there are some creek crossings too. When we were there they had some really cool jumps out in the fields. They put on a good show. I am sure the landowners are willing to work with Racer Productions and leave it up to them what they want to do. It won't be like the Ironman with a lot of corn fields, I think it will be a lot more woods type racing, kind of old school stuff with some good hill climbs and some deep creek crossings and things like that. It should be good.
Garon, I just want to say thanks for talking with us today, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Thanks again Rodney, I'm honored to be interviewed and I'm looking forward to the 2011 season. I had no intentions of racing again and my wife said she couldn't live with me if I didn't race. I thought she was just kidding till we were having dinner with Ockerman one night and she asked where we were going to dinner after the Florida race???? I had no clue she was even thinking about it so that was an awesome surprise. So now we are going to try and do all 13 this year. She is the best wife I've ever had. (Laughing Of course she's the only one I've ever had too!
I also want to thank the sponsors- S.I.C.C. Racing, Demaree Motorsports, GBC Tires, KBC Helmets, DP Brakes, Silkolene Oils, Graphics, Hygh Octane Graphics, GT Thunder, IXCR, MSR, and 834 PowderCoating
Take care and Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!
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