Quick Fill #4

Welcome to Quick Fill.  This week, the Off-Road community mourns the loss of a great rider and a wonderful person.  I never got the opportunity to meet Nathan Woods, but after talking with people in the industry it sounds like Nathan was an amazing rider and one heck of a person.  The GNCC family is thinking of Nathan's family and friends during this tragic time.

We just got word that our friends from the JNCC (Japan National Cross Country) will be joining us in the first two rounds of GNCC this year.  It looks like they're going to send a total of 11 people over to River Ranch and Aoina Pass, 4 of which will be racing.  JNCC riders Kenji Suzuki and Hayato Deguchi will be competing in the XC1 class and Masahiro Kobayashi will compete in XC2.  Additionally, amateur JNCC rider Toru Baba will be taking on the 250B class. These guys are as serious about off-road racing as they come, can't wait to see them dice it up on American soil come March.

On the Amateur side of things, it looks like BMC Racing's Mike Chirdon has put together a 4-man ATV team for 2011.  Riding for BMC this year in the Schoolboy A/B or Sport 15+ will be Blake Chirdon on his GT Thunder-backed Raptor 250.  Blaine Martin, aboard his Yamaha Raptor 125, will ride in the Youth Open (12-15) class while Thomas Ulrich takes on the Youth 90 CVT (12-15) on his Yamaha Raptor 90.  And last, but certainly not least, Michael Shelly will be riding for BMC Racing in the Vet B class on his YFZ 450X.

Here's what Team Manager Mike Chirdon had to say about the upcoming season.

"It's a blast putting together a race team and getting great sponsors to help out.  This is something I've always wanted to do since I retired from racing in 2006.  I've had a great time helping my son Blake out and I feel that the youth team is very important to help kids get ready to move up to the adult classes.  We're ready to start racing in Florida and Georgia in a month!"

That's about all I have for now.  Once the season gets going and I familiarize myself with the riders, fans and venues - I'll have much more for you all.  So please, when we get to Florida come up and introduce yourselves and fill me in on what's new in GNCC world.

Now to Shan Moore, who actually knows what's happening.

Thanks, Jen. We're still crawling out from under a record snowfall here in Oklahoma. We got 13" inches overnight on Monday and it got down to near zero on Tuesday so it all stuck around for a while. Since we don't get this kind of weather very often in Oklahoma, folks in these parts freak out when we get any kind of snow or ice, so you can imagine what it's like when we get a foot of snow! EVERYTHING was canceled on Tuesday and people just kind of hunkered down inside, like it was the start of WWIII.

While I was hunkered down I spoke with Michael Lafferty and he's revved up about the upcoming season. "Junior" is back with Husaberg and will be riding a number of GNCC races this year. Because of the outrageous weather in the northeast, the eight-time national enduro champ has had to break out the spikes on a couple of occasions to get in his practice laps. However, the New Jersey native is heading south this week to start getting acclimated to the really nice climate we've been have down here (haha). Anyway, it'll be cool to see Lafferty on a regular basis.

On a sad note, Michael was a teammate of Nathan Woods, who tragically lost his life in a practice crash in Taft, California, this past week. Nathan is survived by his wife, Amanda - who is a cancer survivor, and two sons, Nate and Braxton. Jason Hooper has info about a memorial fund for the Woods family. Be sure to have a look at it.

Kailub Russell got a big off-season win, topping Steward Baylor Jr. and Cory Buttrick at the Sumter Enduro this past weekend. I spoke with Cory on Tuesday and he and Mackie were in Florida looking for a place to practice. He said the Sumter enduro went well, it was his first "real" race on the new 350 KTM and he says he is adapting to it. Kailub was also on the 250, while Steward was riding a 250 two-stroke.

After I spoke with Josh Strang last week, his new team manager, Chris Wheeler, called me and told me that they have added an XC2 rider for 2011. Josh Weisenfels, of Arkansas, will join Strang on the FMF/Makita Suzuki team for the upcoming season. Like Strang, Weisenfels is in California, staying with Rodney and Lori Smith to get his off-season training. I gave Josh a call on Tuesday and when I spoke to him he was totally exhausted since he had just left the gym after one of his workouts. He told me that he's done more riding in the last three weeks than he did all last year. Right now, both Josh's are training on the 450, but Weisenfels will start riding the RMZ250 next week in preparation for the GNCC opener.

Another person I spoke to was Thad DuVall. Bad Thad was at Randy Hawkin's place, riding with Jordan Ashburn and a few others, getting ready for the season. Thad is also riding the national enduro series and he's been riding a YZ250F in preparation for that series, but he'll be on his 450F for the GNCC series. Thad says he learned a lot from last year and he thinks he'll be able to keep it on two wheels this year. As a matter of fact, he told me, and I quote, "As long as I'm in the top three in a race then I'm in good shape. I just want to be consistently on the podium." Perhaps that's a sign of the "Good Thad", as opposed to the "Bad Thad".  Anyway, sounds like Thad is headed in the right direction and I really expect great things from him this year.

Jason "used to write this column" Weigandt checks in with this update.

I had the good fortune to meet Nathan Woods under bad circumstances. He was a fulltime WORCS racer, but he came to the Wisp GNCC in 2005 to give it a shot. He ended up taking one. Woody was battling for a top five late in the day when he took a rock to the face and broke his nose, badly (those of you who raced Wisp remember that they track didn't really have rocks-it had boulders).

Nate needed to get to a hospital, and I happened to be heading back to Morgantown to get to the office and write a race report, anyway. So he hopped in my truck and headed to Ruby Memorial hospital in West Virginia, since it was the closest major medical center. Nate had an ice pack on his face the whole ride (about an hour) and he was hurting bad, but he did his best to stay cool and act tough. We covered a lot of ground in that conversation, including how we realized we had met at a Four-Stroke MX National a few years earlier (yes, they used to have a separate series for four-strokes).

I was impressed that the guy kept his cool so well considering the pain he must have been in. Eventually Yamaha's Mike Guerra got to the hospital and I headed to the office. I saw Nathan once or twice after that, but I'm going to pretend I know him like those that follow the WORCS do. I do know he seemed like a good dude from that one drive I spent with him. Man, we all know the risks in this sport, but no one expects something like this to happen-even though it seems to be happening more often lately. Godspeed, Nathan.

At the Oakland SX over the weekend I got to hang out with the aforementioned Team Josh (Strang/Weisenfels) combo, since they were in NorCal hanging with Rodney Smith. Strang used to spend several months at Rodney's house when he first came to the U.S., but now that he knows the training program well, he'll only spend a few weeks there, and then head back to his house in Southern California. Strang's schedule also got messed up by our own GNCC banquets-he wanted to spend a good amount of time back in Australia, but since he didn't leave the U.S. until December, he didn't have much time before he had to get back for the Rodney program.

As for "Seinfeld," the guy has not raced a GNCC since early last season. But all the time off has hopefully allowed him to put his shoulder problems behind him. Now it's a matter of getting back into race shape quickly. Could be a real showdown between Weisenfels and his old teammate, FAR's Jason Thomas, for the XC2 Title.

And here's Jason Hooper.

As many of you have probably heard, the off-road community lost a champion, father, and husband last Friday when 2-time WORCS Champion Nathan Woods passed away after a crash during open practice at round one of the WORCS series. The folks at Rider Down Organization have stepped in and given a donation from previously collected money to Nathan's wife Amanda and their two boys Nathan Jr. and Braxton, and is currently taking donations on their website, riderdown.org with 100% of the proceeds going to the Woods family. For more information on what you can do to help, visit www.nathanwoodsoffroad.com

If you happen to frequent the only off-road site to not get a Tuesday Toolbox interview, digitaloffroad.com you may have seen the video we posted with FMF/KTM's Kailub Russell last Friday. Kailub has been staying at Zach Osborne's new training facility, Club MX in Chesterfield, SC for the past month where he has hired their on-staff trainer and nutritionist to help get him prepared for his rookie season in the XC1 Pro Class. Kailub has been kind of notorious throughout his career for his lack of off-the-bike training (he preferred seat time on his dirt bike as opposed to time in the gym or on the road bike). But, Kailub, with the assistance of trainer Brandon Haas has been hitting the gym at Club MX every morning at 7am and following a strict diet, long gone are his days of sleeping until noon and eating Taco Bell for lunch! You can check out the video HERE, and as you'll see KR is definitely on the gas.

The training seems to be paying off as KR557 (Russell will be going old school, running his familiar 557 in 2011) won the Sumter Enduro last weekend by over a minute over Steward Baylor who was another 2 minutes ahead of Cory Buttrick. The KTM boys that swept the podium weren't the only GNCC stars that raced at Sumter (which wasn't part of the National Enduro series this year). Jordan Ashburn finished 6th overall, Kenny Gilbert 8th, and Thad Duvall raced as well but suffered with some bike troubles keeping him out of contention.

That's about all I have for this edition. RacerTV's pit reporter Krista Shaw and I will be heading out to the West Coast next week to do some video with Josh Strang, so look for some updates next week on what the reigning GNCC XC1 champ is up to and also for a first look at his new teammate Josh Weisenfels on his FMF/Makita Suzuki.

Thanks Jen.  Here we are less than a month away from The Moose Racing River Ranch GNCC and reports are coming in of deals being finalized and others still waiting.  The wild thing is I think we will continue to hear things right up till race day. The latest news on the deal front though now is the addition of Simo Kirssi to the F.A.R. Husqvarna Team.  Simo has experience in cross country and GNCC so he should adapt quickly and could be a factor in the XC1 Pro Class.

Speaking of XC1 Pro Class racing, on the ATV side of things it looks like Mark Notman will be making the step up from XC2 Pro Am and has been recently spotted in Florida testing and practicing with Gabe Phillips.  I asked Mark about the trip and he said they dedicated a lot of time on the suspension set ups with the new Elka shocks.  He said that he has always loved his Elka Suspension but that the new stuff is the best he has ever ridden.  Mark stated that he Elka changed some stuff up internally which allows them to work even better than before.  He also said that there is more adjustability to the new shocks and easier to dial in.  Mark will be heading into his XC1 rookie season with great support from Elka, Maxxis, Andrews cycles, Hiper, Houser, power-madd, flexx bars, HMF, precision, quad-tech, Rekluse, Dp brakes, Scott goggles, O'Neal, Gaerne, x-country photos, pier graphics, Rath racing, motopro training and IMS.

Anyone remember Paradise Park in Macon, Georgia?  2 Time GNCC Champion Scott Plessinger does.  Actually he liked the place so much he bought it for his son Aaron to train.  I was talking with the Plessinger's this morning and was informed that they are planning on opening things up for any GNCCers headed south and looking for a place to ride.  The plans are to open February 15^th.  You can Scott at 513-266-2866 or email paradisemxpark@yahoo.com.  There is a fan page on Facebook and all the details can be checked out there.  There should be a website up soon.  "265 acres of Raw Madness" sounds like a lot of fun.

Also Aaron is healthy and hungry. It looks like that 250A class is going to be stacked too.  I have spoken with a few folks setting their sights on that class.  Right now with Plessinger you can add Chris Meadows, and Grant Baylor too and I am sure plenty more.  This could be one exciting year for the Amateur over-all each week.  Can I say we are going to need more spotters in the woods to keep up with all the action?

You may want to check out the video of Grant Baylor that the boys from Off Road Viking shot recently.  The ORV boys were the focus of Tuesday Toolbox this week and they have the audio from the interview which includes the whole interview.  Plus they got me to do something I never do....listen to see for yourself, it may get your blood pumping.

I mentioned Facebook a few moments ago and I wanted to let anyone know that is looking for some cool photos; you have to check out the Blackwater page.  There are some great pictures on there and I am sure there will be more in the future.  You never know you may have something you want to add.  The funny thing is that the page was started by fans of the sport that never had an opportunity to attend.  That shows you that once it gets in your blood you can't get enough.

The page designer was Tiffany Chilzer from Pittsburgh.  It looks like she found some pictures on Quad Zone and then was able to acquire more and the page just keeps on growing.  Thanks to Racer TV Cameraman and OffRoadJunkies.com Jarod Bolton and David L. Smith (Not Double D from Raceday Pix) for working on this and giving the chance to check it all out.

On a rough note in the Women's bike class.  Shelby Rolen who had the shoulder injury at the Titan was all healed up and released to ride.  I am sorry to hear that she had another injury from a practice crash and broke a collarbone.  She is definitely out for Florida and maybe more.  Tough break literally for Shelby and we are hoping a speedy recovery for her.

That's about all I have for this week.  If anyone happens to be around Columbus Ohio this weekend stop by the Ohio Expo Center for the Action Sports Arenacross.  I will be there Friday and Saturday night and am looking forward to seeing some of the moto guys I haven't talked to in a while.  Then next weekend Action Sports Racing heads to Huntington West Virginia.  That by the way is right in the stomping grounds of GNCCer's Troy Stanley and Dr. Steve Thaxton.  These should be two really great weekends of racing.

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