Quick Fill #16: Extending The Break

Welcome to Quick Fill.  By now it's no surprise that this weekend's Parts Unlimited Loretta Lynn GNCC has been cancelled.  It's definitely a bummer all-around, especially considering we haven't actually raced a GNCC in three weeks.  But trust me when I say, Racer Productions made the decision to cancel after much consideration for the safety of everyone involved.  I'll give you all a little insight on our thought process for this whole decision, in case you're wondering why we didn't just wait it out and send everyone to TN.

The guys made the decision after assessing the already large amounts of rain (as you can see from the photos) and taking into consideration what is still yet to come.  That's the tricky part - Hurricane Mills was under 5 different severe weather advisories yesterday, including flash flood warnings and extreme wind advisories with another 2 inches of rain to follow today.  I know we can all joke about how fun it would be to race in sloppy mud and water but let's be honest; there's a fine line of safety as well as respect to the land property and your own property that has to be considered.  Racer takes those things very seriously and we would not have cancelled if we didn't think we were posing danger upon the riders, fans and everyone else involved.  We actually called the Sherriff and public safety officials down there and they recommended we didn't move forward with the race.

We are well aware of the insanely high gas prices right now, our track crew made the trip to TN and let me tell you - it wasn't cheap.  Needless to say, the early decision came as a courtesy to teams, racers and sponsors that spend HUGE bucks to travel their rigs across the country to race a GNCC.  On top of dropping an easy $1000 to get to the race, for someone to get their rig stuck in the muddy pits only for us to cancel the race anyway would have been zero fun for anyone. So on that note, you're bummed, we're bummed - but hey we're all alive and kickin' so find somewhere to ride this weekend and set your sights on the new Indy 100 in a few weeks! We'll keep you all posted on a reschedule date as soon as we figure it out.

Speaking of new rounds, the new Rock Run GNCC in Patton, PA is coming up May 28-29 and we've got a cool event happening Friday evening at Cernic's Suzuki KTM.  From 5-7 PM racers like Strang, Borich, Mullins, Buttrick and Russell will be out signing autographs and hanging out.  It's a fun thing to do on a Friday night, you can hang with your favorite racers and most importantly - there's FREE stuff!  Seriously, you can't beat free food, rider merchandise and event ticket giveaways.

XC2 Holeshot extraordinaire Shane O'Banion will be going for his fourth consecutive holeshot at the Indy 100 GNCC in a couple weeks.  Shane has been on a borrowed bike for the first four rounds but riding buddy Eric Gill has hooked him up with a 2011 R2W/Fox/HBD Moto Graphix/Sunstar/Cycra/Two2Cool/Pro Action KTM so let's see what he can do with his new ride!

Here is a quick note from R2W Racing:

We are going to be giving away a FREE brand-new Sunstar Works-Z rear sprocket, front Sunstar sprocket, and a Sunstar Gold XTG Offroad chain to a luck winner, based on the results of Indy 100 on May 14-15! We are promoting the giveaway on FB and R2W's team website!  Time is running out!  Go to www.r2wracing.com to participate and try your luck! Anyone can participate!

Hope everyone had a great Easter and got the chance to catch RacerTV's coverage of the River Ranch GNCC on VERSUS!  The show turned out awesome and we're really excited about this year's package.  I hear there's going to be a little more helmet cam footage for The General, which airs this Sunday with ATVs at 3:30 PM.  Georgia bikes will air May 8 at 6:00 PM.  Don't miss it!

That's all for me, here's Shan Moore.

Thanks, Jen. Just saw Facebook photos of Maria Forsberg's wedding and I have to say, that girl cleans up pretty good! That's my awkward way of saying Maria looked gorgeous and so did her new husband - he's a very lucky guy. I want to pass on my personal congratulations to the two and just say how much respect I have for all of our racers who juggle married life with racing. It takes a big commitment to do both well (racing and being in a marriage) and I know Maria has what it takes to handle them both. I think, for the most part, people who excel in motorcycle racing have also learned the lessons along the way that make them better people as well. There are some things that apply to both being a good racer and being a good person and I think being a racer, you learn those lessons as you move up the ranks... at least most do. And I am particularly proud of our guys like Brian Wolf (and there are many others), who seem to do a great job of both.

Kudos to Jason Hooper for the excellent job he did with the River Ranch RacerTV broadcast on the VERSUS network. I've told him before that I'm in awe of his skills and the fact that he is self-taught. Hoop is a talented guy and GNCC is lucky to have him and Krista. My wife and I attended family outings on Easter, but we recorded the broadcast and I was able to watch it this morning. Great stuff... keep it coming, Hoop.

It kind of sucks that LL was cancelled; I was on the road when I got the call and luckily I hadn't made it too far. Right now we have a pretty good rivalry going on between Josh Strang and Charlie Mullins on the bike side of things, and Charlie won this race last year, although I wouldn't rule Paul Whibley, Cory Buttrick or Kailub Russell out of the picture just yet. Whibs has had his share of bad luck at Loretta Lynn's but he likes nasty conditions and circumstances might be perfect for an Ax Man victory this weekend. You also can't forget that C-Butt got his first win at the muddiest race of the year last season, so he has to be a consideration as well.

And on the ATV side, Chris Borich is trying to separate himself from the pack again, but he's getting plenty of resistance from Adam McGill, Taylor Kiser and Chris Bithell. Borich won in the mud last year, but the Can-Am boys have kept heap big pressure on the Pennsylvania rider. Rain or shine, it should be a great race.

After the news spread about the cancellation, I got this e-mail from Lucas Comeaux, asking me to spread the news about their race this weekend in Louisiana, for anyone still wanting a place to go. Apparently they're not under water!

Lucas says: Any folks that still wanting to race go to www.AcadianaRacing.com for info on the Louisiana Cross-Country Series round taking place this Sunday in North LA (Dubach)!!  We're offering $500 cash purse and GNCC Pro's will receive FREE entry, free shirt, and free hat.

And here's Rodney.

Thanks Jen.  What a wet past couple of weeks! It seems like it has rained every day except for one for the last two weeks where I live in South Eastern Ohio.  It appears that Mother Nature may not be targeting just me and my grass mowing efforts, ha.  According to reports from the Loretta Lynn Ranch, it's been just as bad there - if not worse.

Reports coming in on Monday were that everything is looking good; however, as everyone knows it doesn't even have rain at Loretta's for Hurricane Creek to flood the valley.  As I watched weather radar this week I knew it was only a matter of time before things would get ugly there and they sure did.  Therefore, Loretta Lynn's GNCC has begun another interesting chapter in its history and one has to wonder what will be the state of the championships when we do finally have a chance to run the oldest race on the schedule.

The extra week or so off will give me a chance to look into some of the amateur motorcycle racing that has been raging since the start of the season.  We are only 4 races into the schedule and this is shaping up to be an exciting series with only about a ¼ of the season complete.

Last week we looked a little into the Youth Division and this week we will look deeper into the bigger bikes starting with the 10:00am race.  I remember only a few short years ago when North Carolina's Wayne Beatty who was in his 60s dominating the morning overall from the Masters Class.  It was funny to see young guns like Marty Delosio (spelling) begin a campaign to knock the old man off his pedestal.   No one ever really did beat Wayne except for Old Man Time.   And even Old Man Time hasn't taken much away from this legend in our sport.

Wayne not only inspired the men in the morning but also the Women Class.  In that time, Mandi Mastin had only just begun etching her name in the history books of Women's off-road racing.  I'm not sure but I would have to think that Mandi now has somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 to 20 AMA National titles.  Mastin had competition from the likes of ladies like Heidi Landon and eventually the West Coast's first threat Heather Wilson.  Wilson, Landon and Mastin had some legendary battles that would often land them on the over-all podium.

Randall Riggs from the Masters A 50+ and Super Senior A 45+ class rider Dennis Decker have taken over the glory of being the fast "Mature" riders while Mandi Mastin continues to be one of the fast ladies.  However, Mastin has her hands full these days with the deepest field of talent the Women's class has ever seen.  Maria Forsberg, Ashley Crouch, Leeann Bange, Shelby Rolen, Emily Raines, Hannah Otto, Nina Cobb and more ladies are stepping up the level of competition beyond anything the class has ever seen and this battle is only heating up.  I expect to see these ladies push to a whole new level this season that will rival any championship battle.

As far as the amateur class racing is concerned at 1:00pm, this too has been a pressure cooker.  The top amateur position has seen a number of battles this season that has made for some great racing within the race.  250A Class riders and Open A Class riders continue to battle for the top honors of Over All Amateur and you never really know how it is going to end till the last challenger checks in.  Last year it was dominated by Jordan Ashburn who is now riding XC2 Pro Lites from the Open A class.  This year you really don't know how it is going to end.

As it stands now, the 250A class has been the prevailing class and in 4 rounds we have seen 3 different TOAs.  Aaron Plessinger won in Florida and North Carolina.  Grant Baylor who has been in it nearly every race took the honors in Georgia and Chris Meadows made his debut as TOA at the Big Buck GNCC.

Meadows has been working his way out of a hole early in the season.  He had no real support leading into the season but has been able to build things slowly with his new JD Performance race team.  With the help of Jay Downhour with FCR Suspension in Ohio Chris has been able to put in a solid performance early on.  Then just before Big Buck with the help of sponsors like Brian and Rae Ann Jasper of Formation Cementing in his hometown of Athens Ohio, Fast Traxx Motoplex in Nelsonville Ohio of course Jay Downhour, Chris was able to get a new KTM which gave him the confidence he was lacking to become a full time player for top amateur and class honors.  Meadows told me that Downhour simply set his bike up identically to his old bike and that it worked flawlessly.

There is a lot more going on within these two races but these seem to be the highlights from the amateur standpoint.  I realize that with the postponement of the Loretta's you are looking for something to do besides read my ramblings.  Before I let you go; if you are looking for something to do this weekend it looks like the weather will be really nice this weekend and from what I hear a number of bike guys are hitting up the NCHSA race in Wilkesboro, NC.  Rumor has it that they're having the big "Merlefest" music festival near the race. You can jam out to the Doobie Brothers and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin (I am told they're supposed to be there.)  "Bolt-On dot com's" Jared Bolton gave me the lowdown on this and I hope he knows that we expect a full report.

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