As the years go by, more and more young talent continues to rise through the GNCC ranks, heightening the level of competition and keeping it interesting. For most riders, a championship title is merely a distant dream to which they can only hope to attain, but for Yamaha's Bill Ballance being a champion has become a way of life. Ballance dominated the number one spot for nearly a decade, claiming a championship every year from 2000-2008, landing the 9-Time champion a spot in the GNCC record books. These days Ballance has taken on much more responsibility than just racing full-time, he also manages one of the most successful ATV teams out there, Ballance Racing Yamaha. Although he's not in contention for a 2011 championship, the seasoned veteran is confident that he still has what it takes to get the job done against a much younger field of competition. We caught up with the champ just before he threw down some laps at his home track in Kentucky.
GNCCRacing.com: Hey Bill! It was good to see you last weekend at the ATV Motocross race in Illinois. Tell us a little about your involvement in the ATVMX Series.
Bill Balance: We started working with Thomas Brown a little bit there at the end of last year and then we started working with Yamaha a little bit over the off-season. Thomas was looking for a little extra support, mainly in things to do with bike setup and some of the stuff that we've been doing over the years. We've been on Yamahas for so long that we've had a lot of things figured out. Everyone involved just felt like there could be some things he could benefit from racing under Ballance this year and that's how it all got started.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Ballance is a GNCC legend
We all train here together and test stuff at the home track just out the back door of the shop. It's convenient to have a centrally located spot so they don't have to travel anywhere to practice tracks or anything like that. It's good to have that right out the back door and to be able to come in and make changes on the bikes. It's good for all of us because we mix up the training, you know one day we'll ride motocross with Thomas and the next day he'll do some longer motos with us on a couple different cross country loops that we have real close to here. It's real good cross training for all of us and it helps our pace and speed training with him for that burst of speed that you look for sometimes in the cross country and then doing the longer motos with us has been a big help to his endurance, so it's been a plus for everybody actually.
Do you give them the Bill Ballance smackdown training?
(laughs) They do a lot of the physical training on their own but when it comes to any of the riding and stuff here or any of the testing I'm pretty much involved with that. I'm out there on the track riding and pushing them and I'll take their bikes for a few laps here and there when we've made changes. Trying to help them understand the changes we've made and maybe what direction we want to go in.
Speaking of training. You raced the first two rounds and then we didn't see you for the last two - do you plan on racing any more this year?
Photo By: Jen Kenyon
These guys are tight on and off the track
Yes I'm actually planning on racing this weekend. The first two races this year, I wasn't really physically ready for them. I hadn't done a whole lot of training from when the doctor released me to actually start full-time and I thought "well if I can just go out there and get through the first three rounds and then slowly get into physical shape and by the fourth or fifth race of the season be where I need to be to try to win races." That was my goal but I had some bike problems that pretty much knocked me out of the races and once that happened I knew there was no chances of any kind of championship run and at this point that would be my main focus to doing it. So after all that was said and done, I said "you know what, I'm just going to go back and train with the guys and I'm not going to show up to another GNCC event until I know that when I roll up on the starting line I'm going to be able to contend with Chris Borich and win a race. So that's what I've been doing over the last two months and I guess that pretty much tells you where I feel like I'm at now, seeing as I'm going to race this weekend.
So can we expect an epic Ballance/Borich battle this weekend in Indy?!
That's the plan. I should back in the form I was two years ago. It's been a long two years. It's been two years since I've been on a quad feeling like I used to feel when I knew that as soon as I pulled up to the starting line I was ready to win it. I feel like I'm finally back to that level so we shall see what happens.
So does that mean we can expect you at the rest of the races this season?
I'm going to play it by ear. Lord willing - I want to do the Snowshoe race because of the contingencies out there and the Loretta's race whenever it gets rescheduled. Ironman and of course this weekend in Indy. That's the four weeks that if everything goes well I know I'll be racing. Other than that, I'll just sort of play it by ear as it comes and race on the days the weather is pretty and I'm feeling good. Otherwise maybe just start looking at next year and get my training program going.
It's really cool to see your involvement with the younger guys like Kiser and Walker Fowler. Obviously it's called Ballance Racing for a reason, but what exactly is your role as far as the team goes?
Photo By: Shan Moore
The Veteran still knows how to holeshot those young guys
Well, we've got a store here that we run with retail sales, you know a lot of the stuff you use for quads - add ons, suspension, A arms - basically anything it takes to set up a quad. The contract that Ballance Raci
ng has with Yamaha, and all the sponsors for that matter, is basically I put together the whole sponsor program and Yamaha is putting me in charge of hiring the riders and working out the programs as far as sponsorships and the effort to make everything go. I just oversee it and work with the riders, basically have a hand in just about everything that goes on.
So do you see that as something you want to continue as a career after you stop riding full-time?
Yeah, I really enjoy working with the riders, testing the products and doing bike set up. That's is probably my second favorite thing to do other than racing myself is working on quads and fine tuning and setting things up and then watching one of my riders go out there on the track and put it to work.
Chris Borich is going for his third consecutive championship this year. Do you think he's going to be the one to break your record?
No I don't. I really don't. I think that there's a lot of stiff competition out there and to be completely honest with you, I think that Walker Fowler is probably the guy that I see in the future that is going to probably going to dominate the sport in a big way for a long period of time, barring nothing happens to him. He got started in the sport so young and he's moved up to the level he's at probably faster than anybody else ever in the history of the sport at his age. To be able to start in the Pro class at the age and level of talent and speed that he's got going for him, I think that he probably has the biggest opportunities to break some records as far as total wins than anybody I've ever seen out there. He's got his head on straight and he works hard at it. He truly loves what he's doing so I think that barring he doesn't have anything happen to him, he's got a lot of big things ahead of him.
I know you've got a lot of them to remember, but what was your most memorable championship?
Photo By: Shan Moore
Ballance not only has mastered the art of riding an ATV, but he's pretty handy with the wrench too
I'm going to go with my eighth, when I broke Barry Hawk's record for the most career championships. It was pretty special since it was one of my tougher battles with Chris to get that championship. The ninth one seemed to come pretty easy actually. The eighth one was the one I really had to work for and setting a new record is one that will always stick with me.
Well, that about wraps it up. We're looking forward to heading to a new GNCC track this weekend, what do you think about another location in Indiana?
It's going to be new for everybody out there. I'm really interested to get there and I'm excited that it's going to be my first race back after being off the quad for a while as far as on the starting line so it should be a pretty even playing field for everybody since nobody has raced on it yet. It should be good for sure.
Great, well thanks a lot for taking the time to talk with us. We'll see you this weekend in Indy!
Thanks a lot!
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