Quick Fill #22: This Week in GNCC

by: Jennifer Kenyon
Thursday June 16th, 2011

Welcome to Quick Fill. We're only a week away from arguably one of the coolest races on the circuit, the MotorSport.com Snowshoe GNCC.  There are so many extracurricular activities that separate this particular race from the others on the schedule, so let's highlight the fun stuff that will be taking place at Snowshoe Mountain Resort over the course of the week and into the weekend.

There are still a few openings for GNCC University on the motorcycle side so if you've been thinking about signing up...well then what are you waiting for?! These spots are going quickly so don't wait until the last minute to get things squared away (although, it is in 6 days).  If you're interesting in signing up, give the gals over at Snowshoe a call at 877-441-4386 and they'll be happy to take care of you.  I spoke with Randy Hawkins this week and he and his team are excited to get things underway. (Read Tuesday Toolbox here). It sounds like Randy has been putting a lot of thought into GNCC U this year and we can expect awesome things from those guys.  I'll be talking with Bill Ballance next week about the ATV side of things as well.  Bill has some riding schools going on right now in his home state of Kentucky so I'm sure by the time next week rolls around he and his team are going to be pretty well prepped with a solid teaching mentality.  Remember, GNCC U is for all skill levels, even if you're an A rider - there is always room to grow on and off the bike so take up the chance to learn from guys who really know the ins and outs of the woods.  I'm actually enrolled in GNCC U in hopes to prepare for that GNCC I've been dying to race this season. If all goes well, I'll try to hit the woods before the break. Eeek.  I'll be glad to facilitate wagers on whether or not I live through the race, but we'll get to that when it comes.

Photo By: Shan Moore
CB121 is looking for his first win at Snowshoe

Fellow GNCC Racer and cycling enthusiast Brian Temple has been kind enough to organize a LiveSTRONG off road team, where he is raising money in the off road community through raffles and other fundraisers.  With the help of GNCC pros and sponsors, Brian has been very successful so far this year and we want to keep the momentum rolling! The drawing finale will take place next weekend at Snowshoe so be sure to purchase raffle tickets at the MotoTees trailer for a chance to win a variety of autographed merchandise and other cool prizes.  Anyway, Brian has organized a very informal cycling loop with some of the Pro guys on Saturday morning.  They're planning to meet at the podium (times to be decided) and then they'll do around a 14 mile loop up the mountain and back down.  I've been told it may be more for advanced cyclers but anyone is welcome to come out and ride.  Brian will be joined by Beta's Chris Bach, WMR's Chris Douglas and Nate Kanney, Suzuki's Josh Strang and I hear that cycling Guru Shane Nalley may join in as well.  It's a good chance to hang with these guys off the track a little bit and have some fun and hey, it's for a good cause so why not!

On that note, in a day and age where everyone is turning to social media for personal and business use, it's important to use those tools to your benefit.  Chris Bach has been utilizing Twitter and Facebook to better his career as a professional racer. So if you're not following or a fan of Chris, you're missing out! @ChrisBachRacing on Twitter and Chris Bach (athlete) on Facebook.

This year has been a little strange with the amount of downtime we seem to have in the schedule.  I'm getting excited just thinking about the racing that's going down next weekend.  I've never been exposed to the starts here at Snowshoe so I'm also in for a little bit of a learning session, I sort of feel like I'm back in Florida again for this one.  Anyway, Snowshoe always seems to generate winners who come out of the woodworks and I'm expecting this year to be no different.  Brian Wolf is no longer considered a rookie in my eyes, he's made his statement this year and I believe that he'll continue to run up front this season just as good as the rest of them.  But there is always the belief that Wolf has some sort of freakish Snowshoe power that allows him to absolutely kill it there, so we'll just have to wait and see. Obviously Walker Fowler is getting more and more threatening to the XC1 field each week and with the overall finish at Rock Run, Fowler is sitting pretty as far as confidence heading into next weekend.

Josh Strang now clenches the points lead over his biggest competitor this year - besides himself, and that's Charlie Mullins. Strang and Mullins have been back and forth all season long and when you throw in Whibs, who hasn't been the most consistent rider in the top three, but who surely knows how to win races, a tough course like Snowshoe could afford a race-win to any one of these guys. Like I've said all season long, these guys all have the pace, each of them make their mistakes or cap a stellar ride and it just depends on what kind of weekend they're having. What's left to say, may the best man [of the day] win.

The above speculation goes without saying that the rest of the field hasn't stepped it up over the break.  Nate Kanney took the win at Snowshoe last year, as the New York boy knows how to handle the rough terrain.  If there's any race for the wild card riders to come out in, it would definitely be this one.

I am sealing things up here in the office as I get ready to head to Budds Creek, MD for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Series. And even though I'm an MX girl at heart, I'll admit that I'm more than ready to get back to GNCC Racing. And good luck to all riders who are racing this weekend!

Photo By: Shan Moore
JR was a waiter in a previous life

I'll throw things over to Shan "National Number 76" Moore. (Yes, Shan Moore killed it on the MX scene, back in the day. I won't give a year, Shan. Don't worry J )

Thanks, Jen. Well, we're almost through another long break before we get back to racing at Snowshoe Mountain Resort. It's starting to get pretty hot across the country and I for one will welcome the cooler weather of the mountain environment. As far as racing goes, I know that Paul Whibley got a big win at the OMA in Michigan, his fourth of the year. And a host of GNCC regulars filled out the tip five, with Chris Bach in second, Jordan Ashburn in third, Scotty Watkins fourth and Nick Fahringer fifth. Whibs will be coming into Snowshoe with a little momentum, so it will be interesting to see how he handles the race in two weeks.

Of course, a lot of our GNCC family was at High Point this past weekend, where Ryan Villopoto got back in the groove to take his first outdoor overall victory of the season. High Point and Red Bud are my two favorite tracks to shoot photos at and I had to miss it this time after six straight trips to the facility to cover national trials for Cycle News. However, I will get to go to Red Bud and Steel City (another fav). I was joking with Kailub Russell at the Rock Run, asking him if I was going to see him racing at Red Bud again and he told me, "you never know!" It would be cool to see Kailub and Josh Strang ride a couple of MX rounds again. I'm sure if those two guys dedicated themselves to motocross like they have to GNCC they would be top 10 riders, for sure. Maybe, top three?

A handful of the top guys have already headed to Wyoming for the National Enduro round this weekend (I'll be almost there by the time you read this). That's a pretty wide-open track, which will favor the GNCC guys and right now, Charlie Mullins has a slight edge over Russell Bobbitt and Cory Buttrick in the series standings. The bottom line is, that race will give those guys one more weekend of race-hardened seat time before Snowshoe, which can never hurt. Mullins and Strang have been mixing it up pretty good in the GNCC series and Mullins may be getting a bit of an edge by riding two series. My guess is the XC1 class will go down to the wire again this year.

Photo By: Shan Moore
Former NBA player Rik Smits now spends his time on the GNCC course

While I'm in Wyoming, I'll be shooting KTM's 2012 XC-W model intro. I can't wait to see the new bikes in person. Do ya think they'll let me ride one? I think there are about eight magazine editors flying in to try them out and my job is to make them all look good for their respective magazines. Might be hard to do for some of those guys, haha.

Here's Rodney "AMA Pro MX Announcer Extraordinaire" Tomblin. Thanks Jen.  As many of you know I am the announcer, a.k.a. "The Ten Second Guy" of the GNCC series as well as contributor in Quick Fill each week.  I also announce the AMA ATVMX Nationals presented by DWT which has honestly consumed my mind as of late.  I have been preparing for the first ever Ohio ATVMX National and to say the least I am "excited".  What makes it even more special for me is that it is a little more than an hour from home and the GNCC will be there the following weekend.  So it will be almost like having a normal job for two weeks.

The problem with all the "excitement" for me is that I have not truly been focusing on or even thinking about GNCC like normal.  However, the more I think about it the more relieved I am.  The reason is because this isn't a normal GNCC season so it has been easy to get distracted.  I do realize that I have had many other things with Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship last week and the ATVMX at Millville Minnesota the week before. But I thought as I sat down to write about GNCC that I would draw a blank and not have anything to say.  To my amazement the question is where to begin?

The great thing about GNCC is that as soon as you think about it your head starts spinning in thought, your heart races with anticipation and your adrenaline flows with an intensity that brings alive a part of you that is almost instinctive.  You crave the smell of the freshly churned soil of the trail.  You crave the taste of mud and dust on your lips.  Your eyes glaze over and you become the beast driven by a passion and desire to ride.

I spoke with GNCC Trail Boss Jeff Russell a little bit ago about the upcoming MotoSport.com Snowshoe GNCC and from what he tells me, you better hope the beast in you is awake because "America's Toughest Race" may just live up to the name again this year.  According to Jeff Russell in a meeting held yesterday it was decided to run the double loop like last year with the double scoring lanes.  Trail Boss also said that you can expect a lot of what you saw last year with the course.  After much discussion and input from new Trail Assistant and 8-Time GNCC Champ Barry Hawk, it was decided to keep the keep course similar to last years.  Hawk stated that last year the course was probably the best it had ever been so why change it.

The one thing to keep in mind is that The Snowshoe GNCC is one of different sorts.  It brings together modern day GNCC and Old School Off-Road.  It brings a series back to its roots as closely as a race of this caliber could do in this day and era.  It brings to life the memories of what started it all.  It brings back "The Black Water".

Memories of Davis West Virginia dance through the minds of many as the rest of us only try to imagine what it must have been like to be standing on the streets waiting for the green flag to fly as wave after wave after wave of riders dropped down into the creeks and mountains of the one of the world's most infamous races.  It was a race where anyone who lined up on the start grid could have a chance to be "King for a Day" if you were strong enough to survive.  It was a race where riders would strive to make it just one lap so they could say they rode it.

Many of us never really got to experience that "Black Water" feeling, but I imagine that we get a taste of what it must have been like back in the day.  Even if it isn't, The Snow Show is developing a reputation of its own by today's standards and has been more than fruitful for bench racing sessions across the world.

Stories and memories fill my mind like A few years ago Dr. McGhee and a racing buddy broke down 40 miles from the track. They unloaded their race bikes and rode them the rest of the way making in by a slim margin to line up for the start.  They were short extra gear like goggles, gas cans etc. but the GNCC Racing Nation banded together and took care of the needs of these riders and they raced one of the most memorable races of their lives.

Photo By: Shan Moore
Youth ATV racing is always a good show

I remember stories on the podium of strengthened relationships with the Creator. I remember stories of riders praying to make it out in one piece and back to the finish.  I remember stories of riders using other rider's machines as a bridge to get through the trail.

Last year was an incredible year as far as the lore of Snowshoe Mountain is concerned.  The look in the eyes of the riders as they came through the finish line was one of determination.  I would see looks of accomplishment.  I would hear stories of "that was the greatest ride of my life!" and "I made it one lap! And "that was great!  And "That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life!"  Each rider said it with a sense of pride and accomplishment that they were one of only a few willing to even try it let alone make it.

As we head into Snowshoe next week stop for a moment and take a deep breath.  Prepare yourself for one of the greatest rides of your life.  I realize that championships are on the line but for this one race put it in the back of your mind and enjoy what this race has to offer. From its challenges on the trail to its small glimpse of history in off road and even to its special memories you will bring home when it is all over.

That's about it for me but I would like to add that if you have a memory you would like to share of  Snowshoe or the Black Water I would love to hear about it.  Drop me an email at Rodney@gnccracing.com

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