Quick Fill #23: GNCC University

Welcome to Quick Fill. This week comes to you from the beautiful Snowshoe Mountain as we celebrate the 3^rd Annual GNCC University.  I got the amazing opportunity to take part in day one of the bike side of GNCC U and so far it's been a great learning experience.

Day one went surprisingly well for me, the little ol' motocross rider.  I only managed to eat the dirt a few times and both the bike and myself survived - so it was a successful day.  Jason Raines was AWESOME at teaching the basics of bike control as far as clutch and brake usage and I think that was the most important foundation for students learning today.  After Jason's session, we were able to climb hills, ride logs, hit corners and make it through rock and mud sections a lot easier than we had before freshening up on the basics.

Bill Ballance and his ATV crew had an amazing turnout of youth riders here at GNCC U and let me tell you - I have never seen a bunch of 8-15 year olds listen so keenly to anyone in my life.  These kids are fixated on Walker, Taylor, Johnny, Traci and Bill and all the rest of the instructors as they talk about some of the off-track things that deal with racing.  It really is a cool thing to see, and I'm blown away by how awesome these instructors and kids are.

If you haven't already heard, our good friends over at St. Lawrence Radiology has stepped up to provide a $5K purse to both the ATV and bike overall winner this weekend at the Motosport.com Snowshoe GNCC this weekend.  Just to clarify - the racer who claims the overall of the bike or the ATV afternoon race will get the $5G's.  So race hard, there's some cash flow involved here!

Another awesome thing happening this weekend comes from Motosport.com.  They are going to be offering gift cards for all classes to riders finishing in 1-3. They're giving out $50 for first, $30 for second and $20 for third.  That's a pretty cool thing and you can look for those when you get your plaques at the end of the day.

Like we said last week, Brian Temple and the LiveSTRONG crew is going to be heading up a bicycle loop on Saturday morning at 11 AM, starting at the podium.  It's going to be about 14 mile ride heading up the mountain by the main entrance, weather permitting of course. Riders joining the ride are FMF/ClockworkKTM/Fly Racing rider Brian Temple, Factory BETA rider Chris Bach and 2 of WMR's riders Nathan Kanney and Chris Douglas.  The first 20 to join in will receive a free LiveSTRONG wristband, looking forward to seeing you all there!

If you see Tim Cotter around the mountain this weekend, be sure to wish him a Happy 50th Birhtday!

It's always a pleasure to give credit to our riders who have accomplished one of the greatest feats for racers and that's graduating high school.  I got a note from Mr. Cappetta this week about his son Patrick graduating High School this year and the Cappettas want to invite everyone to the KTM trailer on Saturday for some cake and celebration.  It sounds like Mrs. Baylor is going to be helping out with the serving of the cake so stop by and see those guys and tell Patrick congrats!

Passing it along to Shan Moore, who will be trekking over to Snowshoe very soon.

Thanks, Jen. Some of you may remember reading about the JNCC race in Japan that Cory Buttrick won this past November. Well, the current JNCC champ and former All-Japan National Motocross Champion, Takeshi Koikeda, who finished second to Cory at that race, was at the Wyoming round of the national enduro series that I attended this past weekend. From what I understand, he will also be at Snowshoe this coming weekend. Takishi finished 11^th overall in the race and afterwards he admitted that he wasn't used to riding tight trail in the trees but that he enjoyed the race and the format. We'll see how he does in the rocks in West Virginia.

Russell Bobbitt won the enduro in Wyoming, coming from behind to edge Charlie Mullins by just 15 seconds. It was a good race for Bobbitt since it confirmed that he is fully recovered from the broken wrist he suffered just over a month ago.

Speaking of broken wrists, Brad Bakken suffered just that in Wyoming, after hitting a braking bump and cartwheeling his bike. Brad had surgery this week and will be out for a while. Here's what he had to say about it:

At the National Enduro this past weekend in Upton Wyoming, I was having a solid race until the 5^th section.  About 3 miles in, I was going down a straight away 4^th gear pinned when I hit an unexpected breaking bump flipping me over the bars.  After I was done tumbling, I jumped back up and ran to my bike. (Luckily, my Arai helmet saved me from head trauma because after the race I had bruises to my forehead, but, not even a headache.)  As soon as I picked up my bike I realized something was seriously wrong with my wrist. I laid on the ground until the sweeper riders came and rode me to the start of the check, were they drove me out on a four wheeler.

I went to the hospital in Wyoming and then in Rapid City, South Dakota, they told me I was seriously injured and that I needed to fly home immediately.   I flew home Monday night.  I went to the orthopedic doctor this morning and he gave me the bad news.  I dislocated the lunate bone in my wrist and tore all the ligaments connecting the bones from my hand to my wrist.  The doctor said that my injury is the worst type of injury you can have to your wrist.  Because of the severity of the injury I am having surgery tomorrow (Wednesday, June 22).  The doctor will reset the bone and put 4 pins in the ligaments to reconnect the tissue.

Because of the length of recovery, 4-6 months, the result is I will not be able to compete in the ISDE or the remaining GNCC or National Enduro rounds.  I am really disappointed because this has been my best season to date.   I am already planning my training for next season and want to come back stronger than ever.

My experience in Wyoming was very difficult; however, if it was not for Paddy Holloway, Andrew DeLong and Mike Lafferty's support it would have been extremely hard.

I would like to thank everyone for supporting me this year and helping me with my efforts to go to the ISDE. I especially want to thank my mom and dad for their support and KTM, Appalachian Off-Road MC, Fly Racing, Factory Connection, FMF Racing, Enduro Engineering, Kenda, Renthal, Scott, Jett, Arai and Hellion Designs, Bullet Proof, Clockworks, Ride PG, Tire Balls, EVS, Clever Lever, JS Design, and Mandingo Pickles.  I am motivated more than ever to come back next season even more fit and ready to race.

Get well soon, Brad.

I'll be getting into Snowshoe on Friday evening and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the ATV and Bike racing turns out. We've had some interesting developments in the past few races, wh