Welcome to Quick Fill. It's been a crazy month here at the office, or should I say our remote office located in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. I just returned to Morgantown after a 20-day stay at Hotel de Loretta's, aka Cabin #1 on the Ranch. Yesterday was our annual RacerX day at Kennywood Amusement Park near Pittsburgh, where the entire office and their families got the chance to get out of the office and have a little fun in the sun (without dirtbikes or ATVs, weird huh). Anway, we had a great month of racing in between the MX and ATVMX at Loretta's and now we're setting our sights on the November double-header. We've got some cool things planned for the weekend, so stay tuned as they develop and we get closer to November.
Photo By: Jen Ken
Home away from home
This weekend is the 4th Annual GBC Motorsports Heartland Challenge in Carlisle, Iowa. The ten-hour race takes place on Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., that's quite a long time for racing! After talking with a couple of the guys, it sounds like a few of the teams competing will include: Johnny Gallagher, Traci Cecco and Jeff Pickens; Adam McGill, Clifton Beasley and Michael Swift; Bryan Wolf, Donnie Ockerman and Braden Henthorn; and Walker Fowler, Taylor Kiser and ATVMX-er Thomas Brown. I know there are several others, so if you're racing, shoot us some results/pictures so we can let everyone know how you did. Here is a link for more information: http://www.heartlandchallenge.com/. Good luck to everyone competing in the Hawkeye state this weekend!
Check out this cool video by Hoop and the digitaloffroad.com crew as they follow Josh Strang at the Unadilla Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship last weekend. Strang finished an impressive 24th at Unadilla, way to go! Click HERE to view. Speaking of DOR, they're having a ride day this weekend at Twin Oaks MX in Asheboro, NC - all proceeds go to RiderDown.org. You can check out more details HERE in the official PR. It's going to be a day full of fun, riding and most importantly - it's for a good cause!
Photo By: Jen Ken
RacerX day at Kennywood Amusement Park was a hit, obviously!
Summer is pretty much over at this point, meaning everyone is wrapping up their vacation-mindset and heading back into training mode. We're getting closer and closer to September and Unadilla GNCC is just around the corner. I can't wait to get back into the GNCC Racing swing of things; it seems like forever since we've gone racing. But anyway, hold tight. It's almost that time. Until then, keep us informed and up-to-date with off-season stuff. That's it for me this week, after catching up on emails, I have to go fix my dirtbike that somehow ran itself into a tree at Loretta's. Hmm.
We let Shan Moore take a day off this week; he's been working hard this year. Fret you not, though, because Shan will be back next week with an overload of information that will blow your mind, so stay tuned.
Thanks Jen. A big congrats out to all those competing in the ISDE last week and good to see the USA Trophy Teams finishing so strong. I know it would be nice to win one for a change but it still seems like such an accomplishment to do so well. Just imagine what it will be like when a USA team does finally win an overall.
Photo By: Shan Moore
The Wolf Man is hitting the Iowa 10-hour race this weekend, gnarly long races seem to fit him well
Now that the big race is over we are back to the waiting game of this summer's break that seems to drag on forever. I just got back from Loretta Lynn's earlier this week for the AMA Amateur Nationals and the wrap up of the 2011 AMA ATV Motocross National Championship by DWT. Congratulations to Motoworks/DWT/Can-Am's John Natalie who squeaked out his second ATV National Championship this past weekend at Loretta Lynn's Dirt Days.
As far as the Loretta Lynn trip this year, I was one of the lucky ones. I only spent 15 days at the Dude Ranch this year and must say that I am looking forward to our return in November for the make-up races that will wrap up the 2011 season. The trails are as prime as can be and are just lying there waiting on the return to GNCC.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that XC1 Rookie Kailub Russell was seen working behind the scenes at the big Amateur Nationals. Well he liked it so much he stuck around for the ATV Motocross the following week. When I asked him what he thought about the ATVMX racing he said that he really enjoyed it and was thoroughly impressed with the Pro-Am racing especially. He said you don't often get to see that kind of battling with that kind of intensity.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Whibs is going to come on strong come Unadilla
GNCCer's Bill Ballance and Taylor Kiser were also in attendance at Loretta Lynn's for Dirt Days this year. Bill is the team manager for the Factory Yamaha ATV efforts and though they struggled early in the season there was a good chance that Yamaha rider Thomas Brown could take his first overall win if the pattern for strong rides continued. Brown scored a solid 4th in moto one, which in ATVMX could be good enough for a win if everything goes your way in moto 2. However Brown was tangled up early on in the second moto and finished 8th in the end, which gave him a 5th for the overall on the day. Brown also sealed up an extremely respectable 4th for the season putting factory backed Ballance Racing Yamaha in contention for a run for the championship in 2012.
In speaking with Taylor Kiser it seems after some early season struggles for him he is expecting to pick up where he left off in Ohio at the John Penton. Kiser was more than back to Taylor Kiser form when he scored a 2nd place only 3 seconds behind point leader and defending champ Chris Borich. A quick check of the points shows that though Kiser has not had a stellar season he has been consistent and he actually only 39 points out of the championship. With 5 rounds of racing left in the season Taylor Kiser is still a likely candidate for a run at the championship if things start to turn in his favor.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Cody Collier is looking to score another overall in the second half of racing
On the Facebook front I hear that Adam McGill has reached his friends limit and has actually started a fan page. On that page I found out that he is on his way to Iowa for the big Heartland Challenge taking place out there this week. From what I understand there are a number of GNCCer's headed that way and I am hoping we have full reports from those in attendance next week for Quick Fill. So if you are one of those please send me a report to Rodney@gnccracing.com and let us know about your trip.
Also if you have any interesting stories you would like to share about your summer break then feel free to drop me a line and let us know what's up.
Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs.
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