Welcome to Quick Fill. Happy Thanksgiving! We figured that posting on Friday would give everyone a little reading material while lounging around with a turkey hangover watching college football.
This week comes to you from the wonderful Midwest. I was lucky enough to get a couple days off to spend some time with friends and family and take part in the traditional Thanksgiving festivities back home. I'm from a really small town in Northern Illinois and it's actually pretty neat around the holidays because everyone in town comes down to the local country-esque tavern (the only other thing besides a gas station in the town) and it's just a really great time to catch up with old friends and enjoy hometown living. Hopefully everyone had a great day with either friends or family and took a little time to relax. Although it seems like times are tough these days, it's never a bad idea to reflect on everything we've been lucky enough to experience and be thankful for the life we have.
We're only one week away from this year's banquet and I'm starting to get a little excited, I've heard so many things that I can't help but wonder what's going to go down at my first-ever GNCC banquet experience! We just booked Eddie Lojak as the DJ, so there's going to be plenty of good entertainment promised for the night. I know everyone in the office is working hard to make sure you all have an evening to remember!
Photo By: Shan Moore
Our very own Shan Moore took the Media award
We released the tentative 2012 GNCC schedule dates last week and I know a lot of people are wondering about the locations to go with those dates, and we're just finalizing the last couple contractual things before we can release the full schedule. So hold tight, we should have something for you all around banquet time if all goes as planned.
Well that's it for me this week, I'm about to get into an intense Wii tournament with my three-year-old nephew, and the best part is that he's probably going to win. Enjoy the weekend and by this time next week, we'll be making our way into the Morgantown Place Hotel for banquet festivities!
Here's Shan Moore-who's much too modest to include in his entry below that he won AMA Media of the Year against Racer X and Vurb Moto. Shan does an incredible job taking photos and making sure that GNCC Racing makes it into the magazines in the industry and he really gives our guys great coverage out there. So if you see Shan out and about, be sure to congratulate him on his media excellence!
Thanks, Jen. I hope everyone is having Thanksgiving with family today. This happens to be my favorite holiday, not only because of the food, but because it is one of the few chances I get to be with all of my family at one time. I know it's going to be a great day and I hope it will be for you as well.
This is also a time of thanks, and I want to say I am thankful to have had the chance to work for the GNCC for another year. It was an incredible year, and I had a chance to meet some incredible people and see some truly amazing racing. I was also able to forge some good relationships.
This past weekend I attended the AMA Racing Awards Banquet in Las Vegas, where several GNCC members and racers were honored. Walker Fowler was given the AMA ATV Athlete of the Year Award on the strength of his perfect season in this year's XC2 Pro-Am class. Walker is a great spokesman for our sport and he demonstrated that with his poise on the stage. Here is a little of what Walker had to say: "It was just a crazy year for sure -- a dream season. I don't think I'll ever be able to do it again. It's every racer's dream to be able to do something that no one else can. But there are a lot more goals in front of me that are the same thing, and that's what keeps us racers going. I just want to thank the AMA for giving us all these series to compete in and letting us go out and do what we do."
Photo By: Shan Moore
Claudia Danielewicz AMA Sportsman of the Year
This year's Women's Bike champ in GNCC competition, Maria Forsberg, claimed the AMA Female Rider of the Year at this year's banquet, on the virtue of winning 11 of 13 races this year.
I was especially thrilled when Claudia Danielewicz was awarded the AMA Sportsman of the Year award for her work in advancing racing opportunities for women in AMA-sanctioned off-road competition. AMA Director of Racing Joe Bromley said that Claudia "has helped change the face of female competition in off-road racing forever," which is an amazing statement.
The GNCC series also received an award, with Tim Cotter accepting the ATV Organizer of the Year on behalf of Racer Productions.
Finally, GNCC competitor and AMA Enduro champ Russell Bobbitt was awarded the AMA National Championship Athlete of the Year award, making for a great season of accomplishments for the GNCC. Something we all can be thankful for.
Here's Mr. Bolt-On to wrap things up since Rodney is at the Mini O's this week basking in the sun and hanging out on the amateur motocross scene.
Thanks Jen! Hope everyone is enjoying is their Thanksgiving and have had an awesome time cramming their gullets full of all sorts of good food. I know I'll be partaking in my fair share of food consumption and those who have ever eaten with me before will vouch for the fact that I'll not only put away a fair amount of food, but it will also be gone pretty quickly as well. Of course, let's not forget that Thanksgiving is really all about being thankful for everything we have. It's far too easy to get distracted these days and only want to complain about how things should be and what we want. However, as I always say, as long as you're alive and in decent health, you already have a lot to be thankful for. Now that I've gotten a little philosophical on everyone, let's jump into what Quick Fill is really about.
Photo By: Shan Moore
Walker Fowler AMA ATV Athlete of the Year
Last weekend's Endurocross event in Las Vegas officially marked the end of the 2011 off-road racing season. By now most of you have heard about how the race went but to no surprise it was Taddy Blaziusiak once again taking the win and also making it a perfect season. This made it official that KTM won all the major American off-road series in 2011. GNCC, National Enduro, Endurocross, WORCS, Hare and Hound, all won by riders aboard KTM motorcycles. That's huge for the brand because off the top of my head I can't think of another time that feat has been achieved other than a couple of times that a manufacturer took home titles in both GNCC and National Enduro. Ed Lojak and Terry Cunningham brought home titles for Husqvarna in 1984 and 1986, Shane Watts and Mike Lafferty took the titles for KTM in 2000, then from 2005-2008 Juha Salminen and David Knight both had their two-year stints taking the titles for KTM while Mike Lafferty and Russell Bobbitt switched back-and-forth for the title in those same four years. Other than those handful of occasions, it's been a rarity to seen a manufacturer take multiple titles in a single season.
While the racing season may be over, we're full swing into banquet season. The preparations have already begun and there's no doubt that everyone coming out to the banquet is going to have a good time. I mentioned last week about how cool it is that all of the top class finishers are honored together. It's just another way of showing exactly how special this series is. Also speaking of banquets, the AMA banquet took place last weekend. While we've already heard a little bit about that, I just wanted to extend a personal shout out to all the GNCC riders who were honored. It's great to see our own being honored with the best of the best in all of the AMA series.
Down south there's still racing to do as there's plenty of races that run through the winter. Last weekend's SETRA hare scramble in Georgia was just one of those. It was actually our 250-A class champ Grant Baylor taking the overall win for the day ahead of a stacked field of local pro guys and also Zach Osborne who you'll recognize from the moto-world. Osborne actually lead the first lap but judging by the lap times, he kind of faded on the second lap and dropped back to fifth place where he would ultimately finish. There's plenty more of opportunities for winter racing down south, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more about the various races being visited by some of our own pro riders as the 2012 season gets closer.
Photo By: Shan Moore
RP is honored to receive the ATV Organizer of the Year Award!
There also hasn't been a ton of movement going on with all the silly season rumors either. It's already been reported that Adam McGill is apparently looking to put his own effort, while the two Suzuki names, Chris Borich and Josh Strang still don't have anything yet. Thad Duvall tweeted and Facebook'ed (is that a word now?) this week that he's hoping to work out a deal with ....... I'm not sure who ..... is, but it sounds like Thad has something in the works. Hopefully this is a sign that there's still some rides to be had out there and maybe we'll be hearing more soon.
I'm actually going to cut it kind of short this week so everyone can get back to enjoying all the Thanksgiving festivities, and also prepare to actually do some riding this weekend. I don't get many chances to actually ride other than pitbikes, and I've got a bike offered up for me to use, so I'm jumping all over it. Until next week, Bolt-On out.
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