Welcome to Quick Fill. It really wasn’t that muddy, was it?

Last week on Quick Fill I proclaimed that this would be the driest Unadilla GNCC yet, so I was pretty scared when I saw rain drops on Saturday morning. The weather was crazy all day—dark clouds would be replaced with blue skies every five minutes, and the temperature would range from “first chill of the season” to “wait maybe it is still summer time.” That’s how it went all day. It never quite got nice, but it never quite got downright nasty, either. But most importantly, it never turned into a mudder. Then, as hoped for and predicted, we had nary a drop of rain on Sunday, so, I survived the jinx. I hope you all enjoyed a dry track for once.

For the full report on Saturday’s ATV racing, check out the story Jenn Sheppard put together covering the day. CLICK HERE

Also, don't forget our man Jason Hooper who knocked out an awesome Photo Report from Unadilla. CLICK HERE.

Two things really stick out from Unadilla’s ATV racing. First, reports of the Women’s class demise have been greatly exaggerated, as Angel Atwell won the overall in the morning with Traci Cecco joining her on the podium. Angel is really putting it together now with two-straight wins. Traci needs only a fourth in the class at Yadkinville to wrap the title up based on her seven wins to start the season. We should have some great races between the two to end this season, and we might be in for a big championship fight for that title next year.

Angel. Hooper photo

On the other end of things, things have got to be getting pretty tense in Bill Ballance’s Yamaha camp. Chris Borich has been coming on stronger and stronger each year, and 2007 just might be the year when the young gun—who is now 25—may finally bag that championship. That would be huge, because this isn’t just any year. It’s the year that Ballance could win his record eighth-straight crown. These last three races are going to be insane!

Also a shoutout to the rest of the pack who have really made this stuff interesting, like Bithell, McGill and now Duane Johnson getting in the mix. Great stuff there.

Borich is going to be hard to stop down the stretch. Hooper photo

Let’s move to the bikes, which went from heating up to cooled down in the standings much in the same way the weather changed on Saturday. Not only did David Knight put another ridiculous whipping on the field, but Barry Hawk struggled and took sixth. Now Knighter’s lead is back to a more manageable 20, which is key since he’ll be in a really tough spot next time out in Yadkinville when he attempts to race Maxxis Endurocross on Saturday night in Denver and then GNCC Sunday afternoon. Even Knight admitted he doesn’t know what he’s getting into there, and he’s not sure how well the race will go. So that points lead has to feel good.

Also, Team GEICO/TDI’s JT Bennett will be running the EX in Denver as well, as luckily there is a 12:45 am flight out of there to get him to Yadkinville. I believe Knight has a private jet, which is nice, but flying commercial will be tough on ‘ol JT.

And hey, just as JT leaves his trusty YZ125 behind, the two-strokes made a comeback this weekend! The XC2 class witnessed its first freshman entry when 200 A Champ Kailub Russell made the move up for the weekend. KR37 swept 200 A, but obviously not many were expecting his win streak to continue in the new class this weekend. I’ll tell you what, though, he gave it one heck of a run. Riding an ’08 KTM 125SX for his Powersport GrafX squad, KR got a second-place start behind Justin Williamson. He ran into trouble quickly, though, when the engine started blubbering, apparently the jetting was off. Kailub told me the bike was good when it was pinned on the main jet, but anytime he had to roll the throttle or try to tackle a slower, technical section, the thing would barely run. So when he got to the first hill on the track, he got stuck, JW11 got away, and the rest of the XC2 pack got caught with him. Oops!

So then KR fell pretty far back, but managed to battle his way from seventh to second. Then the Monster/Pro Circuit/FAR army of Watkins and Weisenfels caught up and the battle for the podium was on. Those three were pretty close for a long time, and it was one of the few battles on the track. Eventually, though, Kailub got tired and dropped to fifth behind his teammate Dustin Gibson, who said it was hard moving through the pack this time because there were so many lappers.

As for Kailub, he says he’s going to “start working harder.” No doubt the kid has speed to burn, even on a 125 that wasn’t running right!

Meanwhile JW11 has it dialed in now, running on the podium each race and winning when the cards fall his way. Justin may end the year as the inaugural XC2 Champion and also the AMA National Hare Scramble Champ. That’s impressive. The dude is keeping it real, though. Jenn Sheppard happened to spot him in town washing his bike, so she tracked him down for this impromptu interview. CLICK HERE.

What happened to some of the other guys at Unadilla? Hawk told me this one was like Loretta’s, where he doesn’t even know what happened, except everytime he charged it just didn’t seem to help him go forward. At Loretta’s he finished 12th, and at this one he was sixth. After Loretta’s he found out something had broken in the shock. After Unadilla, he felt like his forks were off. So Team Hawk will go back to the lab this week to try to fix what’s wrong.

The wheels are coming off of Charlie Mullins’ championship run—or more specifically, the chain is coming off. After chain troubles in Pennsylvania he had more problems with it this time, and his shifter was damaged, also. After leading Knight on the first lap, he ended this race in eighth.

Then you have Garrett Edmisten, who smashed his finger riding a few days before the race. He got hooked up with a great place to ride just over the New York boarder in Pennsylvania, and he and Jesse Robinson went riding. Garrett ended up with a busted digit, but he held on and scored top ten points. Garrett is a tough dude and he never stopped tracking Mullins down, coming within a few seconds of him at the finish. He needed those points, because the surging Jimmy Jarrett is behind him in fifth in the standings but closing fast.

 

Raines is driven but not as far to the front as he hoped. Sheppard photo

What happened to the Jason Raines comeback express (again)? Well, it’s not going to plan for J-Raines, and even some 29 th birthday cake wasn’t going to cheer him up after this one. This is truly a work in progress, as Jason wasn’t slated to race this year, so his Yamaha deal didn’t include the normal assortment of bikes. So Jason only has one 450, (an ’06!) which he uses as his race bike, which means he can’t practice or even test on the bike during the week. Instead, he rides a 250F. But Jason and his father Darrell said they will be doing some testing between these two races to try to get ready. Darrell said they will just ride the wheels off that 450 they have testing, and then rebuild it before Yadkinville. Otherwise, they could ask for some ’07 450s from Yamaha, but since the ‘08s are just around the corner, they might as well wait until they get those. And obviously there is a major, major difference between the ’07 and ’08 Yamaha 450—did you notice how that bike changed Grant Langston from zero to hero during this summer’s AMA Toyota Motocross Nationals? GL said it’s all about the new frame, which makes the bike turn much, much better. Sounds better for GNCCing!

Brian Garrahan rode an ’08 450 at Unadilla and told Jason it was a much better bike. Once Jason gets his allotment and gets to test, hopefully he’ll be back up there. For now, the guy was getting a little bummed after the race. He tried a new carb for this race and it ended up making the bike hard to start when it stalled, and “After you have to kick it 13 times, it kind of gets frustrating,” he said. Yes, the demise of the two-stroke has been greatly exaggerated as well.

Cory B is leading 250 A points. Hooper photo

Someone sent me an email this week asking for an update on the 250 A class, which has admittedly taken a downgrade on attention this year now that we run the XC2 Lites class. But I’m going to need some help on this one. Last year’s Youth Champion Cory Buttrick is the points leader in a great first season on big bikes, but he’s only won two races. Joe Sherer is giving him a run, he has stepped up his game lately and won at Unadilla. But here is my question. What the heck happened to Jeff Bowman? Anyone have an update for us? The guy went 2-1-1-1-2-13-10-6-17 this year.

After Kailub Russell had his win streak end by moving to a new class, we now only have one more undefeated rider this year—Ryan Belue. Ryan wrapped up 200C Schoolboy with nine wins, and the South Carolina kid skipped ‘Dilla. I’m sure we’ll see him in the B class in Yadkinville. Also, Walker Fowler has wrapped up the Youth #1 Plate, so he raced Sportsman (Sportsboy?) on Sunday morning and finished fourth overall. Walker didn’t have much time in on his big bike, but as he adjusts I’m sure he’ll find a class to race, probably in the A ranks.

Here's some love for morning race overall winner, GEICO/TDI's Duane Conner. Dan Brockett photo

A guy named Glenn Barlow finished third in the AM bike race. Glenn rode a 2000 CR250 and had not raced in three years, spending most of his time racing a car. So he came to the GNCC just to get to ride Unadilla, and he ended up in third overall behind Duane Conner and Andy Shea.

Big news coming up for Yadkinville next weekend. Here’s our buddy Dave Smith from Racedaypix.com for the scoop:

Okay the big talked about event is finally coming to fruition.  We are barely over a week a way from the first-ever GNCC Vendor Row Challenge! First off, we arevery sorry to hear about Al from Wiseco and his hospital visit with a surprise heart attack just prior to Unadilla that will sideline him from the event. We wish him our best for a speedy and full recovery.  We have heard rumor of the following riders participating in the first part of the challenge including Powersport Grafx, Racedaypix, Cometic, and Elka/Maxxis (however Doug Blackwell has to run a pit bike). I can think of some others like Ohlins Suspension and the Finish Line Cafe as well as some others that will probably commit after they read this.  I even hear that Jason Hooper and Jenn Sheppard from the Racer X/GNCC team want to do the ride.  Sorry Weigandt but the backup riders have to fill in due to your shoulder injuries.

The real reason for this is for those who used to be racers and now are engulfed in the sport and use their time to support others.  With this in mind, there are a lot of Dads out there that fall into this same category.  Many parents have put their efforts into their children and their career building.  These are also the riders that I hope to see mount up and ride again.  Just a few that I can think of right off hand are riders like John Matusek.  Last time he rode he actually beat his son Andrew in a Harescramble in Tennessee.  I am betting that this wouldn't be the case some six or seven years later.  There’s also Jim Belue.  With his son Ryan making his debut in the afternoon 200B class this frees up a few hours for an AM ride.  Dennis Buttrick flat out said “no!”  But there are many more that I would like to see gear up once again and enjoy the sport.  Let's ride. 

Have a great day and enjoy Des Nations.

David Smith

http://www.racedaypix.com

Okay sponsors, vendors and race dads. Let us know if you want to race, Dave from Racedaypix.com Wants to get this together. I for one want to see Blackwell race two hours of GNCC on a pit bike!

And get well soon, Al!

We also have big news for the season finale Klotz Ironman GNCC in Indiana. BMW is bringing in Finn Simo Kirssi to ride their new 450 SportsEnduro bike at the event. Simo is plenty fast (fifth overall in Florida this year) and that bike will be out there for drooling over in the pits. From what I’m hearing, the Bimmer 450 is a ’09 machine, but they may be doing some more GNCC racing next year to work the bugs out. For now we know for sure Simo is racing at Crawfordsville, which is awesome. I’ve also heard that two legendary Finnish World Enduro riders, Mika Ahola and Samuli Aro, are headed to Indiana as well to race Ironman. These boys will be very, very fast. We’ll also have Australian Enduro Champion AJ Roberts joining us for the last three rounds on his Shennandoah Honda. What a lineup.

I got some of these scoops from Jonty Edmunds, a journalist who covers the WEC Series but also stops here in the U.S. from time to time. Jonty was here for Florida and Georgia, and Snowshoe, and he’ll be at the Ironman as well. He also sent me this news bit from an interview he did with World Enduro Champion Ivan Cervantes:

You recently signed a three-year contract with KTM, what’s your focus for the next three years?

Ivan: “I would like to ride in Enduro 3 for one more year. There are a lot of rumours around the paddock about what class I will ride in, but I don’t know yet. I have to listen to what KTM wants and together we will make a decision. But I would like to stay in E3. Then in ’09 I would like to ride in the Enduro 2 class. For ’10 I have the opportunity to race in America. In my contract I have the possibility to go and race GNCC, but also to stay in the world championship. It is a long way off but by ’10 I might want to try another championship, so I have that possibility now.

Good to see Shane Watts back at the races. Shane missed Pennsylvania since his new baby was due, and then after the boy came along last week he expected to miss Unadilla. But Shane said after a few complications with his new boy, Rionn, everything was good by Saturday night, so he hopped in and headed to New York. Shane got in during the middle of the night and certainly wasn’t as prepared as he needed to be, but he gave it a go and put in six laps. Shane was also working with Cole Calkins, who is back in the XC2 ranks and now riding a KTM—a 125SX! Cole is still dealing with some wrist problems, but he has plans for surgery after the season and wants to come back strong in 2008. Right now Cole and Shane are working hard on their Dirt Wise riding schools and having great success. Head to www.shanewatts.com to check it out.

There's a new team working toward the 2008 GNCC season. CLICK HERE.

We've also got team race reports we're about to post, and something really, really special on Racer X Films that you GNCC types are going to love. Stay tuned.

That’s going to do it for Quick Fill this week. We’d like to thank the 1623 of you who came to race at Unadilla, and also tip our visors to the fine folks of WNYOA and the UVSC staff, who provided plenty of help. And thanks also to Mother Nature, who decided to spare us from another mudder. With that, we’re off to the Red Bull Motocross of Nations this weekend in Maryland, I know I’ll see a lot of familiar GNCC faces there, so it’s going to be a good time. See you there.

 

 

Height has its disadvantages. Dan Brockett photo