Welcome to Quick Fill. We have tons to report.

 

Hoop pics.

It’s a great time for GNCC. Title battles are closing in, the weather is perfect for racing, we’ve got three great events that have really come into their own, and the industry is paying more attention than ever now that the motocross and road racing tours have pretty much come to an end. If you’re a GNCC racer, enjoy it, because before you know it you’ll be trying to find a way to ride and train in February to prepare for Florida sand in March.

The Elka Yadkin Valley Stomp GNCC has really come into its own over the last three years, just like the next race on the tour, the ITP Power Line Park GNCC in St. Clairsville, Ohio, has. We added St. Clairsville to the circuit in 2001, and back then it was just another race. By last year, though, it had grown into an awesome event, with a huge, enthusiastic crowd and a track that almost everyone seemed to like.

Yadkinville may end up the same way. We added it late in 2005—it was actually the replacement race for Sparta, Kentucky, which scheduled a NASCAR race at the car track next door after we had scheduled the GNCC, and that town just isn’t big enough for two races. We were really in a bind that year finding a track, and in stepped the Welborn family. This is a big, happy, enthusiastic gang. Mark Welborn helps us at all the races towing stuck machines out on his ATV, Theresa (his wife) works sign up for us, and the rest of the family, well, there are racers and racer parents all over the place with them. Honestly, I can’t even keep up with which Welborn is which, or which kid racer belongs to which parent. I do know that McKinnon Welborn is the 85cc 14-15 Champion this year. Then there is Garrett, who races 250C, and Mason also in the Youth ranks, and Mitch raced Sportsman.

These people love their racing, and they had a big piece of land to offer for a GNCC. Our Lieutenant Trail Boss Buren Hamrik was willing to set the place up, since Buren runs the Mid-East Hare Scramble Series down in that area anyway.

We held a race, and since then it’s gotten better and better. Yes, the track is very tight, but the dirt is pretty good (dust this year was bad but not even close to what we had the first time out in ’05), the crowd is growing, the town is into it, and now the track crew is building a lot of cool obstacles to keep everyone entertained.

This year we had the big culvert pipe, we had the house (which the Welborns actually put a new floor into just so the bikes could run it again) and the new creek jump, which was a doozy. As Buren explained: “Now I didn’t build that jump for everybody. I built it for those who wanna’ ween.” (That’s win in North Carolinian).

 

The Welborns also had hay wagons running to shuttle fans to the obstacles. The crowd was much bigger this year than the first two years, so things are looking good down there.

I even decided to go all Jason Hooper on it and take some pics with my handy digital. Enjoy The Weege Photo Report

McDonald's puts GNCCers on its value menu.

Need a lift?

Motocross kid Zach Osborne raced XC2 on his new Yamaha...but his old KTM buddies weren't hard to spot.

For the first time ever, Am-Pro Yamaha had a full house, with five racers competing on Sunday.

Jason Raines runs this trick battery setup in his WR450.

This is what the GNCC podium looks like when it gets back from the races.

There ya go.

Okay on to the racing. The first big story to emerge on the day was in the morning ATV race on Saturday. The morning class used to be dominated by the Women’s class through Traci Cecco, then the 4x4s snuck in there for two rounds, then Angel Atwell got it back for the Women at Unadilla, and then…the sport class did the deed in North Carolina! I’ve been pulling for Joey “Bam” Margaria to win one of these things for three years now. The personable young man from Pennsylvania rides the wheels off of his Yamaha Blaster, he generally wins the sport class and is usually battling for a podium overall. But lately he’s been feeling some heat from Scott Sleppy, who had won three in a row on his Honda 300EX. So in North Carolina the battle was on, and they passed and repassed each other on the last lap, with “Bam” juuuuuuuust getting back in front of Sleppy for the class win. It turns out they pushed each other so hard that they went 1-2 overall as well! Good job boys!

These two are in a knock-down drag out duel for the Sport title. Many of the other Morning ATV Titles are wrapped, including Cecco in the Women’s class (Yamaha), Cliff Beasley in 4x4 Lites and Michael Swift in 4x4 Limited (Warnert Racing Can-Am) and Mike Benson in U2 (Four-Stroke Tech Kawasaki). But there is one major crown still on the line. The Open 4x4 Class features a triple throw down war between Bryan Buckhannon, Rick Cecco and Scott Kilby. ATV Parts Plus-backed Buckhannon won in Yadkinville, and he told me he’s just trying to stop Cecco from wrapping it up for as long as he can. It’s close between these two. GNCC Scoring Master Tim Boryk broke down the battle:

If Bryan wins in Ohio and Cecco takes second then they would be tied in points and the champioship would be decided at Ironman.

If Cecco wins in Ohio the Championship is his.

If Cecco DNF's and Bryan stops to pick corn at the Ironman and the crow flies West by lap 2, then it will snow by 5 PM.

-Tim Boryk
GNCC Scoring

Can Cecco check out, will Killby kill 'em or will all the Open 4x4 riders be cruising down Buckhannon Ave? Weigandt photo.

 

Excellent break down, Tim. Mr. Boryk by the way has spent the season battling hard for the 45+ C title on bikes, and he gave it one heck of an effort dueling with Statesville, North Carolina’s Mike Lyon. Tim injured his ankle badly at Unadilla, but we agreed to keep all mentions of the injury out of the press to make sure his competition didn’t get a mental advantage. He taped it up and raced at Yadkinville, and went out and grabbed the $100 AXA Advisor’s Holeshot (but only after Michael Lyons, who actually puts up the money for the award, grabbed the real holeshot but then disqualified himself from his own award. Apparently, Rita is not convinced Tim is a deserving holeshot award winner and has not given him his money yet.)

Tim’s Ozone Race Team issued this press release after the event. CLICK HERE.

Okay back to Saturday. Chris Borich’s title hopes blew up along with his rear shock, as he dropped from leading the race to finishing 17 th and handing the points lead over to Bill Ballance. I called Chris yesterday to get a report on what went down.

GNCC Racing.com: Chris, you must have been pretty bummed about what happened.

Chris Borich: Yeah, I wasn’t too happy.

What happened?

Blown rear shock line between the reservoir and the shock.

While Borich struggled, Chris Bithell soared. Scearce photo

Did it get pinched?

No, it must have just been under pressure.

Ever have that happen before?

Nope.

So how bad was it to ride?

It was pretty much the worst thing I’ve ever ridden.

Any close calls?

Oh there were a lot! I didn’t wreck at all but it was pretty close. It just sucks having to grab a good holeshot, which I knew I had to do since the track is so tight, and getting it and then having that happen. I was just riding along with Sturdivant there, and all of a sudden it started getting soft in the rear.

So you lose compression first, and then rebound?

Yup. I basically lost everything, and then it was like a pogo stick.

Man so what do you do now?

Well, win the next two and hope that someone gets in there and beats ‘old Billy boy at one of these. Basically all the pressure is on him. If a DNF happens to me it’s all over, so I can just go for it. I know I can win these two races, I’ve done it before, so I just have to hope Bithell or McGill or one of these guys gets in there.

Better luck next time.

Thanks.

So now Bill Ballance is back out front. And Chris Bithell is finally a GNCC winner! Click here for the weekend’s pro race report.

Also, before we close out ATV talk, here’s a note from the most enthusiastic mom in the GNCC Series (yes, I think she may even top Cheryl Bithell), Louise Kirst, who is the mother of Open 4x4 rider Jacob Kirst. We get wild emails from Louise all the time. Here’s one from today.

Hi there!

I was just wondering whether there will be a plaque/award given for
"HOLESHOTS" of the year? Jacob "CANNUCK" Kirst, 4 X 4 Open, AM Race, sure deserves that one and you could agree on that.  Jacob has won every holeshot at each race. And boy, they are beautiful ones too, hey!

I await your response.  Thanks for your assistance in this matter.

Louise Kirst

Here is the Cannuck grabbing another holeshot. Hooper photo

 

Maybe we’ll whip together some sort of Holeshot Artist Award at the banquet this year. Jake is good on ATVs, and someone told me this week that “Dennis Decker has gotten like every Senior A bike holeshot for the last 20 years.”

Okay, bikes. The big story coming into this one was David Knight racing the EnduroCross on Saturday night and racing the GNCC on Sunday. Well, it didn’t go to plan, because Knight was far from himself on Sunday and looked merely human, finishing eighth. What more can you say? After the race Knight wasn’t too happy about a bunch of things, from how tight the track was to his thumb, which he banged up on Sunday and wasn’t even sure at first what his status would be for the next EnduroCross this weekend (I’m sure he’ll be ready). But in general, it’s just more frustration from a guy who always seems to have the series by its throat, only to have one more odd or stupid thing take place that lets everyone keep him in sight.

Barry stopped by the house to get some water. That's the longest Barry has ever held onto a drink bottle, because he said he was getting dehydrated from lack of blood! Note how much darker his pants are then his sleeves--yes that's due to blood. Scearce photo

For now, Barry Hawk is doing what he does best: hanging tough. Now he’s down by just 12 points, and it took extraordinary heart to get that close since he broke his nose on a rock on the very first lap of the race, and had so much blood dripping down that he said “it felt like warm water coming out of a hose down my face.”

Wow.

Barry ended up being the thorn in Juha Salminen’s side in 2005 and 2006, and he’s playing the same role this year with Knight. Knight still has the points lead, but one more problem and Hawk is going to swoop down and take this whole thing. For Knight, when I talked to him a few weeks ago for an interview on Racer X it seemed like all of this traveling and such was starting to wear on him, and obviously this weekend was the ultimate sign of that.

As for Charlie Mullins, what can you say besides “this guy is the ultimate GNCC free agent.” Because he is, and right now Suzuki and Yamaha are trying hard to get him, and the rest of the teams will fall in line once that is settled.

Suzuki, meanwhile, had a bad race after taking two podium spots at the last one. Jimmy Jarrett was running to win before hurting his shoulder, and Josh Strang was, I think, fighting a hand injury.

Garrett Edmisten said his suspension set up was way off, and his shock was packing in the whoops. That wore him down, and he was so tired on the last lap that he waved Barry Hawk past him.

Jesse Robinson was bummed on his first lap. He was right there with Whibley and Edmisten early but crashed and fell to the back of the train. Then he pitted early hoping to make some passes later on, and it worked, because he passed Strang, Jason Raines and Knight in the pits. Robinson charged hard to sixth but knows he could have had more—he’s also a complete free agent with few offers for 2008, despite an awesome rookie season.

Sayonara to Shane Watts. Shane will miss the final two rounds of the series to concentrate on his riding schools, but he promises he will be back strong to start the 2008 season in hopes of starting it just like he did this year. Shane also promised to get the holeshot in Yadkinville and then hold everyone up as long as possible. Well, he almost, almost, almost got that holeshot. As proof, Shane sent me links to the photos today.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Also don't forget to check out the awesome Jason Hooper photo report from Yadkinville. The man has outdone himself. Click here.

Also, congrats out to Brett Zofchak, who is back in GNCC Racing and won the Open A Title this year. Brett wanted to throw a shout to his sponsors:  Andrews Racing, Kawasaki Team Green, Moose, Pro-Circuit, CTI2, Scott, IMS.

That 250 A Championship continues to rage on, and Cory Buttrick helped himself huge this weekend by getting the win over Brian Gunther and “Joe Dirt” Scherer. The Buttricks have been having fun lately, mom told me that last weekend they rented out two huge buses to make the trip from Ohio to the Motocross of Nations in Maryland. They all had a great time—them and about 100 other crazy Ohio motocross fans.

The bike class to watch this weekend was 200 B (thanks for the tip, Dave Smith). You have a battle for the title between Josh Monsrud and Hayden O’Kelley. Then you have “the graduates” in there, with undefeated 200 C Champion Ryan Belue moving up, and the Youth Overall Champion Walker Fowler riding it, too. It was an awesome battle as expected. Monsrud came into the two-lap board leading Fowler, but Fowler was charging hard and got into the lead. Charlie Mullins came by to put Fowler a lap down, which made this effectively their last lap, so Fowler gave it everything he had to get away and sprint to the finish. He followed Mullins as best he could to up his pace, and it all looked good as Walker opened up a small gap. Then he got to that culvert pipe, hit a rock, washed his front end, fell in the water and drowned out his bike. Game over for Walker and a big win for Monsrud.

O’Kelley is still the points leader, by the way, and I expect more awesome emails from his uncle, who is almost as into this as Jacob Kirst’s mom.

By the way, the points listed in all of these classes now reflect the scores with throwaways calculated. So everyone in the amateur classes is showing their best nine scores only.

Got this great note from Al from Wiseco.

Just wanting to let everybody know that I am okay and have no damage from this mini-heart attack. I woke up the morning of the 12th with chest and jaw pain. I had a possible clot move from somewhere in my body or a possible artery spasm. I had a heart catheter done and every thing is clear and strong. Bummer I missed the Vendor Challenge, but I just got clearance to start back doing my regular training just a few days ago. I want to thank everybody for their concern and will see everybody at St. Clairsville.  

Best regards, Al Pizzino

Awesome, Al.

The Vendor’s Challenge was created by Racedaypix.com’s David Smith, but then Dave himself missed out because he jacked his shoulder racing the week before! But the challenge did at least bring out our own employees, as Racer X designer/GNCC photog Jason Hooper hopped on his Powersport GrafX/Morgantown KTM 250F, and Jenn Sheppard borrowed Davey Coombs’ Honda CRF250. They both rode well and finished strong, Jenn even got sixth in the Women’s class. Hooper, well, he raced Sportsman, which is a tall order against expert-level riders like Tyler MacDonald, Randy Hawkins, Vance Earl and Andy Shea. Still, he did top all of our employees overall.

Well this has turned into one big, long Quick Fill, which is good. One more note we received regarding the Ironman GNCC: John Mellencamp is going to be playing in Terre Haute that Friday. If any of you guy's are fans, it's only about 45 minutes southwest of the track.

Also, by tomorrow we'll have a lot more cool stuff on this site, as Racer X's Matt Ware came to Yadkinville to do more Racer X Films, and we have team race reports to post here.

So we'll see you at this site tomorrow. After that we'll see you at the races.

 

College student Brent Sturdivant aces this test with a podium! Scearce photo