Welcome to Quick Fill. 

By now everyone should be fully aware that the X-Factor GNCC has been postponed until May 20-21. First off, we’ve gotten a ton of questions about those who pre-registered, so we’ll address that first. If you have already pre-registered for the event, your registration will automatically transfer to the new date. However, if you are not able to attend the event you are eligible for a full refund. It’s important that you let us know that you won’t be able to come by emailing Jeremy. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you don’t apply for a refund we will assume you are attending the new date and your funds and registration will be automatically transferred!

As for rescheduling the event, we know firsthand that it is very inconvenient to reschedule any event and this decision definitely was not made without great consideration to many different factors involved. We also know that the date it has been rescheduled to is not ideal either. However, there are many, many factors that go into any type of decision like this.

The biggest factor in the postponement is obviously the weather. As of last night, the forecast is calling for more than four inches of rain to cover Peru, Indiana throughout Thursday, Friday and even into Saturday. For those who may not be very familiar with weather, four inches is a very excessive amount. To put things into perspective, the torrential downpour we experienced on Sunday at the 2016 Camp Coker Bullet GNCC was just over one inch. So to say that four inches of rain would make conditions wet is a severe understatement.

The other thing taken into consideration is the event venue itself. The X-Factor Ranch is a world-class deer farm, which has never seen any sort of off-road event. The field you will be parking in is very similar to how the Ironman parking area was before the motocross facility was built. Many people can tell stories about being pulled in and out of the Ironman facility when it was all a field and that alone makes things very challenging. On top of all this, the area received a lot of rain prior to this week and the parking field was already very soft.

The fact that the X-Factor Ranch has never hosted any sort of race is a contributing factor as well. This is a fantastic location and we want to continue visiting for many years to come. At the same time, the other 51 weeks of the year, this is meant to be a professional business and it needs to maintain a professional appearance. Due to the fact that it’s a large deer farm, there are several large fenced in areas where deer are raised. Due to these fences, it’s necessary to route the racecourse around these areas, which requires crossing the road and grass at the main X-Factor Whitetails entrance (separate from the one we’ll use for the race). It’s a very nice area with nice green grass and a cool waterfall.

Obviously, the X-Factor folks, as well as the GNCC crew, want to keep this as nice as possible and running an extremely muddy race through there would have destroyed a very nice area. Actually, the same could be said for the entire property. The woods are very nice as well but the soil is a black and brown mix of loamy topsoil type dirt. This dirt was very soft the entire time we were out laying out the track we were digging into this soft dirt. If we rode that after four inches of rain, we likely would have found even more soft spots which likely would’ve required a lot of track re-routing, which would be a shame because what we have laid out will be stellar race course.

We know that the date change is very challenging, especially making for back-to-back weekends. However, there are many more factors to consider than one would believe. For those who may not realize it, but not only is our staff occupied with GNCC but a number of us are also involved with the ATV Motocross Series, Pro Motocross Championship, plus Loretta Lynn’s and more. Needless to say, available weekends are few and far between when schedules have been set. It’s not as easy as picking a random off-weekend and changing it. The May 20-21 date is not ideal, but options are extremely limited. 

On the bright side, we now have more time to put extra thought into the X Factor track. When we return the week of the race, we’ll be able to work at creating some new bike only sections and explore some extra options we wouldn’t have found time for this week. Also, as long as the weather forecast remains positive, we can also put in some cool things we had looked at but left out of the track due to the rain.

When we do return in a few weeks, we’re looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of an eleven mile track for the 1PM races. We may be able to add a little more mileage for the bikes as well. The track is excellent! It bares so many similarities to the Ironman, as well as The Gusher racecourse we had in Foxburg, Pennsylvania back in 2013. The track is fun and very flowing with some fast cornfield sections thrown in as well. Overall, it will be one worth making it to, even if the situation isn’t ideal.

That’s all the Quick Fill goodies we have for this week. Check back next week when we return to a “normal” edition of Quick Fill. We hope you still enjoy your weekend and hope to see you in two weeks!