May 24, 2007

Welcome to Quick Fill. It’s High Point Time.

Normally we stay away from motocross stuff here on Quick Fill, because, as the tag line says, it’s supposed to report news from around the off-road world. But all worlds collide this weekend when the Monster Energy/Kawasaki Pro Motocross National at High Point Raceway presented by Centra Bank rolls around. If you come to the race, you will see countless familiar faces, because the Racer Productions crew that runs this event is the same Racer Productions crew that runs the GNCCs. You’ll see Rita, Timmy, Carrie, JR, the Holberts, Big John, Jessica, Buren, Cotter, Tommy, Pat, Donna, John, Joe, the Lees…everyone you normally see at the races. Only now we’re dealing with Carmichael, Stewart and Villopoto, instead of Knight, Mullins and Hawk.

In case you haven't heard, High Point is kind of a big deal. Steve Bruhn photo

 

But at the same rate, you’ll see a lot of those riders there, too. Charlie Mullins and Justin Williamson are already committed to racing Moto-X-Country, and Barry Hawk is “considering” it after winning it a few times already, and the whole Am-Pro Yamaha crew will be there (including Randy Hawkins and Jason Raines) because they’re doing a photo shoot in the woods up there on Monday. Also, Johnny Gallagher called me and said he and Traci Cecco are racing the ATV event at 4 p.m. renewing their epic battle from MXC 2005. Tyler Lenig is coming with them as well, and Johnny is trying to get Branden Sommers to compete.

You never know who else you will see, like Garrett Edmisten who raced it last year. Moto-X-Country is the cross over between GNCC and motocross in many ways. It links the two worlds of racers together, because many GNCC guys will get some moto time in on Fridays’ AMA Pro-Am amateur day, and then many of the local motocross types will race MXC on Saturday. I know, for example, that Mullins is racing the amateur MX motos on Friday. Then everyone sticks around for the big show on Sunday!

Then last weekend I attended the first AMA/Toyota National Motocross Championship round at Hangtown, and Rodney Smith was in attendance. So there’s cross over from all across the country. Rodney was hanging out with former New York Yankee, Anaheim Angel and San Francisco Giant JT Snow, who is now retired from Major League Baseball after 18 pro seasons. JT loves to ride with his son, and counts Rodney on his list of close friends. Rodney is also buddies with another Major League Baseball veteran, Jeff Kent (who actually raced the Triton GNCC with us this year between spring training games!) Rodney is quite the ambassador for his sport.

Moto-X-Country is basically a short, sweet GNCC race. There’s a three-mile course through some woods at High Point, with some grass track and jumps thrown in for good measure. We have classes for everyone, the races are 45 minutes long, and you can enter as many different classes as you are eligible for.

So, if you’re interested in coming to High Point (and why wouldn’t you be?) we have amateur moto tomorrow, MXC on Saturday with classes for everyone and then pro racing on Sunday, with Carmichael, Stewart, Villopoto and all of those guys. It should be a great show and great fun, so we’ll see you at the races.

High Point has become a real, well, High Point for that AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship. We’re hoping to develop a similar race for Can-Am GNCC racing a month from now with the first-ever Snowshoe GNCC in West Virginia. For me, news has come in slowly for this event, because the place is so incredibly huge that we had many options as to where to set up, where to run the track, the pits, the parking, vending, camping and everything else. Once High Point is complete, I’m going to take a road trip down there next week and try to get all the answers you need, and maybe take some photos. I was discussing this with GNCC Trail Boss with Jeff Russell, and JR couldn’t help but hide his excitement over the potential of this race. And when I tell you this, maybe you’ll be pumped too:

Jeff said there is so much land and so much gnarly terrain at Snowshoe (think hills, mud and rocks) that it really reminds him of the old Blackwater 100 course. And since we had so much success running a longer, tighter track a few weeks ago in Ohio for the John Penton GNCC, Jeff is tempted to do something really big and really different with this Snowshoe race. Are you ready?

At the moment, JR believes he can lay out an honest 25-mile loop through some of the toughest terrain imaginable, and have everyone run 4 laps. That means, yes, a true 100 miler, something this series hasn’t seen in decades. This would be a one-off event, as the rest of the GNCCs would continue in their standard format. But for one race, one time, it could be fun. When we first went to the Wisp, the place was so gnarly that we were afraid riders wouldn’t want to race it. But after everyone saw how tough it was, they actually came back and brought their buddies, because everyone wanted to take on the challenge of tackling that mountain. Perhaps we could have the same thing here.

Even better, Jeff says we could even bring back the Grand Prix style start for this race. As some of you Blackwater veterans might remember, that race started with rows of 5 riders, taking off every 30 seconds. The race started in town, too. We could essentially set up the same thing here, using the ski village as the town of Davis.

This is all very preliminary, and we don’t even know if it can be done or should be done. But since we have a month before the race, let us know what you think by dropping an email to info@gnccracing.com

J-Dubs Scearce photo

We had so much to report last week that we still have much more to cover. First, XC2 class racing. On bikes, the Penton track just didn’t seem to lend itself to close racing, but once again the XC2 class delivered again with a wild four-rider battle between Rodney Smith, Justin Williamson, Dustin Gibson and Thad DuVall put in a spectacular duel. Rodney absolutely checked out early, but then Thad finally got to him, and then Justin and Dustin joined in on their 250XC-Fs, and then it was on.

Thad lost the pace when he bent the shifter on his WR250 twice, but the other three kept dueling. Gibson made up huge time in that Penton section, but was a little slower everywhere else. Eventually he tangled with Justin and went down, then Justin got to Rodney, Rodney crashed and Justin won. It was awesome.

Everyone in that XC2 class is stepping up. Justin told me he’s doing a lot more motocross work lately to work on his precision and speed while charging corners, and I’ve heard Fred Andrews grabbed Scotty Watkins up from PA Allen’s place in Tennessee so he could come back to Ohio and work motocross with Freddy. Mixing quickness and speed with endurance and smarts is the key here, and whichever young buck in that XC2 class figures it out first is going to reap huge benefits.

In ATVs, Ryan Lane went from worst started to best in one fell swoop, nailing the ATVRiders.com holeshot in XC2 and finally getting to race from the front. And what a difference it made, because undefeated class leader Brandon Sommers had to fight for it, coming from behind to get Lane and the rest of the field to take his sixth win of the year, but it was not easy. That class is coming into its own, with Kyle Martin, David Crane and Don Ockerman still in the hunt every week, too, it’s been exciting to watch.

I just wanted to throw in this photo of the world's largest handguards. Maxxis and Klotz should be pumped. Photo courtesy Kenny Hill, ATVRiders.com

 

In the ATV 4x4 classes, Can-Am had it dialed again with Rick Cecco taking the Open 4x4 win, and Cliff Beasley taking the Lites victory. Cecco has won the last two races while defending champ Scott Kilby was off racing WPSA, but Rick wants to race Scott in a little friendly fight for the title. We interviewed Rick for an upcoming episode of Racer TV, and he said “I want to win the championship by beating the champion.” Now that’s the kind of stuff we like to hear!

In 4x4 Limited, full credit to super nice guy Kevin Trantham, who held off Michael Swift to win that class. Swift ran into some troubles right off the start and had his hands full catching back up, and Trantham never backed off on his way to win number one on the season.

Mike Benson on the podium and in pain. Scearce photo

But the biggest story in the Utility class came from the U2 Division. Thanks to the exploits of riders like Mike Benson, U2 has proven itself a worthy competitor for overall wins in the morning. So we moved those boys up a few rows in the starting order to give them a better shot at the overall. Benson was going for it early, when he clipped a hole and came down hard, and the result was a broken ankle. But amazingly, even with the injury, Mike dug down deep and kept charging for two more laps. He still ended up wining his class and finishing second overall!!! That’s just amazing. Mike had to ride his quad up to the podium later in the day to get his first place class plaque, because he could not walk. But he swears he’ll be ready to race in Kentucky. Unreal.

The star of the morning race though was still Traci Cecco. So far she is running a ridiculous undefeated streak in morning race overalls, going six for six, which is easily a record for morning race wins. The obvious question now is if TLC can hang on for the entire season and run the table, but I don’t think she even wants to talk about that right now (racers are a strange bunch when it comes to jinxes and such). Bottom line is, the girl is taking everything to another level, and that’s after her and her competitors in the Women’s class had already taken everything to new levels several times over the last few years.

It all makes for a fun and exciting morning race, one that is rivaling the afternoon race for drama and star power. One of these days we’ll have a gnarly, muddy event and we’ll see the 4x4 guys up there for the overall (Snowshoe?), or one of the “little guys” like “Bam” Margeria in the Sport class or Walker Fowler from Youth Production will get up there. It’s fun to watch.

"Bam" on the Blaster. Courtesy Kenny Hill, ATVRiders.com

 

We have an amateur ATV report from the Penton posted courtesy of Ryan Smith, but apparently the report I got from him via email had the ending cut off! So read what we have now, and then look for more when I get the updated file from Mr. Smith.

Now, a press release from our friends at Maxxis:

At the GNCC ATV John Penton, riders on Razr’s went straight to the podium. Maxxis ruled the course, sweeping the top four and taking eight spots in the overall top ten. The race was held May 13 in Millfield, Ohio.   

While reigning champ Bill Ballance gave Maxxis its 19 th straight holeshot, Chris Borich soon gained the lead. Borich maintained his points advantage with his fourth straight win, crossing the finish line in 2:16:08 hours. “I caught up to Chris (Jenks), got around him and battled for a bit, got to Bill and got around him, and that’s how I won,” Borich told gnccracing.com.

Jenks took second place, with Ballance in third and Taylor Kiser in fourth, while Matt Smiley nabbed sixth. With a seventh place overall finish and his sixth straight Pro Am win, Brandon Sommers delivered another amazing performance. Duane Johnson and Brandon Ballance finished ninth and tenth, respectively.

Borich and Sommers aren’t the only Maxxis riders on winning streaks: Traci Cecco took her sixth consecutive victory in the women’s category, finishing in 2:10:08 hours.

Maxxis congratulates Chris Borich and Traci Cecco on their victories and thanks all of these riders for their fine performances.

Finally, all of you ATV types should really be checking out http://www.can-amds450.com/ where they are showing slick videos each week showcasing the technology of the forthcoming DS450 racing ATV. So far they have revealed the frame and front suspension technology, and it looks really impressive. The frame is aluminum, and is held together with lock bolts like those used in airplanes. They offer zero flex (like a weld) but don’t reduced the strength of the metal like welding does to aluminum. The ATV also features forged aluminum upper and lower A-Arms, as well as carefully designed front suspension geometry. For those ATV riders who were out there praying for some new technology 10 years ago, these last few years have been a God send. We thought Honda and Yamaha pushed the envelope, and then Suzuki showed up with the LT-R450, and now Kawasaki has this aluminum framed KXF450, and now this Can-Am will be revealed in two weeks. Awesome.

One Public Service Announcement from our friends at Heim Joint Racing:

Regrettably, this past Sunday morning (5/20) at 6 a.m., thieves stole our 16' Pace American race trailer. Dark green with large KTM, Motul, Maxxis, and Hammer Nutrition decals, it was stolen behind a hotel in Wyandotte, MI. It is a tandem axle "Conquest" model with trailer brakes, torsion bars, aluminum wheels, aluminum diamondplate inside, and with paneled and whitewashed walls. Cabinets across the front of the inside stored a majority of our spare parts, lubricants, Hammer supplements, nuts, bolts, tools, etc. Fortunately, the bikes were not in the trailer at the time, however, a fully restored antique Ford Model T was inside. As you can imagine, this is a devastating blow for us. Already budget challenged this year, replacing the trailer and our spares is a daunting task, and the Ford was priceless. I realize that most of you are out of state, but in this day and age of Ebay, Craigslist, etc., I figured it was best to put the word out and hope that a pair of friendly eyes spots it. If anyone does see the trailer, either in person or online, please contact the Wyandotte, MI police, the Michigan State Police, or team manager Marc Heim at heimjoint@gmail.com.

On a more positive note, we will find a way to continue in the race series' we have committed to. We are racers, and do not know the meaning of quit.

Thank you all for your support.

Okay, that’s it for Quick Fill, we’re off to the races. See some of you at High Point!

See you soon, guys. Steve Bruhn photo