Welcome to Quick Fill. Banquet season has come and gone.

It’s sad to see the season go, but honestly, the banquets make a great ending point because I’ve had all the fun I can handle, and not nearly enough sleep. Two weekends ago we were in Las Vegas for the AMA Banquet weekend, which also included the EnduroCross on Saturday night. Then last weekend, of course, we had the GNCC Banquets. We hope everyone had an awesome time at these. 

 

In Vegas, we spotted several GNCCers. At the AMA Banquet on Friday I saw Bill Ballance, David Knight, Traci Cecco, Walker Fowler, Michael Swift, Johnny Gallagher and Jason Raines, at the EnduroCross I saw Barry Hawk, Jesse Robinson, Justin Williamson, Josh Weisenfels, “Wild” Wally Palmer, Sean Remington, Joe Dirt, Josh Weisenfels, JT Bennett, Chris Robertson and Josh Weisenfels, there were probably some others that I missed. Regardless it was a good time, and GNCC riders got their share of hardware. Knighter won the EnduroCross Title, Ballance was voted ATVA Athlete of the Year and Fowler won AMA Youth Rider of the Year, which matched his ATVA Youth Rider of the Year Award from last year. Also, Racer Productions won the AMA Off-Road Promoter of the Year Award for producing this series. We were very proud, as that was our first time winning that award.

The Rio in Vegas, home of the 2007 AMA Banquets

EnduroCross was cool, but Knight was involved with some controversy when he finished second to lock up the championship, which also meant he lost the $50,000 bonus that would have come from winning all three EX rounds. Knight wasn’t happy, and then he got some criticism from fans after the race. I called him on Tuesday to get his side of the story. Click HERE to read.

As for the rest of the GNCC pack, well, EnduroCross was once again not very good to them. Let’s just say it’s a very different type of racing. What was also odd to me was seeing riders who have done well in that race before have troubles””John Dowd won the thing last year and looked terrible this time, for example. It’s just such an odd event.

Onto the GNCC banquets, which were as fun as ever.  Better yet, the riders’ meetings were the tamest I’ve ever seen. We’ve been struggling with growing pains the last few years, trying to straighten out classes and schedules and issues that almost always related to having so many new racers and race machines. We’ve managed to get out in front of those issues for now, so we only had a few minor concerns this year.

The Rule Book

We are THISCLOSE to having the rulebook finished. What I can do is give you a preview right here of the major changes we’re planning. Please send us your feedback, here's what we're thinking of doing:

 

- The ATV production rule now requires machines be built within the last two years (2006 models or newer in all production classes).

 

 - ATV Youth Classes get an age change: 8-10 classes become 8-11, 11-15 classes become 12-15. This should even out the entries in those classes, as previously the older classes were very large and the younger classes were very small.

 

 - ATV Youth will include a new class called Super Mini, which is where the Cobras will race (all Cobras must race this class). It’s a 13-15 class. The displacement limit for this class is 112cc for two-strokes and 150cc for four-strokes. This class will use a dead engine start. All other Youth ATV classes will remain a live-engine start. The age limit in this class, 13-15, is set by the AMA. Sorry, we can’t budge there.

 

- The Morning ATV Race will feature a new class, U2 Lites. This class is for Can-Am Renegade 500s, Yamaha Wolverine 450s and Polaris Scrambler 500s, among other automatic tranny or clutch two or four-wheel drive machines that do not come with racks stock. This is a production class, so the Polaris Scrambler 400 two-stroke is not eligible.

 

- All the 4x4 classes now have the same rules on racks””the 4x4 Lites class will now be restricted to models with racks standard.

 

- The ATV Sport Class is now a 0-400cc class (allowing Honda 400EXs and Suzuki LT-Z400s) and will run in the afternoon instead of the morning. This class has had low entries in the past, adding the 400s to the mix should help boost numbers. This remains a production class so no Honda 250Rs.

- The ATV Youth Production (13-15) 90-300cc class is now called Schoolboy

 

- The Bike Youth Ranks will have a new class for trail bikes (Honda XRs, Honda CRF150Fs, Yamaha TT-R125s, etc) called Trail. The class is for riders 9-15 years old and is for air-cooled four-strokes from 90-150cc. It will be a non-points paying class.

 

- The Big Wheel Youth Bike Classes are now called Super Mini

 

- Honda’s CRF150R and CRF150R Expert (the liquid-cooled motocross bike) is eligible to race the Super Mini classes only

 

- We plan to run UTV/Side-by-Sides at four or five rounds next year. The classes will be as they were when we raced them at the Ironman GNCC, which are 0-700cc Limited and Modified, and 701-850cc Limited and Modified.

Digest all this now. Next, CLICK HERE to view the proposed 2008 Class List.

 

We’ve spent our time so far working on amateur class rules. Pro stuff comes next, although we don’t forsee any major changes. We would like to go to a 450cc limit in the XC2 ATV Class, and a 450cc limit in the XC1 ATV Pro Class in 2009.

This is what we’re working on. Now”¦ fire away your feedback to [email protected]

National Numbers

If you earned a GNCC National Number for 2008, you do not have to call us and reserve it. The number is yours no matter what. If you didn’t earn a number but would like to request one for 2008, reservations will start on January 8^th. Only riders who raced at least six times in 2007 can reserve a number. Call 304-284-0084 to reserve, again starting on January 8.

We know there are loyal GNCC racers who have a special number they would like to run every year no matter what they earn. Those riders can call us now to reserve that number again for 2008. If you have earned a number for 2008, but would like to keep the three-digit number you used last year, you have from now until January 8^th to call us and keep it. For example: You like #800 and race with it every year. You earned #50 this season. If you want to keep #800, call us now. If not, anyone else can take it starting January 8^th. Our number is 304-284-0084.

Thanks.

GNCC Banquets

Now back to the banquets. First, read our report HERE to read about who won the specialty awards. Also, Harlen Foley placed some excellent coverage of the banquet on his ATVRiders.com, site. Click HERE.

 

On Friday evening, Adam McGill broke a record for the longest speech in the history of the banquet when he accepted his fifth place trophy in XC1. That was followed by an amazing show in the ATV Best Bod battle, which McGill won over some very tough competition. The next night, Thad DuVall stepped up to challenge McGill’s new record for speech length when he took his XC2 fifth place plaque, and then he followed that up by defeating your’s truly in the Bike Best Bod contest! So if you’re keeping score at home, that’s two fifths for these riders, two record length speeches, and two firsts in Best Bod. Congrats to Duvall and McGill!

McGill
Photo by www.quadzone.com

 

Thad
Photo by Jason Hooper

 

 

I also laughed pretty hard when Bill Ballance tried to get Dylan Bradford to race a Yamaha ATV. Bradford won the ATV Youth Rider of the Year Award and Ballance presented him with the trophy, and then told him it was time to switch to Yamahas. Dylan said no! It was pretty funny. Also, Dylan told everyone a cool story about how he convinced his parents to let him race GNCC. He had to beat his dad in the game Monopoly! Dylan did it, and now he’s our Youth #1!

 

Bill Ballance and Dylan Bradford.
Photo by www.quadzone.com

 

Former Youth ATV number one Walker Fowler has a good deal going, he told the group that he’s close to a deal with Yamaha for both bikes and ATVs next year. Great deal for him.

The banquets are super fun and I hope everyone had a good time. Congrats to everyone that won something and put in a great result in their class this year. Now onto some new news.

The Florida Race

Vero Beach is back! Or at least it’s probably back. We thought for sure we had lost the property used for last year’s GNCC season opener in Florida. The property is owned by two brothers, one who lives there in Florida and one who lives in Texas. Apparently the Texas brother doesn’t want to have races on the property. The Florida brother hoped we could race there last year without the Texas brother finding out, but you know how that goes. Texas brother found out after the fact and said no more races. So we thought we were done. Amazingly, one last phone call on our end saved the day, as Texas brother finally relented. So we should be going back to Vero, give us a few days to be absolutely certain. Jeff Russell headed south yesterday just to be sure everything will work out.

Looks like we'll be back in Vero Beach. And so will Shane Watts.
Photo by Racer X

Other News

Looks like Paul Whibley is adapting quickly to the new Suzuki RM-Z450. Clck HERE.

 

Also, this letter was overdue from Open 4x4 Champ Rick Cecco:

Mike Swift, Cliff Beasley and myself won the Utility Expert class at the 12 Hours of America race last weekend in TX.  We smoked the much hyped 1000cc Arctic Cat Thundercat by about 17 minutes a Stock Outlander 800's which equals to about a lap and half of the race course.  Pretty cool huh?

Yes, pretty cool. Also Swift, Beasley and Cecco are even happier after Can-Am head honcho Bernard Guy gave them each checks for $2500!

Rick Cecco gets $2,500 from Can-Am.
Photo by www.quadzone.com

Also overdue is this letter from Dennis Decker, our bike Senior A Champion who raced in the ISDE in Chile.

Hi all,

The 82nd annual International Six Days Enduro in La Serena, Chile has come to an end and I'm happy to be getting some rest! We've been on the bike for 7 1/2 hours each day for 5 days, and yesterday had a tough 20 minute moto in the deep sand. I think this has been the most challenging week of my life!

The US Trophy Team, led by Kurt Caselli (2nd overall) finished in 8th place, our Junior Trophy team finished 6th, and our Womens Cup team 1st! I ended up 21st out of 140 in my class (C2- no age group), and my club team (JAFMAR- myself, Jeff Fredette, and "Wild" Bill Rush- all of us in our 40's) finished 16th out of 92 teams of all ages. Not too bad for old farts!

These are some good places to get ISDE reports, results, and videos.
www.DennisDeckerRacing.com
www.isde2007.cl
www.offroadchampions.com

www.cyclenews.com

www.isde.tv

www.amadirectlink.com

www.gofasters.com

 

Also overdue is this letter:

Jason,

As we were leaving the Ironman race Sunday we found someone left a folding chair with goggles and gloves on it. This was on the east side of the pits, 4-5 turns after the start. Please post this and if the person will let us know we can send them to them.

Thanks, Mark

Here’s a new product that could be a big help for bike racers in the GNCCs. http://www.527racingcomponents.com 

 

Two weeks ago GNCC 4x4 racer Hoyt Penland was injured at the Baja 1000, and we’ve been posting updates on his condition here. This is the latest:

Hi Jason,

 Well the guys at RiderDown.org stepped in and flew Hoyt along with a family friend to Ensenada from Lapaz. Mike drove his truck from Lapaz to Ensenada to meet with Hoyt and they crossed the border together. Once into San Diego, RiderDown had made arrangements for Hoyt and another family friend to fly out to Atlanta on Thursday night (Thanksgiving) where Hoyt’s mother and sister picked him up. He actually got there Friday morning. Those guys at RiderDown are awesome.

Mike then drove from San Diego by himself to home.

Hoyt's trying to adjust as best as he can, but with six breaks in his right leg (now being held together with a rod) I bet it’s not easy. This was an open compound fracture of the tib fib which means his leg was cut open and the bones were exposed due to the accident. Crazy stuff!

Mike is really glad to just be home and now he’s trying to just get back to business to try and recover lost funds. Estimates top $10,000 out of pocket for the medical in Baja. SCORE (the Baja organizers) has an insurance policy but it’s minimal at best and it will take a while for the Penlands to see any of that. They still need our help, but Mikes not going to ask for it, so that’s why it just needs to happen.

Not to mention his race quad was stripped while sitting in the desert for two days before they found it.

It was one tough race for the Penlands but you can bet their not going to sit back and give up.

See ya Bro,

  Rick Sosebee

Again, if you would like to donate to the Penlands, call us at 304-284-0084 and ask for Kelly. She’s taking the donations and we’ll keep on sending whatever we get. Also, everyone should check out www.riderdown.org. They’re a top notch organization that does great things for racers, pros, amateurs, bike and ATV racers alike.

One more press release:

Duncan Racing's Andy Lagzdins Wins 2007 OMA Nationals Championship

The Parts Unlimited OMA Nationals saw a new force take over the reigns in
2007, with series newcomer and Moose/Honda rider Andy Lagzdins winning five
of the ten rounds to claim the title from three-time and defending champion Rob
Zimmerman. The title run was Lagzdins' first National Championship in a
lengthy career that has been focused predominantly on GNCC events,
topped by an 8th overall placing in the GNCCs in 2005.

The Duncan Racing/Dirt First/ITP sponsored rider used his years of cross
country racing experience to bounce back from a large points deficit after
fracturing his throttle thumb at the third round of the series in May, an
injury which forced Lagzdins to miss a round of the series and ride injured
in another. "After I saw the x-ray of my thumb, I thought it (the
championship) was over, but I just tried to get back on the quad as soon as
possible and win each race," said Lagzdins after the season finale in
Kentucky.

Lagzdins is the new OMA #1.
Photo by www.atvriders.com

Zimmerman had his share of bad luck in the form of mechanical issues, which
plagued the Honda/Moose/Maxxis sponsored rider throughout his title
defense. A chain failure at the Waukon, Iowa round of the series proved to
be the turning point, and Lagzdins' win there would open up a sizeable lead
in the points race, which Zimmerman could not make up.

The title came down to the final race, where Zimmerman needed a win while
Lagzdins only needed to finish. Zimmerman put in a solid ride to win the
race ahead of Lagzdins, who settled for second on the day and first for the
season.

Congrats to Andy! No one deserves a title more than him.

Okay we’ve covered a lot here so we’ll go and let you digest it all. See you right here next week!