Welcome to Quick Fill. Don’t react too quickly.

We’re getting closer and closer to finalizing everything for the 2008 Can-Am GNCC tour. This includes the rulebooks, which have been run through the ringer for the last month in our best attempts yet to incorporate the classes and rules you want for the season. The latest update we can give concerns the 4x4 Lites classï¿Â½” turns out we will NOT, yes NOT run a U2 Lites class in 2008. We looked closely at the entry numbers of both U2 and 4x4 Lites last season, and then judged the amount of interest from riders and teams in having a fifth utility-based class. At this point, it doesn’t look like there will be enough riders to support this class. So, U2 Lites is gone, and 4x4 Lites continues with the same rules we had already set for 2008ï¿Â½” machines racing in that class must have racks as standard equipment.

What does this really mean? It means the Renegade 500, Polaris Scrambler 400 and 500 and Yamaha Wolverine 350 and 450 are back where they used to be: U2. There is a small market for these machines and it’s too small to support its own class. The existing 4x4 Lites class, we hope, will continue to grow from what it had in 2007. That’s that.

We still have to look into some issues on Youth ATVs. Most of the concerns regard the Cobra, which we all know is one very effective machine. Unfortunately, in Youth racing sometimes the best machine not necessarily rewarded, as we have many concerns from racers who do not own Cobras about fair competition. At one point we were planning on allowing the 70cc single-speed gas and go Cobras in the 90cc classes (NOT shifter Cobras with automatic clutches) but then we found out just how fast 70cc Cobras areï¿Â½” most of the riders winning overalls last year were on Cobra 70s! So now we’re looking once again at all Cobras racing in the SuperMini Class.

More big news: Major Schedule Changes for next season. Dates will not change, but locations will. You may have heard about this at the GNCC banquet. The Snowshoe folks expected us to be racing on the last weekend in June like we did last year. But our schedule got changed and we wanted to race there on June 21 and 22. Snowshoe had already scheduled a conference at the resort on that weekend, and there’s no way you can hold a GNCC on the same weekend as a business conference. So, we’ve juggled around some of the locations to make it all work. Yadkinville, North Carolina is moved to the June 21 and 22 date, Snowshoe is now on September 13 and 14, and Unadilla is now on September 27 and 28. That’s official.

We'll be back at Snowshoe in September. Trail Boss Jeff Russell is still considering a 25-mile loop, because it would allow us to find some real trails instead of all the high-speed stuff and major mud bogs we had last year.
Hooper photo

Also, we have had a change in the Florida location AGAIN. Now a different person from the Vero Beach gang has told us no, so we will indeed not be allowed to race there. We have scouted a new track in Melbourne, Florida, and that will be the new location for the opening round. Melbourne, Florida. We'll try to get info out to you as soon as we can regarding hotels and directions and such.

We will not be returning to Vero Beach after all.

Matt Ware Photo

 

A few other items. BMW announced their GNCC team for next year, starring Glenn Kearney and ex World Motocross GP Winner Gordon “The Crockstar” Crockard. Should be an interesting venture for this new team on a very, very different motorcycle. But BMW was smart to put Scott Summers in charge of the team. No one knows GNCC racing and GNCC motorcycles like the five-time GNCC Champion, and all you have to do is look at the success of the team he built around Paul Whibley for the last two yearsï¿Â½” those guys came a long, long way. Scott has a three year deal with the Bimmer gang and it would be a surprise if they don’t figure it all out by then.

Perhaps you already read about the Red Bull Last Man Standing from last weekend in Texas. Once again Polish upstart Taddy Blazusiak took the win, with David Knight struggling with some breathing problems. Here was Knight’s quote from after the race:

“I’m gutted that I wasn’t able to finish the race but it’s great that Taddy and Geoff (Aaron) finished. I was having a good battle with Taddy shortly before I had to stop. I would lead for a while, then he’d lead, then me again”¦it was great. I felt short of breath and then when the track started to get more technical I started coughing and just couldn’t stop. I’m not the type of rider that likes to pull out of events but there was no way I could continue. It was like I suddenly developed asthma, I was really scared because I couldn’t breathe. It was like someone had punched me in the stomach.

“The thing I’m most disappointed about is the fact that I was enjoying the event so much. It was tough but it was great. I’d say it was the hardest LMS event I’ve ridden, but also the best. I only have a few days before the next indoor world cup race so I hope to get things sorted as soon as I can.”Â

 

Taddy and Knighter battle at Last Man Standing.

Red Bull photo

I have no idea if Taddy can race on cross-country type terrain, or maybe he just excels at these crazy events like EnduroCross and Last Man Standing. This is something to think about.

And finally, we have a gift opportunity for everyone! We have GNCC mouse pads available with the 2008 schedule printed on it. They look pretty cool. We just came up with the idea last week and won’t get a shipment into the office until next week, so they may not get to your house by Christmas. Either way, if you want one, it’s $10. We’ll put it up for sale on the www.Racerxbrand.com site by the weekend.

I think that’s enough to think about for one weekï¿Â½” a few class changes and a few location changes. To give you more time to prepare, we’ll skip Quick Fill next week as we go onto holiday hibernation mode (actually, I owe my girlfriend a vacation after going to the races every weekend all year!).

We’ll see you back here in two weeks!