Welcome to Quick Fill. What a great series we have going right now.

Big Buck was pretty big. And pretty good.

Everything is rolling pretty strong now in GNCC land. First, we are pleased to report that the sign-up lines where significantly shorter in South Carolina than at any other race this year, so we’re pleased to maybe finally have that issue behind us. We did make some changes to streamline the transponder purchase transaction time, but the biggest improvement came just because a lot of people already have their transponders by now and won’t have to buy another one for two years. As we like to think, we’ll never have to sell every single racer a transponder on the same day again, so hopefully we’ll never have lines that long again, either.

          We still have to perfect the live timing and scoring on the web. We apologize again for anyone who was looking for it and found out it wasn’t working at times this weekend. The satellite that we have at the track to provide internet is shockingly sensitive. Any kind of movement is enough for it to lose signal. We had it mounted to the sign-up trailer, and if it gets bumped, the satellite will lose connection. So today we sent our new scoring guy Dan Rhinehart out to get the satellite permanently mounted onto our Weekend Warrior rig. The new mounting should be more secure, and the rig doesn’t get bumped around as much as the sign up trailer, which has employees walking in and out of it all weekend, and 1000+ people leaning on it. Is this the solution? We hope so. We’re determined, again, to get all of this working each and every race.

          We’re also relieved to have our UTV races off and running. To be perfectly honest, we were a little worried about how it would all go since the racing is so new to everyone. We also knew we would have a lot of new racers who had never raced GNCC before. It was a tough combination but it all went pretty smoothly. For the next time we race, in Pennsylvania in July, we are going to require real harnesses instead of just seat belts. We also have some plans, maybe using bleachers, to try to keep the fans away from the machines, because obviously they’re fast and big. And we’ll work on opening up the track more too to offer up more passing. In general though, things went well, and everyone that watched and participated seemed to have a good time.

          Best of all, congrats to William Yokley, who immediately went all NASCAR on the deal and had his National Guard graphics flying high. Good move, Yoke!

National Guard gets more than just the #88.

         

 Now onto our buddy Barry Hawk. The rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.

I talked to him a few hours ago, and he’s still down in Spartanburg Regional Hospital as the big bruise on his lung heals up. For the most part he’s not in major pain any longer, but he does have four broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade and the bruised lung to deal with. Once the bruise on his lung is healed, he’ll be released from the hospital, and he’s making progress. This afternoon he was able to stand up for the first time since the crash, so he’s on his way. Whenever he’s done in the hospital, he’ll look into the shoulder, which may or may not need surgery. Apparently shoulder blades are hard to break, so there are not a lot of examples to pull from. Barry is hoping to avoid surgery, and the crack on his shoulder is a little larger than a hairline fracture so he’s not sure what will happen yet. Make no mistake, though, he’ll be back.

          “I’ve never thought for one second that I’m done,” Barry said. “That hasn’t run through my mind at all. The only thing that really ran through my mind is that I’m out of the championship this year. Otherwise, it just lights the fire even more. The timbers are even hotter.”Â

          So when will he be back? “I’ll be racing Loretta’s,” joked Hawk. “Tell everyone I’ll be there racing at a solid 10 percent.”Â

Barry ain't done.

         

Okay, kidding aside Barry said he’ll be back whenever he’s 100  percent again, and the only way he’d ever be done racing is if someone told him he has to be. And that’s not going to happen. Barry also knows he's the old man of the XC1 class nowadays, but he's still nine years younger than Rodney Smith, and Rodney only retired last year!

          Luckily Barry has good company down there, with the full Am-Pro team like Randy Hawkins and Jason Raines stopping by to visit, and the Baylor family came in when I was talking to him. Also “It’s good to know how many people really do care,” said Barry. “But all of these visitors really cut into my Jerry Springer time in the afternoon.”Â

          Also I thank all of you who sent in emails to Barry, I forwarded them to him so he'll see them when he gets home. If you want to send some well wishes, do it at [email protected]

          Barry’s teammate Jason Raines broke his shoulder blade back in Texas in ’04, and he says it’s an injury that heals quickly because the bone is close to your heart and gets good circulation. I remember Jason’s injury well. A fan came up and told me that Jason had run out of gas, so I ran into the woods to find him out where he was, and I called Jeff Russell and told him to bring gas. Jeff showed up and tossed a bottle of gas at him so Jason could get back to the pits. Jason then said “What’s the gas for? I can’t move my arm.”Â

Team Raines had their best run of the year in South Carolina. He may come all the way back.

          Good news for five-time GNCC Champion Scott Summers. First, his team scored its best finish of the season when Glenn Kearney brought the Husky home in sixth on Sunday. Then Scott was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame! The Behringer-Crawford Museum has honored him with a display at the museum which will run throughout the Spring/Summer titled 'Reach for the Stars'.

          Click here for more info on the museum. LINK

Summers has a display in the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. And Summers' man Glenn Kearney (right) grabbed a sixth over the weekend. Good to see Glenn's old Suzuki buds giving him the "Good on ya, mate!"

        

  Racing is really heating up now. Our race reports are a little more detailed than before to help cover the action, so that should give you an idea. KTM is ruling the roost on both two and four-wheels right now, as David Knight looks stronger than ever and Adam McGill continues to amaze. Now we’re going to trade “The Real Deal McGill” nickname up to the “Big Deal McGill” because, in case you haven’t heard, he’s kind of a big deal.

          I talked to a lot of racers who battled with him as he came though the pack, though, and they all said it wasn’t like he was just completely unbeatable. Adam methodically worked his way up, passing a rider here and a rider there. And apparently he and Brandon Sommers had one awesome battle for the lead going for awhile. Everyone saw him and everyone hung with him for awhile, but in the end, no one could beat him. Will it go this way all season? It’s going to be interesting.

          As for Adam himself, he told me that “no one comes up and talks to me before the races anymore.” Yup, the fun guy in the pits is now the guy who is winning, and that’s going to change things socially. Adam’s having too much fun right now to stop winning just to get all of his friends, back, though, so sorry guys.

          Got to be pumped for Bryan Cook. He’s one of the few that got left without factory help when all the rides got handed out over the winter, and now he’s beating almost all of them. And also, you just know Bill Ballance and Chris Borich are going to get it together eventually. There are a lot of guys going fast right now. More than ever. It’s impressive.

          In the morning classes, the Women are pushing it, too, getting another overall win without starting on the front row. Angel Atwell bounced back for her second win of the season. It’s going to be a big battle for the Women’s title this year!

          Also, Bryan Buckhannon and Cliff Beasley are still undefeated in their 4x4 Classes. Good job, boys.

Even the Can-Am people have said sometimes 500cc is all you really need on a GNCC course. Cliff Beasley is on fire in 4x4 Lites.

          An announcement: we have decided officially to not allow XC1 Pro ATV racers to walk the track on Friday, but XC2 riders will be allowed to walk the track on Friday. The no walk policy is an XC1 only rule.

          Also, we’re announcing a new class for the bike morning races. The 45+ B class. We have too many guys 45 who have pointed out of the C class but then don’t want to move up and race three hours in the afternoon. Three hours on the super rough track at the same time as the pros is pretty tough for a 45+ rider who just came out of the C class. What happens to those riders who point out, is: A) they cram into the super-packed Sportsman Class B) They race afternoon, hate it and quit or C) worse, they sandbag and hope to not get caught.

Now there’s an alternative better than that. We’ll start racing 45+B at the next round, and we’ll count seven races for the championship, since we only have nine races left this year. You must have seven races in to count for this championship, but if you have races in another class already, they will count as part of your seven race minimum.

This could be the solution to some of your worries!

          That’s all for this week. Next up: Loretta’s!

Okay, it was a little muddy at the Big Buck.