Welcome to Quick Fill. The cold spell has been broken.

It wasn’t cold at all in Kentucky, and it also wasn’t wet. That’s a far cry from Georgia back in March and Ohio a few weeks ago. It also led to some great racing, as riders were actually able to race instead of just survive.

Okay, maybe the survival instincts did kick in later in the game when the heat and humidity caught up to everyone. Everyone I talked to spoke about having to pace themselves at some point in the game in order to make it to the finish. Our buddy Johnny Gallagher said he dug down so deep on Saturday just to finish 11^th, that he was still, um, seeing some of his meals coming back up on Tuesday.

But then comes Bill Ballance, who just keeps on ticking. The guy is unbelievable. Just amazing, really. I think we need to start looking at Ballance as what he really has become, which is not just the best racer in the field right now, but an out-and-out icon in motorsports. Very, very few athletes can say they have achieved what Bill has, and maybe we should look at him as a living legend instead of the defending champion. Maybe you already do. But I know I won’t take anything for granted with the guy anymore. Every win is another Picasso piece, every season another extension of a dynasty. When it’s over, and who knows when that will be, we should never forget about days like Kentucky, when Ballance just mows down a field that is incredibly deep, talented and hungry.

How does he do it? I called him for an explanation:

“There is no secret,” Bill said with a laugh. “It’s just now getting to the conditions I like. It’s hard, it’s rough and fast, and most importantly, we have hot temperatures.”Â

And why would the veteran want such difficult conditions against younger competition. “One of the things that bothers me sometimes in cold weather is arm pump. And I’m able to push harder when it’s hot outside. I’m not sure why, but it’s always been that way.”Â

But maybe it’s not just endurance. Maybe Ballance just knows how to ride smart and conserve energy.

“Well I would like to think so, but with the pace everyone is going nowadays, you pretty much just hold it wide open the whole times,” said Bill. “There’s a little bit of time at the beginning where we pace ourselves sometimes, but that’s not very long.”Â

Finally, Bill threw a shout out to his trainer, Mark Spataro of www.motoprotraining.com Spataro also trains with William Yokley and Jarrod McClure, so you can’t argue the results at Sparta!

Then Sparto himself called me. He wants to let everyone know that he’s running an ATV training and racing camp on July 25^th through 27^th, at his facility in Baltimore, MD, with the help of The National Guard in the area. Lots of stuff will be covered even beyond training programs, like breathing techniques and such. Go to the website for more.

With Ballance’s victory comes heartbreak for Adam McGill. I talked to him Saturday night, and he was just beside himself. McGill broke off sprocket bolts when his chain began to derail. He has a fix in mind to make sure the chain problems don’t happen again, and he’s not done contending for this title. “I’m not giving up yet, though,” said McGill. “I’m kicking it back old school and just going all out for wins. That’s all I can do.”Â

Still, Bill Ballance with momentum and the points lead is a hard combination to stop. The guy is an icon, a legend, a hero, just a master of his craft.

As for Sommers and Yokley making  the podium, Sommers had some nice things to say about racing William. “I’ve never really raced with him before, in fact, this year, I’ve never really seen him on the track,” Sommers told me. “He rode really clean and I like that. I like to race where whoever has the line gets it, but I know a lot of the guys in the old school will bang bars and bump you a bit when they can. William, he had a chance to make a pass right before the finish, and he had a tire on the inside. He could have taken the chance of taking us both out, but he let it go and decided to wait. I thought that was cool.”Â

Like Ballance, we have a legend building in the bike ranks. But this time that legend got beat. We all know David Knight has been dominant all over the world, and it was easy to chalk up his troubles at the last GNCC in Ohio to all that mud and rain. But this time, the conditions were good and he still didn’t come out on top. Knight had the lead early in the race and appeared to be gone, but then suddenly Josh Strang rolled up on him.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Strang. “People told me he looked like he had his head down and was charging. So I don’t know.”Â

Turns out Knight had the foam tube in his front tire disentegrate on him, which obviously hurt his bikes handling. But still, I’m not sure if that made that much of a difference, remember this was the guy who was pulling away by minutes at a time earlier in the year. Once solution may be as simple as what Trail Boss Jeff Russell told me: “Those Suzuki four-stroke guys are on it!”Â

Indeed they are. A few races ago I thought Josh Strang was going to be the break-through guy this year, but now his teammate Paul Whibley has stepped up, and they’re both totally hauling. Whibley is now known as the strong man down the stretch in the races. Strang was still a little sick after the Penton GNCC (hmmm, how could a guy get sick at that one?) so his endurance wasn’t so solid in Kentucky, but he still went fast.

Then there’s Glenn Kearney. When we talked to Glenn for Tuesday Toolbox a month ago we knew he was getting close to the podium, but this was actually close to a win! That Husky team has come a long way, but can you imagine if GK had been doing this on the BMW he was supposed to be riding at the beginning of the year? The Bimmers, by the way, were on display in Kentucky, and I’ve heard they may be out there racing (probably with some other riders) before the year is up.

Steward Baylor continued his amazing undefeated streak of youth bike overall wins in Kentucky. He’s now past the halfway mark. Can he go all the way?

Here’s a story on a Youth rider worth sharing.

During a weekend of racing there are a lot of track battles announced over the radio and track speakers, but sometimes good ones are not easy to see. At Sparta, Tyler Braniff was sitting on the starting line in the 85 (12-13) class with plans to back up his John Penton win. As the second row was leaving, his clutch cable snapped. He make a quick decision to try to race without it. He got of to a mid-pack start and came though scoring in second place. By the end of lap 3 he was first in class and eleventh overall. About one mile into lap four his front tire went flat. He kept going for the next two laps and managed to win the class, but he had dropped to 16th overall. Wonder what he would have done with out the problems?

Riding schools! We have them popping up all over the place. Click here for info on Rodney Smith’s Clinic on June 14/15 in North Carolina. Rodney put Whibley and Strang through their paces this winter as the trainer for Team FMF Suzuki.

Oh, and what about the other Suzuki boys, Charlie Mullins and Jimmy Jarrett? I think we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the two-stroke. We’ll know for sure when Barry Hawk comes back in Pennsylvania on his YZ250. Barry just started riding again so it looks like his comeback is on schedule.

We held our talent show in Kentucky and we have winners!

The winners of the "2008 GNCC's Got Talent" were:

1st - Heather Krouskoupf, singing "Broken Wing"

 2nd - Sadie Welch, for her gymnastics performance

 3rd - Matt Harris, singing "Center Field"

All three winners raced in the ATV program that day.  A challenge was issued to the Bike riders for next year to prove they can do something other than ride on two wheels.

We have a new contingency sponsor: Two Cool Lubricants!

T2C GNCC Contingency Program

A newcomer to the GNCC Contingency Program, the Two2Cool gang has stepped up to the plate to offer a brand new contingency program for the balance of the 2008 season for riders using its performance lubricants and/or coolants.

It’s a total contingency package of $24,750 for the last 6 events of the series.

Events Paid:  Starting at the Yadkin Valley Stomp GNCC in Yadkinville, NC.

Classes Paid: