Kanney claims 6th place finish at GNCC Round 8

Riding the momentum of a win at round 3 of the National Hare Scramble Series, Red Bull/KTM's Nate Kanney was looking to score his first win of the 2008 GNCC season at the Yadkin Valley Stomp GNCC in Yadkinville, N.C. The Wellborn Family Farm--site of the event--had not seen any rain in nearly a month, leaving the track extremely dry and dusty which made for treacherous race conditions.

Knowing that vision in the dust would be a huge factor, Kanney focused on getting a good start, and rounded the first turn in 3rd place. "Charlie Mullins and David [Knight] were out in front of me. Mullins was riding very aggressively, and the dust from him blowing up berms in front of us made it really tough to keep him in sight," explains Kanney. "The first lap of racing was rather unusual, as everyone fell into a single-file line because the visibility was so bad," he continued.

After settling into his pace and beginning to find a rhythm in the tight North Carolina woods, a violent crash pushed Kanney back to 7th place. "The crash was pretty gnarly, it took me a few miles and a couple more crashes to eventually shake out the cobwebs," said Kanney. After an extended pit stop to fuel, and replace his gloves that were soaking wet from one of his wrecks, Nate put his head down and began to charge after 6th place rider Jason Raines. "After the pit stop I was able to put together a couple solid laps to make it into 6th past Raines. I kept pushing to the finish, but Glenn Kearney in 5th was a bit out of reach."

"A 6th place finish isn't what I was hoping for coming into this race, but considering how hard I crashed I feel fortunate to walk away healthy and with enough points to move into 5th place overall for the championship."