Am-Pro FMF Yamaha's Jason Raines sent out this report on instructing at the first-ever GNCC University school at Snowshoe last week. Read on:

Date: June 24-25

Location: Snowshoe, WV

Event: GNCC University

The first ever GNCC University Riding school was held up at Snowshoe, WV on June 24-25. Yamaha was a big part of it and we where all selected to be coaches for the event. Randy, Barry, Thad, Ryan and Myself all where excited about the opportunity to work with GNCC crew and make this first event a smash hit for everyone that attended.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and met with Tim Cotter, Jeff Russell and the Snowshoe Mountain Resort faculty and we talked about what direction we wanted to go and where would be the best place to do the training. Jeff had a place in mind that would suit our school needs, so he had Buren Hamrick fire up his Dodge truck and take us into the mountains.

The truck ride was quite and adventure!! We where going down a mountain trail of some kind and I don't think it was made with a truck in mind! We got stuck a couple of times and we all pushed and shoved, threw rocks under the tires and got going again, only to find out that this was a dead end road! We had to turn a quad cab dodge cummins diesel truck around in a spot that it would have been hard to turn a Rhino around in. Buren worked the truck back and forth and we finally used a bank and all of us pushing the back of the truck to turn the truck around. Then on the way out, we hit a bump and since we where all in the back, Thad about got bounced right out of the truck, it was a close call. After all of that, we made it it the spot where we where supposed to be at, it was called the "Airport". It was a huge open field and had a big hill behind it.

We split up into groups. I was going to do grass track and turn instruction, Randy was tackling hills and Barry was doing technical woods coaching. We all went to our respected areas and worked on getting everything set-up. I grabbed a bunch of stakes and banner and set up a really good grass track that had many different types of turns, and rounded up some cones as well to do some other drills.

From there, the first day of the school went really smooth we had 30 students and we had split them up into groups. We had 7 "A" riders, 13 "B" riders and 10 "C". All the instructing we did was closely watched by every student and you could really see their commitment to learn and be a better rider. I saw a lot of riders push themselves to do some of the obstacles, but once they did them correctly and mastered it really made them realize how easy it was. I saw the confidence levels rise in all of the students. We had a lunch break at 12:00 and then went back to training after we rotated groups. We coached the rest of the afternoon and the school was over a 5:00 and then we ate dinner. After dinner we had a discussion time with our students. I talked to them about physical training, nutrition and diet, Barry covered the mental side of racing and Randy spoke to them about the business side of racing. After that class was dismissed and we where off to bed to get the batteries re-charged for the second day.

After the first day, the students where really excited (some a little tired) and ready to tackle the second day.

The second day went until 12:00 and all went great until the last drill towards the end of the day's class. I was having my students practice starts and we where going to do one more before going on a group trail ride to finish out the day. Donovan, a younger boy rounded the first turn after the start and was going down the fast straight that followed when he ran straight into a massive rock that was hiding in the grass. He had a big crash and we all rushed to his attention. He was a trooper and waited patiently while the EMT's where on their way. At this point I don't know the condition of him, but I hope he is ok. He said his upper leg around the hip was hurting, but I don't think it was broken.

(GNCC Note: The rider was hurting at first, but after Friday and Saturday off, he recovered and was able to race on Sunday, and he even grabbed his GNCC University diploma. That's good news).

After the second day of training, we ate lunch had a very nice graduation ceremony and then sat and talked with many of the students.

It was a great experience for our Team and the students. It is a great feeling to see the excitement in a students face when you teach them something new and they are able to conquer a section that they never thought they could.

Thank you to Yamaha, Racer Productions, and all of our students for the opportunity to be the coaches for the school and we hope we can do it again in the future!!


-- Jason Raines