Welcome to Quick Fill. How's your summer going?

Around here we still have plenty of info to discuss from Snowshoe. Let's start with GNCC University, which we hope becomes the type of event we can host for a long, long time.

We've gotten plenty of positive responses. Last week we asked for your letters, and we'll sample a few right here.

Good morning Jason. My son Cody Gerhard, #2 on a Kawasaki in all the pictures, attended GNCC University. It is now July 3rd and he still cannot stop talking about it! He is so excited about having the opportunity to attend. He learned so much from the instructors that he could not wait to get home and start applying what he learned in his daily practice. He did in fact say he came in 3rd place at Snowshoe, largely because of what he learned about the mental side of the race, and the hill climb since that is where most of the youth riders got hung up. What I learned was how truly down to earth and genuine his heroes were. His walls in his bedroom are covered with posters of the Yamaha riders. Those are the kind you think are on a pedestal yet they truly wanted to see the students succeed. Tim Cotter is one very special person. With the huge task he had of putting that whole weekend together, yet he was 100% there for every kid, parent and student. I could never thank GNCC enough for having the University.

Cody can not wait to sign up for next years class!

Bill Gerhard  

Hey there,

I had the honor to take part on the 1st ever GNCC U. at Snowshoe and overall it was an absolute blast! The only thing I would have changed was to have a small woods loop added. I understand fully how that situation worked this year, but hopefully for years to come a small area of woods can be set aside for the Pros to show riders what hidden obstacles can be found between the trees. From the Wednesday I rolled in to the resort till Saturday evening when I left, the service was top notch. For being the 1st year of trying out the school I can only give you guys and everyone else that helped out two thumbs up! The instructors I think will mostly agree also and hopefully Ill have a class victory to show for in the final 4 GNCC events. Great job and I'll cya at Unadilla!

Sincerely
BJ Naugle

Hello, I just wanted to express my sincere gratitude for giving me the chance to ride and learn from some of the greatest riders in the world including my long time hero Randy Hawkins! I have been riding and racing for 25 years and the GNCC University at Snowshoe was without any doubt the best time I have ever had on two wheels! My hat is off to the entire Racer Productions Crew, You guys are First Class all the way! I would like to thank everybody involved with getting this event together and you can bet that if this event happens again in 2010 I will be in attendance! Â Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ 

Sincerely, Jody Colaw  Warm Springs VA

P.S. Thanks to the Great Tim Cotter for all his help in finding us a place to park!!

Thanks for the letters, folks. This program has legs, and we're already looking forward to next year.

We also host the GNCC golf tournament at Snowshoe. This year we add a new set of names to the "Slicer" traveling trophy-Team Andrews. Congrats to Matt Zines, Joey Maurer, Jeff Bennett and Fred Andrews on the victory. And Team Monster/FAR also took a win in the bike race on Sunday via Jason Thomas' XC2 win. UK JT checked out on the rest of the XC2 class, and then went after the big overall money. The XC1 boys have picked it up, though, and we are no longer seeing XC2 riders able to get into the overall lead. JT did put in a solid seventh overall, and with his first win of the season under his belt, expect more once we come back from the summer break.

Finishing behind JT in the overall was Top Amateur Chris Bach, who took eighth. He had a really good battle with Jordan Ashburn for the win, but it's always a little tough for us to cover the Amateur stuff because they're always just behind the pros, where the photos and video and announcing go. So, to find out what those amateur battles are like, I asked Chris for a race report:

The race went really well.  Obviously a little better then I had ever expected.  I have seemed to have this top amateur block in front of me all year.  I was actually slated to ride the 2009 WORCS series in the Open A and Pro2 classes for a team out west, but due to the economy, that fell through, and I had to move back home and I said I was going to just do a couple GNCCs, and just see how it went.  I just wanted to be around 20th OA.  The season started off like crap... missing FL, then getting horribly sick in GA... rode a 250A in NC. Â  It started to pick up, and I started to see the results of my off-season training when I was getting done with 3 hour races and I wasn't tired. S0, that's when the now endless battle between myself and Jordan Ashburn began in Open A.

Me and Jordan are three points apart in the overall points, near the top 15.  We hadn't had a straight up race all year, we are always together, but either he breaks, or I break. But at Snowshoe, we didn't break. Â  We are both really good technical riders, and coming to WV I knew it was going to be a good race.

Luckily, I started on row 13, which was the 1st A row, and gave me quick access to the XC1 and 2 guys.  We got up front and checked out immediately, clipping off XC2 guy and XC1 guys.  We settled into a good pace, and battled back and forth.  I would lead, crash, or take a bad line, and Jordan would pass me... he would lead a while, then crash, or take a bad line, and I would take the lead back, and we went back and forth quite a bit. Luckily we are really good friends and have tons of respect for each other, so the racing is good and clean, and we pushed each other to the front of the overall.  I felt like I was riding really slow in a lot of sections, to the point where I actually said to myself "Man, you need to pick it up or your going to get smoked!" but I decided against it.  I just wanted to "clean" every tough section. The track was gnarly, but it really only had a handful of tough, bad sections that could really cost you time, so I made sure to clean those every lap with no hang-ups, and it worked out well.

I got in the lead for the final time, with Jordan right behind me. He went down in a pretty deep rut on the second loop, and as soon as I didn't hear him behind me, I found another gear and pushed as hard as I could and broke away while I could, and then just managed the gap until the checkers.

The goal is always to win, and for top amateur, I've always been one spot away.  This time I finally got it!

The race and result meant so much to me it's unreal.  After being dropped by the economy, I was forced to buy a bike from a local shop on my own, and just tough it out this year.  I've been going to all the races by myself, working on my own bike, buying all my own parts, and scraping my way to the races with hardly any support at all. To go out and win like that with a roached out bike was amazing.  I started the year solo, even pitting myself at some rounds, however the Baileys and Crouchs have been kind enough to help me out with my pits now... which is a HUGE relief.  So big thanks to them.

Let me thank my sponsors:

Sponsors:  FMF, SCOTT, RTT Stabilizers, TBT Suspension, Thompson Training Facility, Fastway/Pro Moto Billet, and my trainer Troy Ross.  I couldn't do it without those guys, when times got tough, they all stayed behind me and knew I could do it. When other people dropped out due to economy, they found a way to keep me, and this win is for those guys, they make it happen as much as I ride the bike.

Thanks!

Chris Bach


One traditional Snowshoe front runner is Thad DuVall, but Thad's 2009 run of bad luck overcame his traditional strength at Snowshoe. Remember, the kid ran inside the top three overall on a 250F in 2007, and nearly won the whole thing in 2008.

But in 2009, it was more bad luck. His throttle broke and Thad only got one lap in. I've already said this, but I might as well say this again: I have never, ever seen a run of bad luck like we've seen from Thad this year. And if he figures it out, well, he should be able to win.

The big Lojak's shop, legendary in GNCC circles, is having an open house, right about now:

We got some baby news! First, our good friend and Morgantown neighbors Hylton and Jenn Beattie have welcomed a new girl into the world, Stella. Hylton is one of the main men behind Parts Unlimited's support of our series, including setting up free dinners at the races (such as the one we had at Mountain Ridge). Parts Unlimited supports the sport, and Hylton and Jenn are a big part of that. Congrats!

AMA Pro Motocross competitor Josh Summey showed up to race at Snowshoe. Summey had a factory deal with Team Jaegermeister KTM this year, but injuries hampered his results, and he parted ways with the team a few weeks ago. Healed up and ready to race, the North Carolina native could have gone and raced the Thunder Valley motocross in Colorado, but instead, he headed to Snowshoe and finished ninth in the XC1 class.

Summey isn't just a motocross guy looking for a second career-he really, absolutely and totally loves GNCC racing. During the supercross season, I would stop by the KTM semi to talk woods racing with Josh. When he was hurt this year, he even came to the Big Buck and Steel Creek races just to watch. And on a supercross track, he can even compare the soil to what he sees at a GNCC. "If it rains here, it will be more like a John Penton GNCC," Josh would say.

Josh has raced GNCCs on and off over the years, I remember him showing up on a Yamaha when he was first breaking into the pro ranks, then on a Honda when he was a Moto XXX Honda rider. This year he rode KTMs in moto so that's what he rode at Snowshoe. He wants to ride the whole series and is interested in finding a ride in the future.

How tough are you guys? Apparently, the toughest! Dirt Rider Magazine put together a really cool story for their August issue, where Executive Editor Jesse Ziegler raced four different events, a GNCC, A WORCS race, the Alligator Enduro and an AMA Hare and Hound, and compared them.

And which one did Jesse think was the toughest? The GNCC of course! Jesse had to admit that the GNCC was the toughest of them all, and he reminded the readers that he only raced the two-hour morning race--imagine three hours on an even rougher track in the afternoon!

Big thanks to Ziegler for the story. And congrats to all of you GNCC racers out there. You're the toughest!

We've been pitching the uniqueness of the Snowshoe GNCC for awhile, but it turns out it's not the only off-road race at a ski resort. Rachel "Steward Baylor was even more randomn than me, read about it in Tuesday Toolbox" Fluharty got this letter:

Rachel,
I have read the article about the Snowshoe GNCC race and it was great.  I was wondering about a statement you made about the Snowshoe being "The only off-road race of its kind to take place at a ski resort."  I'm the Owner/Promoter of a hare scramble series in the four corners area,  www.weberacing.com Â  We have been hosting an event at Angel Fire ski resort for the past four years and it has been a great event.  If you go to You Tube you can see some videos and we would have a trials event on Saturday and the hare scramble event on Sunday.  Is there any type of correction that can be made?  I manage a 5 brand powersports shop and I have had a couple of our riders/customers comment about your article.  Thanks for any help you are willing to give.

Brett Craig
www.weberacing.com
970-749-9511
[email protected]

Well, instead of a correction, we'll just encourage riders to check out your series.  Thanks for the letter!

Want a little more insight on David Knight's Snowshoe victory? Check out this interview with one of the men who made it happen, RidePG.com's Bart Hayes:

And finally, our good friends at the Steele Creek campground in Morganton, North Carolina, are celebrating their 50th (yes!) birthday! Check out this local story on the place, and yes, the GNCC is mentioned as one of the campground's bigger events.

Okay gang, that's it for Quick Fill this week. We'll keep you posted on GNCC life throughout the summer, so make sure to join us again next week!