Welcome to Quick Fill.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned even more than web skills over the past few weeks, it’s how true the saying “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” rings. I’m not talking about getting over an ex. I’m talking about all the “necessities” that we’ve grown to expect and then take for granted as information continues to become more transparent via web and social media outlets.

As most may know, our website server was recently infected, causing all four of our websites (GNCC, ATVMX, MX Sports, MX Sports Pro) to crash, and since then we’ve been working as hard as possible to restore all those sites back to full functionality. It’s taking a bit longer than expected since it’ s also crunch time for the Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s, but we’re getting there. The fortunate part about the whole deal is that we’re on GNCC summer break so some of the info isn’t completely necessary, although we’re certainly working to get it all updated as soon as possible. Most of us also lost email access with the downfall of the server and if you’ve been trying to reach anyone from GNCC via email there’s a good chance they didn’t receive it so if you’ve got something important you may want to send it again.

Anyway, back to the taking things for granted. It’s unreal how much people rely on the Internet these days. I’m guilty. I spend 18 hours a day on the web for sure but the moment a source of info becomes unavailable it’s like all hell breaks loose and suddenly the world can no longer function. Which is partly true. But when things like that happen, rest assured there’s a reason behind it. Not just that some company has decided they’re sick of having a website so they disable it for a week or so. We truly apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused and we appreciate everyone being so patient.

Today we’re en route to Washington state for Round 8 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross tour at Washougal MX Park and I’m pretty excited to switch gears to a little MX action this weekend. I’m definitely transforming into an off-road fan, but I’ve got a lot to learn on the whole off-road racing part. Last weekend Taylor “the intern” and I loaded up and went down the road to Brownsville, Pa. for the New East Coast XC race on our weekend off traveling. The track was super fun and it ended up being like a mini-GNCC with all the familiar faces we saw. Apparently Traci Cecco was supposed to be on an R&R vacation with a few of the ATV fellas and decided last minute she couldn’t go a weekend without racing so she and fiancé Jeff Pickens showed up ready for battle. Jeff said he contemplated racing too but he’s still in the process of recovering from a hand injury at Snowshoe and didn’t think it would be a good idea. Or maybe Traci’s womanly words of wisdom had something to do with it, ha! Anyway, I think we experienced just about every season in the afternoon bike race. It was pretty hot out when we took off and the track was super dry and dusty for the first 30 minutes or so. And then without warning, it began down pouring, quickly turning the layers of dust into sheets of ice and it was anyone’s guess as to which way your bike was actually going to go. In the Pro class Zach Nolan got out front early on and put a pretty commanding lead on Layne Michael and Barry Hawk, and those two ended up with a pretty good battle for the rest of the race. Layne finally got the best of B Hawk near the end and they finished Nolan, Michael, Hawk after a couple hours of mud bogging. Huge props to Miss Taylor for taking the Women’s Class win! I clearly need to take woods lessons from her because I can’t seem to keep it on two wheels these days! We were soaking wet and covered in mud at the end but all in all it was a fun day of racing and the New East Coast XC crew put on a great race!

Feel free to hit us up with updates on what’s happening in the GNCC world over summer break. We’ll be heading to Loretta Lynn’s next week to kick off amateur motocross racing and I know a handful of GNCC folks will be there as well. We’ll do our best to keep everyone up to date on everyone there for sure.

Last week the GNCC Racing family lost a very dear friend. Kyle Rohan, 29, of Erie, Pennsylvania, passed away Tuesday, July 10, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Some of Kyle’s friends reached out to us with a few kind words that we’d like to share in honor of Kyle’s life and passion for racing:

“Kyle was a regular in the GNCC Series and was currently 9th in the standings in the 250C (20+) class. He loved his racing and the GNCC series. He was proud of his accomplishments to date and lived for the weekends when he could go racing. Godspeed Kyle. We will all miss you.”Â

Unfortunately, the motocross world also lost a very dear friend this past weekend when Chicopee, Massachusetts Art Jefferson passed away suddenly in Rochester, Minnesota from a stroke. A husband and father of two, Art traveled to each round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Nationals as the Paddock Concierge. He was 52 years old.

Quoting Racer X’s recent post honoring the life of Art Jefferson, “The motocross industry is a big, crazy, dysfunctional family in a lot of ways. We all get to “live the dream” and participate in the sport we love, and we’re surrounded by the most supportive coworkers, friends, and family members.” I think that sums up the racing industry as a whole, and we’re all very fortunate to be a part of something so great. Kyle and Art will be forever remembered in the racing community.

I’ll pass things along to Bolton. We’re up, up and away here in Minneapolis. Next stop, Portland.

@JaredBolton:

With the summer break now officially in full swing, it seems like things are staying a little quiet in the off-road world. Maybe, a little too quiet. Alright, so I might have exaggerated a little bit right there but things are a little quiet at the moment. Of course, that’s to be expected. It’s been wide-open since the season started and things have even been a little crazier, with a pretty close championship battle on the bike side as we head into summer break, to guys who switched brands in the middle of the season, there’s no doubt it’s been pretty interesting so far.

I don’t discuss the quad side very often because, well, Rodney has you guys on lock! His information on the quads is almost always more insightful that what I may have, and I won’t “steal” any of his content each week. However, I still enjoy seeing the great racing that these guys put on each week. Being out there and moving from spot to spot catching some of the action on one of the RacerTV cameras allows me to see a lot of the action, and it seems like every race has some sort of great (dare I say, epic?) battle throughout the race.

Now, that’s the kind of racing everyone likes to see. When you’ve got the top five to seven guys all within a couple of seconds of each other for the majority of a two-hour race, that’s pretty impressive. Throw in the fact that a lot of time Chris Borich pulls his patented “strike late” move, and that provides some pretty great entertainment. Now, what’s my point here? Well, simply that it’s cool to be able to think about the racing action and realize just how competitive, entertaining and simply awesome it really is.

Summer break can do that to you, it can get you thinking about all the racing you’ve done and seen so far this year and make you think of ways to improve when we return at Unadilla in September. That’s pretty much the number one goal of everyone out there, is to improve when we return, even if they’ve had a stellar season thus far. If there’s one thing that’s true about us racers, is that it’s never good enough and you’re constantly wanting to better yourself. That’s something else that makes the racing world, be it off-road, motocross, TT, Flat Track, Road Racing or anything, so great. There’s always that desire to succeed.

Now, with summer break comes a slump in racing. Many take some time off to take vacations, maybe even to simply heal wounds be it, physical or mental. However, there’s always racing to be done and this is when we’ll see some more of a resurgence of info coming from the local races. There’s also a round of the National Enduro Series happening next weekend in
Pennsylvania. Steward Baylor still holds the points lead in that series and if he can put in some solid rides in the final rounds, he should be able to take the championship.

I’m pretty sure nobody has ever won a National Enduro title that young, and if he can hold on to claim his second XC2 title in the same year, that would be a pretty impressive feat. Nobody has won a National Enduro and GNCC overall title in the same year, and while that won’t really happen this year, an XC2 title along with the National Enduro title would still be a piece of history.

Well, I’m going to wrap it up here this week. I’m going to attempt to head out to the NCHSA race in Taylorsville, North Carolina this weekend if the rain doesn't cancel it for the second week in a row. I’m working on finding a bike to actually race, which sounds like a pretty fun way to spend my first weekend at home since Easter. Anyway, until next time, Bolt-On out.

@HotRodney22:

Week 2 of the 2012 GNCC Summer Break and it has been a welcome relief from the heat aspect but the racing sure is missed. However, there have been lots of things going on to keep one busy in this off-season. This is a time to heal, regroup, refocus, reenergize, rethink, relive and relax. But it doesn’t appear that many of us are slowing down too much.

I did somehow sneak another weekend off before the grind of all the next few months gets underway for me. I am actually headed to my local Jackson County Ohio Fair for Appalachian Enduro Riders Endurocross tonight at 7 p.m. It is the first time I believe Endurocross has been there and I am amped up to see how the local boys step up to the challenge of such an event. I haven’t heard names for sure but with a $2000.00 Pro purse I expect to see some of the local GNCC and Enduro boys out giving it a try.

I spoke with Brian Wolf yesterday and it appears that the hotspot right now is ”˜Jamboree In The Hills” for a number of the GNCC Racin’ Nation. I won’t tell on anyone here but it sounds like a few are having a good time.

If you have been paying any attention to Facebook you may have noticed that Thad Duvall has been rather busy fishing as of late. He caught another monster and is even rumored to have himself a two-stroke on the way. It makes me wonder too. The fish by the way was a 57-pound carp taken bow fishing.

This week on Quad Radio I spoke with AMA Pro ATVMX point leader and he stated that once his season was over that he wanted to get together with Johnny Gallagher and a few of the GNCC boys to do some training and practice for a possible attempt at GNCC. Chad said it wasn’t 100% all things will work out but that he talked to Joe Borich about it at Unadilla ATVMX last weekend and he is excited about the idea. I asked Wienen which GNCC he thought would fit in his schedule and he said “Gotta be the Ironman!”Â

Walker Fowler is gearing up for a big night at his Columbiana County Fair. It appears he is busy building a Demolition Derby car. He has a Chevy Cavalier RS Wagon, which he has affectionately named “R.E.O. Speedwagon” in the Compact Class.

Kailub Russell, Charlie Mullins and Layne Michael have been busy training this past week. They have been cross training at the lake on Jet Skis and I for one think that is a brilliant idea. Sounds like a good way to cross train for announcers. Now all I have to do is come up with a Jet Ski, a lake and oh yeah”¦time.

I was searching for Taylor Kiser on Twitter to see what he is up to and found a guy with the same name. So I suppose our TK doesn’t have an account or I can’t search right. Someone tell Taylor we want to know when he walks outside and when he rides his road bike and such. Step up to the 21st buddy. I for one would love to know what’s going on. Come to think of it, Chris Borich needs one too. I am just sayin’.

GNCCers Paul Whibley, Stu Baylor, Jason Raines, Ryan Belue, Randy Hawkins, Adam Anderson and Corey Macdonald competed in a Tri-Athlon this past Saturday at Furman University. I am not sure how they finished, but they did all finish. What’s amazing is that Paul finished 28th out of around 400 entries and then went out and raced the next day. I don’t know what force drives this man but Whibs has to be in the best shape of his life right now.

That’s about all I have from my self-appointed vacation from things for a few days. Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs.