So obviously the weather conditions were not ideal and quite a few racers ended up getting stuck in the woods over the course of the weekend. Now, I’ve been broken down in the woods before and I know firsthand how horrible it is, especially when it’s cold and pouring down rain. However, please keep in mind the other side of things. And that’s just how cold and miserable the GNCC track crew is also feeling because the whole weekend was basically them broken down in the woods, except their machines weren’t broken. I say this often but those guys are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met and it’s not an easy task to do what they do on a normal day, not to mention the added element of weather. There were several unhappy campers at the end of the 1 PM race on bike day and again, I feel your pain. It’s not fun to have your rider missing for hours. And riders, it’s not fun being missing for hours but those guys were pulling riders, vehicles and everything else out as fast as they possibly could. There were only so many guys with ATVs capable of towing and only so many more that had to keep doing their routine jobs in order to stay on schedule with the rest of teardown/cleanup and that’s not because they wanted to enjoy a Cinco de Mayo margarita! They had to pack up and head to the next race, whether that be an ATVMX National in Indiana or back home to start setting up for this weekend’s Loretta Lynn’s Area Qualifier at High Point.

Next weekend kicks off the 2013 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Hangtown, which also happens to be Round 6 of the GNCC Series. So unfortunately a handful of our staff will be in Sacaramento instead of Springville, including #gncclive show producer Jeremy Saylor, myself, and Grif Cotter. Due to the amount of people that will be missing from the GNCC, we are not going to have a #gncclive show at Round 6. We apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who won’t be there. We will continue coverage at Round 7 and again, we definitely apologize for that. I think we’re going to stream the GNCC Banquet at the end of the season instead, so we’ll be able to have a little fun with that.

I wanted to give an update on injured XC2 Pro Lites bike rider Mark Heresco who broke his leg and had surgery on his leg Sunday. It sounds like Mark is doing well under the circumstances but the GNCC community is asking for everyone’s help in donating items to raffle off in order to help Mark pay for medical expenses. There will be a raffle next weekend at the Limestone, taking place on Friday evening at the track. There has been tons of support already from the folks on pro row and several riders putting up things like jerseys for the raffle. Check back before next weekend to see a more comprehensive list of items and visit the page on Facebook to find out more information HERE.

We’re getting ready to announce and open up this year’s GNCC University, taking place at Snowshoe June 26-28 just before the Snowshoe GNCC. So be on the lookout for that very soon!

That’s going to do it for me this week. I’ll pass it along to Chuck LeMaster for a couple quick things in the world of Team Faith.

Yes indeed!  That was a muddy weekend! Team Faith Youth had big plans for a Kickball Tournament and cookout.  However, with the rain on Saturday, many parents were questioning whether we would go through with it?!  The answer was, "Yes!"  Kids race in the rain...why not play in it, too?  We quickly renamed the tournament to "Mudball" and about 20 kids met at the starting line to join in.

Steward Baylor kicked things off by offering a $10 contingency to the kid who could do the longest belly slide down the starting line! We split the kids into two teams - Stew Baylor vs. Jordan Ashburn.  They played an evenly matched game and Stew's team ended up victorious by one point!  Kailub Russell and William Yokley joined in - it turned out to be a lot of fun! 

Don't forget that Mother's Day is this weekend!  Team Faith Youth will have something special planned for mothers at the Limestone 100!  

Oh man! I wonder just how much money Stu Baylor gave away through mud involved bets last weekend! Thanks, Chuck. Here’s Bolton.

Here’s @JaredBolton:

I want to start off my Quick Fill contribution this week by saying, wow. If you weren’t at The Mammoth in person, I’m sure that by now you’ve seen how big of a slopfest it was. Actually, I think the term “slopfest” barely even scratches the surface when talking about The Mammoth. I’ve been to a lot of races over the years and been to some pretty bad mudders but I definitely would have to put The Mammoth within my personal top 3, and I’m sure many of you will agree when I say that I’ll probably never forget it.

From a track crew perspective, I don’t believe I’ve ever been that overwhelmed and just plain stressed out about keeping everything moving as much as possible, and I’m just a small piece of the puzzle. It’s hard for me to imagine being in Jeff Russell and Barry Hawk’s shoes in that situation. However, I think we all did the absolute best we could do and while there may have been quite a few riders stuck out on the track for quite a while after the race was over, we still got everyone out.

From a media perspective though, The Mammoth definitely lived up to the pun I mentioned before of it being “epic in mammoth proportions”. The stories of that race will be told for years to come and the footage the RacerTV crews caught is undoubtedly among the best footage captured since the Blackwater days. I actually ended up doing a little multitasking while filming for the GNCC Live Webcast during the ATV race, which I found to be funny. At one point a rider comes up and just gets completely stuck in the ruts. He didn’t do anything wrong, it was just flat out too deep and the quad bottomed out. After watching him struggle for a minute, you see me come out from behind the camera and help pull him out. I guess I didn’t realize that we were on my camera at that particular moment, but going back and seeing it gave me a pretty good laugh.

The thing about mud races is, when it gets that bad it becomes anyone’s ball game. It ends up being all about survival and being able to make it to the end, and a little extra luck, can help give you a solid result. On Sunday, Thad Duvall elected to ride a 250F. It may have been the lighter bike, or it may have just been Thad’s day but regardless he would end up with the win.

Now, the talk surrounding that was, is this the first time a 250F has won the overall at a GNCC? Without doing any in-depth research, I’m about 99% sure that’s correct. I believe Cole Calkins may have been the first guy to race a 250F in the XC1 class, back when it was just the “Pro” class in, I want to say 2005 or 2006. When KTM introduced the 250XC-F in late 2006, Juha Salminen rode it at a couple of rounds after he wrapped up the championship, but if memory serves me correct that was Powerline Park where he finished 5^th and The Ironman where he ended up 4^th.

Going back to The Mammoth though, Josh Strang and Chris Bach were able to survive the muddy conditions to land on the XC1 podium as well. Bach had actually sucked some water into his bike and once everything was taken apart, it was kind of crazy to see that he was able to finish with the condition that motor was in.

The XC2 class also produced a pretty interesting race as Zach Nolan was able to come from behind and make a last lap pass to take the class win over Jason Thomas. Not only would it be Nolan’s first win, but also his first ever XC2 podium. I guess if you’re going to make the podium for the first time, you might as well do it right! Speaking of first timers on the podium, Justin Sode rode to a third place finish and gave Beta it’s first GNCC podium since Chris Bach did it in Florida two years ago.

We also had some top A class riders put in some very impressive overall finishes as Zach Love would finish 8^th place overall with his 250-A class win and Trevor Bollinger took 9^th overall and the 4-Stroke A Lites class win. Bollinger is now 3 for 3 on class wins so far this season, and that’s after he missed the first two rounds!

There’s no doubt that The Mammoth was one of those events that will go down in the history books, and while some may look back and say they’re glad it’s over with, I think deep down you know how much fun it really was… Well, maybe.

That’s going to do it for me this week though. Until next time, Bolt-On out!

And here’s @HotRodney22:

I am not sure if anyone noticed this past weekend at the Rocky Mtn. ATV/MC Mammoth GNCC but it was a “mammoth mudder” to say the least. Yeah it rained….a lot. All kidding aside, it was not the worst I have ever seen it by no stretch of the imagination. It was funny to hear some of the newer attendees asking the question of “Is this the muddiest you have ever seen it?” My answer to that is no, by no means, but again it was a challenge to say the least.

First I want to send a shout out to the track crew for the extraordinary job they did all weekend long. The task at hand was not an easy one because they not only had to deal with the mud but also the rocks and steep terrain of the Park Mammoth Resort. I stood over a conversation Trail Boss Jeff Russell and his second in command Barry Hawk discussing the situation as darkness fell on Saturday after the ATV racing concluded and the trail was swept. They basically stood and rerouted the entire course with an imaginary track map that each knew like the back of their hands. I asked the question, “Will we be able to run tomorrow?” Jeff said, “That’s what we are trying to figure out right now. I think we should be okay.”  Then on Sunday morning the call to combine the morning and afternoon program and the track crew went to work making the new course.

Saturday’s ATV racing was certainly a barnburner. I don’t know how long it has been since I have seen a race with as many moments that had you saying that this is not the ordinary GNCC. It was if the rain inspired the entire field of racers and the playing field was even. The return of Taylor Kiser was nothing less than exciting. Kiser was on track to take the win with a huge lead but conditions created the edge that Chris Borich needed to take his 5^th straight win and win number 64 on the all time wins list which brings him 3 away from tying Bill Balance with the all time ATV wins record and 4 wins away from tying Barry Hawk’s all time wins record bike and ATV combined.

Congratulations to Jeff Pickens for the amazing run he put together on Saturday in the XC1 for 3^rd overall. It was actually his first podium and he made a statement right from the start that he was there to play that day. I remember interviewing Jeff before the race during the ITP Pro Riders Pre Race Interviews and I felt that there was something different in the air. I told Jeff that I felt something big coming and that I would see him on the podium. He told me he would see me there that he felt confident saying, “You are the Profit Rodney. You called it when Johnny got his podium at the General.” We chuckled and I moved on. Then he snagged the Derisi Racing Team Woodhead Hole Shot Award and rode up front in contention all day long. The funny thing is that he could not shake Johnny Gallagher. It’s as if no matter where they run, they race together and are pushing each other to new levels. Way to go boys!
 Then on Sunday for the Afternoon race, it felt again like something new and different loomed in the air. Would there be a different winner up front? Would Rory Mead find the magic he found the year before? Would this be where Whibley got the ball rolling after recent injuries? Would Andrew Delong, Jason Thomas and Grant Baylor have a chance at winning the overall with the conditions like they were? The answer to all those questions and so many more was a resounding “NO!”

The day actually tightened the championship points up a little in the XC1 Pro class and brought two of the three contenders back within reach of the championship after their bad days in North Carolina a few weeks ago. Thad Duvall took advantage of the day and troubles for the KTM crew of Mullins and Russell. Thad actually rode his Honda 250F that he has been doing so well on in the National Enduro Championship. On to of that he has been progressing lately and if consistency is on his side may be a true threat to win the championship this season. Josh Strang also scored some valuable points riding to his second podium of the season and his best finish this season. Chris Bach on the other hand continued his quiet approach to the madness and scored his second podium of the season.

The XC2 Pro Lites class was exciting as Zack Nolan began a charge early in the race several spots down. Nolan admittedly a fond mud rider said that he just kept pushing all day and when he saw Thomas stall it out in a field section he snuck by and never looked back. Thomas said he never even knew Nolan had gotten by but was happy that the day turned out well with a second and nearly took the points lead away from Andrew Delong who is now only two points in the lead of the class. Delong finished 22^nd on the day in the class and lost a whole lot of momentum heading into the halfway point of the season.