Welcome to Quick Fill.

I want to apologize for missing the mark on last week’s column. Let’s just say we took Thanksgiving off in terms of Quick Fill, but we certainly didn’t have the week off from covering races. Last week the RacerTV.com crew headed down to Gainesville, Florida for the 42^nd Annual Thor Winter Olympics (aka: Mini O’s) to try our hand at broadcasting live coverage of amateur motocross. It was a change of pace from the GNCC’s for sure, but we had a successful week with the show and garnered some more practice for next season. We saw several familiar faces of sponsors, racers and industry people and it was a good opportunity to catch up with everyone in the off-season.

Since we haven’t officially met up since before the banquet, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out for an evening of celebration. It was also a fun weekend to get together with the GNCC family and let loose a little bit. The Photo Booth seemed to have been a big hit again this year – for adults and kids alike. We posted all the prints on Facebook so don’t forget to tag yourself and all your friends. You can even download the photos off the page and print them for yourself. Click HERE to see a rundown of all the Specialty Award winners from the 2013 Awards Banquet.

Saturday and Sunday morning following each banquet, we conducted our annual rules meetings where we invite anyone to sit in on an open discussion regarding the rules for 2014. There wasn’t a huge amount of change discussed, but I think a few major points were talked about on both the ATV and bike side. For those of you who were there, I’m sure you’re wondering when you’ll see a drafted set of rules and the answer is I don’t know. We’re still compiling all the ideas and proposals and we plan to have a meeting as soon as possible to get a tentative set of rules drafted up. From there, we’ll post it on the website for one week to get any additional feedback and then they turn to stone. So keep an eye for that, we’re hoping to have something for you folks here soon.

Speaking of new things, we’re heading to an all-new location for the season opener in Florida this year. I haven’t seen the property yet but I can tell you I’m super excited to be only 30 miles from Daytona this year, especially since our company is pulling double duty between the SX and GNCC all weekend long. While we’re going to miss River Ranch and everything it has to offer, we’re excited to make the move to a new location at the Mud Muckers facility. You can check out their website HERE. As most of you may know, we’ve been throwing around the idea of making the Florida trip a two-day event, instead of four as it’s been in the past. I reached out to our GNCC Racer email list to get opinions on the format and an overwhelming number of people responded back in favor of a two-day event. We did announce back in October that the opener would take place on March 8 and 9 (Saturday and Sunday) but since then, the Alligator Enduro announced a change in their traditional schedule as well, moving their race from Thursday to Sunday. With that, we’re working with the Alligator Enduro folks to come up with a schedule that works for both of us. Most likely you can plan for a two-day event over the weekend this year, but don’t quote me just yet.

Also, since we’re so close to the speedway this year, we’re looking into chartering a couple busses to take GNCC Racers and their families over to watch the Daytona Supercross and back. That would be a pretty sweet deal to caravan over to the speedway – I mean, the adults could enjoy adult beverages without worrying about how they’re getting back to the track. It’s a win-win, really. Stay tuned for details.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear the news about Michael Swift and Team UXC Racing making the switch to Polaris for 2014. Swift has been with Can-Am for what seems like forever now and it’s a bit of a shocker to see him on a color other than yellow, but after talking with him this morning I think it’s going to be a great move on his part. We all know Polaris is a MAJOR seller of off-road vehicles and snowmobiles and we’ve definitely seen their commitment to the Side-by-Side market with the success of the RZR with Scott Kiger and William Yokley over the years. But the fact that Polaris is now putting factory efforts into 4x4 racing is pretty huge, especially with a top rider like Swift. It’s been great to see how much Can-Am has grown the sport of 4x4 racing but they’ve become so dominant in the major classes that we haven’t seen any kind of factory competition. For more information on Team UXC Racing’s new endeavor, click HERE.

Things have been pretty quiet on the social media forefront, so I’m taking that as most racers are enjoying time with their friends and families before the holidays. This is usually the calm before the storm as a good majority of people seem to head south just after the New Year. If you have any news you’d like to share with the GNCC Racin’ Nation, please don’t hesitate to email one of us and we’d be glad to help out!

Here’s @JaredBolton:

Now that the banquet has come and gone, I feel like we can finally close the book of the 2013 GNCC Racing season. What a heck of a year it was, too, with some incredible racing throughout the ATV, UTV, and bike ranks. From the Micros to the Pros, it was definitely one of the best and most interesting GNCC seasons of all time. Of course, now we have 2014 to look forward to, and with a few changes in the schedule, it should make things that much more interesting.

Speaking of the 2014 season, KTM announced their 2014 Factory Off-Road team yesterday. Returning to the team to contest the 2014 GNCC Racing season are the likes of Kailub Russell, Charlie Mullins and Steward Baylor. No real surprise there. It was announced a while back that Mike Lafferty would return to the KTM team for his 20^th and final season racing the National Enduro series, alongside Mullins and Baylor, while Ivan Ramirez will be contesting Baja and other events out west. Then there are the new additions to the team: Kacy Martinez will take over as the Factory Women’s class rider and Taylor Robert will head up KTM’s Endurocross effort and also look for him to be a strong contender at the ISDE as well.

Now, that leaves a few questions up in the air. What about the Factory Husqvarna team? Well, since the KTM team is finalized, I’d expect to see something soon from Husky. Obviously Mike Brown’s absence from the KTM team is a good indication that we’ll see him on the Husky alongside Andrew Delong and Russell Bobbitt. That’s still the word going around. However, I’ve still been hearing about a fourth Husky rider, but nobody seems to know who it’s going to be.

I had kind of heard a little rumbling of Nick Fahringer getting the fourth Husky spot, but it also sounds like he’s sticking with the AirGroup Radiant team. It had also sounded like that team would be riding Sherco’s but I’ve also heard some talk of them riding Husky. Speaking of Sherco, it originally sounded like Cory Buttrick was a done deal with Sherco but it came out recently that Cory will be contesting the National Enduro series aboard a Factory Beta 2-stroke effort, and select GNCC’s aboard a Beta 350. Pretty interesting but regardless, it’s cool to see Cory back.

It won’t be long before we see everyone getting into the swing of these new rides, and there will definitely be some stacked pre-season races coming up as well. This weekend plays host to the final SETRA hare scramble before it goes on a “holiday break” with the legendary Little Brown Jug, this time in Marietta, South Carolina. If you’re interested in doing some racing this weekend, www.setra.org will get you the info.

Then of course, I’ve mentioned it before but once again I’ll be putting on the Zoo City GP in Asheboro, NC on January 4. It’s a 2-moto format, with classes for everyone. I’m also working on finding some backers to sweeten the Pro purse a little and I also just added a Pro 125 class, which will have 100% payback. I’m working on gathering up some items to giveaway at the end of the race as well. I’ll have all the info up soon, so stay tuned. Unfortunately, I’m unable to work ATV’s into the schedule for this race but we do have a 1-hour UTV race at the end of the day. If you’re interested in sponsoring the event (cash, raffle items, giveaways, etc) just drop me a line at [email protected] and I’ll get you set up. Realistically, I want this race to be one that people can come out to, have fun racing, watch some great racing, spend some time together during the off-season, win some cool prizes, and go home happy no matter what the outcome of the race itself was.

I don’t have very many details, but last weekend SETRA hosted the Battery Park Hare Scramble in South Carolina. Apparently Steward Baylor came away with the overall win, but that’s about all I know about the race other than the fact that the riders seemed to enjoy the course.

Well, that’s all I have for this week. Until next time, Bolt-On out! 

Take it away, @HotRodney22:

There is something about this off-season for some reason doesn’t seem like it will be dragging on like it has in seasons past. Why? I really don’t know but it already seems to be flying by at Mach speed. It seems like we just finished racing and already we have had the banquet, Thanksgiving and now smack dab in the middle of Ohio gun deer season. If you are from anywhere near here then you know it is more sacred than any holiday and probably has developed even more traditions than a number of holidays.

Speaking of holidays, I had the opportunity to spend my Thanksgiving with my Racer TV family. We spent the week at Gatorback Cycle Park near Gainesville, Florida for the 42^nd annual THOR Winter Olympics. I can say there is nothing like looking over the feast that has been prepared to see someone like Jared Bolton staring back at you. I am sure it would be a welcome sight for his moms or pops but not so much so for me. However, the bright spot was that the lovely Jen Kenyon was there to balance things out.

In all seriousness though I must say it was not an ideal way to spend Thanksgiving but ultimately it was a good Thanksgiving. I feel it surely showed the heart and determination of our crew to make things work and to try and step to newer and greater levels. I feel that what was learned alone that week from a technical standpoint of Racer TV will elevate GNCC coverage next season. It really takes a special type of person to actually throw years of family tradition out the window to pack up and work during a time that is normally slated for fun, rest, food and lots of family. If the passion expelled last week alone is any indication, RacerTV.com will certainly be a huge success. Thanks to everyone working last week and taking the time out of what little life you have left to help push things forward with this new racing network. They are Jen Kenyon, Griffin Cotter, Jeremy Saylor, Dan Reinhart, Gloop Mahey, Jared Bolton, Sean Hackley (that squeaky voiced MX kid from the Disney Channel), Uncle Dave (Jen’s Uncle), Cousin Nick (Jen’s cousin), Surfer Dude Jason Frazee and Tim Cotter. It was truly a good and memorable experience.

While at the Mini O’s this year I did run into or saw a number the GNCC Racin’ nation out and about. Digital Dave from Race Day Pix was there for his 12^th straight time and will probably need to rest his picture finger for a while. He took so many shots that poor ole Heather is still trying to see the light of day that a memory card isn’t transferring with all kinds of great photos that have yet to be seen. The cool thing is that he did that all GNCC season too so if you are looking for some last minute Christmas ideas, head on over to Racedaypix.com and sort through your photos and get those orders in. I think he can do nearly anything to a photo you want done. They can even do life size cutouts of your rider. Be sure and ask them about it.

Early in the week I ran into the multi-talented Aaron Plessinger. Aaron was not racing last week but was running around still reeling in the huge success of the 2013. If you remember, Aaron race only a couple of GNCCs but was a huge threat each time and totally dominated in his MX racing at all the Amateur National events. That’s the way Aaron! I can’t wait till he shifts his sights back on GNCC. That will make for an interesting battle for the championships when he does. I can almost see another level raised in competition when that happens too.

I also ran into former 200A fast guy Tyson Ezell. Tyson is still working with his dad at now the Mid West’s largest KTM dealers. Pro Action KTM was on hand as was Tyson who told me he really misses the GNCC but with as successful as things are at home it is hard to get away. When I first saw him he was there to watch, then later in the week he said he had his bike and was racing MX. I am not sure how he did but it was good to see him and his family again after so long.

Another familiar face was Josh Cartwright. Josh spent a little time in the woods a few years back but is now just terrorizing the motocross. Josh had an awesome SX run and also fared well in the MX. Josh also says he misses the woods some and that we may see him back out on occasion to keep his skills honed dodging trees.

I am sure there were more, but the week was so jammed packed for me that I think I am forgetting about 80% of what really happened. All I know is that I started talking on the PA before 7:00am each morning and didn’t stop talking till well after dark each day. It was like two jobs in one for me this year with Racer TV there but I can honestly say it was the best Thanksgiving for me in a long time. You see I normally don’t get to spend it with my family so to have part of my GNCC family there made it so much easier to be Thankful.

I guess maybe I should say thanks to all the GNCC Nation at this time. I thank you all for the great memories you have given me over the past year as well as past years I have been doing this. It seems we really never know where life is going to take us and I never expected it to take me to the places it has so far. The experiences that have blessed me I could have never imagined just as I cannot imagine what blessings the future holds now. As I always like to say, “Time will write that story. And time will tell that tale.”

That’s it for now. Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs.