Information Pertaining to GNCC Riders Meetings

In preparation for the 2015 racing season, GNCC has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for class structure and supplemental rules. All series participants and interested parties are welcome to submit proposals via email from now until Friday, Nov. 21.

Additionally, in conjunction with the upcoming 2014 GNCC Awards Banquet, to be held Nov. 21 and 22 at the Waterfront Hotel in Morgantown, West Virginia, a series of Riders Meetings will be conducted to discuss series issues, including proposed class structure and supplemental rules. All riders and crewmembers are invited to attend. Meetings will take place within the Waterfront Hotel Convention Center.

Friday	3 p.m.	ATV Pro Riders Meeting
Saturday	8:30 a.m.	ATV Amateur Riders Meeting
	10 a.m.	ATV Youth Riders Meeting
	11 a.m.	Side-by-Side Riders Meeting
Saturday	3 p.m.	Bike Pro Riders Meeting
Sunday	8:30 a.m.	Bike Amateur Riders Meeting
	10 a.m.	Bike Youth Riders Meeting

I’ve had several requests for the official 2015 GNCC Schedule, which should be ready to go by next week. There will be a couple minor changes for next season but for the most part, you can expect the typical GNCC schedule that many folks have come to enjoy. I know you’re all anxious to get the dates and venues but hold tight it won’t be much longer!

47th Tecate-SCORE Baja 1000 (Jen Ken)

Today kicked off the 47th running of the Tecate-SCORE Baja 1000. This year’s legendary desert classic, the final event of the 2014 SCORE World Desert Championship, is being held in Mexico on a brutally-rugged race-record 1,275-mile SCORE signature desert race course.

Motorcycles and ATVs will begin their journey starting at 6 a.m. (PT) Thursday and after a break of five and one-half hours, the cars and trucks will start receiving the green flag at 12:30 p.m. (PT).47th Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 includes 104 racers who have combined for 318 class wins in the Granddaddy of All Desert Races.

With the rugged course traveling on both sides of the peninsula, the world’s most famous desert race will be a peninsula run, starting in Ensenada, Baja California Norte and finishing in La Paz, Baja California Sur. With 10 checkpoints along the way, it is the longest course in race history for the race when it starts in Ensenada and finishes in La Paz. This is the 40th time the iconic race has started in Ensenada and 20th time it will finish in La Paz.

While the fastest vehicles in the elapsed-time race are expected to complete the course in approximately 24 hours, the time limit to become an official finisher in the prestigious race is 49 hours.

GNCC's very own Team UXC Racing squad will be competing in the Sportsman Quad division as #140A. With Don Higbee at the helm, Team UXC will also include Michael Swift, Chris Robinson, Michael Burrows, Chris Ralph and Jason Wade. I caught the start of the race earlier today on their video feed, where Don Higbee does a quick interview on camera, which was cool! You can follow along at http://score-international.com/. At 347 miles in, the guys are running second in their class. So please say a prayer and cheer those guys on as they attempt to capture the win in the desert!

USA Junior Team Makes It Happen! (Jared Bolton)

Last week I broke down how the ISDE had been going for the US Junior team up until Thursday morning. Well, that still left a few days of racing and in case you hadn’t heard, they pulled it off! The team of Grant Baylor, Steward Baylor, Trevor Bollinger and Justin Jones finished out the week as strong as they started it and were able to come away with the win.

I had also mentioned the historical significance of this because the junior team has only ever claimed 2 previous wins, with the last coming in 2006. It was also a very fitting win as Kurt Caselli was a member of the previous winning junior team, and we’re approaching the 1-year anniversary of his passing. The win was a great way to honor his memory, and the junior team members realized that.

All of these riders put in solid test times all week and their key was consistency, paired with a little luck keeping their machines together throughout the week. Any ISDE is tough on any machine, but this year’s ISDE was extra tough thanks to the extreme dusty conditions at times.

Regardless, these guys made it happen and I have to give a shout out to all of them because they definitely had some stiff competition. So kudos guys, now take some time to relax.

Silly Season Isn’t So Silly… (Jared Bolton)

Typically by this point in the year, we’re hearing all sorts of silly season rumors flying all around. But here’s what is funny, it’s pretty quiet right now! Now there are a couple of obvious things. KTM announced their 2015 off-road team a while back and absent from that is the likes of Steward Baylor. The word floating around is that Stu is looking at putting together his own program for 2015. Obviously it’s not an easy task but that’s exactly what Josh Strang did for 2013, and paired up for a little extra help from the AmPro folks in 2014.

There was also a post on KTMTalk where someone had said they had been told that Grant Baylor is making the switch to the N-Fab AmPro Yamaha team for 2015. That’s not a very far-fetched possibility with Paul Whibley heading back to New Zealand in 2015; however, I haven’t heard that from a close source. There was also some talk a while back about the possibility of Josh Strang landing with the Factory Husqvarna team, which was brought back up when it was mentioned that Russell Bobbitt returns to the Factory KTM team in 2015. 

Now bear in mind that NONE of these rumors have come from anyone close to the situation, but rather just from casual conversation with several different people. Whether there’s truth to them, or it’s just some of those things that get started for sheer interest and fun, I don’t know. I do know, we’re getting close to hearing some solid info soon and maybe see some PR’s announcing 2015 lineups.

Another Storm Brewing (Rodney Tomblin)

Coming off one of the most incredible seasons in history, GNCC Racing is unarguably reached a new hay day in both the ATV and motorcycle side off-road racing world. The “stars of tomorrow” are starting to find their places in the ranks of legends. As this new wave of talent begins to filter in, finding the radar can be a hard task. It doesn’t matter if you are a seasoned veteran or an up-and-coming threat, finding exactly what it takes to make things happen race after race becomes more of a challenge. It also could hide some storms that may be brewing and one could be a “Nor’easter” coming back around with a vengeance to re-stake his claim as one of ATV racing’s premier riders in the world. The storm I refer to is the now #7 XC1 Pro ATV GNCC star of Chris Bithell.

It was 8 seasons ago the rider we have come to know as the #4 Chris Bithell began his path to be a living GNCC legend. Chris began his pro career in 2007 on a Honda backed by LTE Racing (Looney Tuned Exhaust). Chris was then fortunate enough the following year to be a part of the huge factory efforts that Can-Am BRP put into their then new off-road program. Chris was the first to ever win on a Can-Am DS 450 and was part of a major money program helping develop a competitive machine. One may say he gained a lot over the course of the five-year span by doing so, but remember gains do not come without sacrifice.

Chris rode the program throughout its entirety and found himself a few seasons back without a ride when the program shifted focus. He literally had to start from the grass roots. It wasn’t a bad place for him to be though as he had maintained a very grassroots approach to his factory position. He may have been pitting out of a tractor and trailer but in his mind it was the bed of his pick up and it kept him real through all the highs and lows.

This past season Chris Bithell slipped from the #4 that we have all come to know him as, and will know be the #7 in 2015. Chris told me about this season and said, “I was [either] top 4 or I broke down. I had 5 DNFs and you can’t win like that.”  He was obviously frustrated, but remarkably calm about things as the seasons end approached and it left a lot to wonder. You could still see the fire in his eyes and you could hear it in his voice, but the consistency that it takes to be a threat wasn’t there. I wondered does this spell the end for the 27-year-old XC1 Pro? If you think “no” think again… This is only the quiet before the storm, 2015 could see something that no one saw coming.

The answer to anyone’s question about Chris Bithell may be a surprise to some but anyone that knows him is going to know that he is not going out like that. There is still plenty of fight and still plenty of support. Chris said that Maxxis Tires have stepped up big time! As well as the other main players in the program that have stuck by Chris in the rebuilding process over the last two seasons, and they will continue their support in the 2015 season. Right now though he is taking a little time to relax, clear his head and get things straight.

Gone Hunting…Be Back for Training Season (Rodney Tomblin)

Deer hunting is something that helps many of us relax and unwind. For XC1 Pro ATV #7 Chris Bithell that is no exception. If you know Chris at all, you know he lives for this time of year. He spends a lot of time out in the woods thinking and stalking his prey.

I saw some posts on Facebook and knew he was busy hunting, so I asked him what was up? He said, “Just working on race quads now, and I tagged two bucks so far this season. I scored a 9-point in Pennsylvania and an 8-point in Ohio,” he added, “I got both of them with a compound bow I got from my sponsor The Sportsman Refuge Bow Shop near Cheat Lake just outside of Morgantown, WV.”

Chris also said that he had one more hunt before focusing all his attention back on the racing scene. He said, “I still have one more hunting trip to go on. I leave soon for a great hunting trip to West Virginia where we lay and party as much as we hunt,” Chris added, “I will be heading south at some point late in January. I don’t have any set plans yet.” Chris also said that he has been busy on the farm wrapping up some projects before winter. He said, “After that I will be heading south to train maybe as hard as I have ever trained because 7^th overall is not even close to where I want to be.”

Zoo City GP This Weekend (Jared Bolton)

Last week I mentioned the GP race I’m putting on. Well, I made the trek back to my home state of North Carolina on Monday and started getting everything set up. Track is looking great! There’s a little over a mile and around a mile of motocross. The woods sections also have a few extreme options (that are optional) throughout including tractor tires and some log sections.

The woods had some dozer work done to them yesterday and we’re fixing up a few more things today, and the moto track will be prepped today and finished up tomorrow, so we’ve got an awesome course together for anyone who wants to come out and race. If you’re not much of a motocrosser, don’t worry, because I jumped everything on the motocross track on my dad’s KTM 530EXC dual sport, with a trials tire.

Big thanks go out to Mike “Lollipop” LaFollette for coming out and running the dozer yesterday. A lot of you southeast racers may know Lollipop and some of you others may have gotten a tow from him in the parking lot when things got a little messy at Steele Creek.

In addition to the race, we’ll also have the raffle benefitting the Kurt Caselli Foundation with some great prizes lined up which you can find a current list of at jaredbolton.com. I’ve got our Online Content Manager, Kayla Olliver coming down to take care of all the raffle duties, so make sure to give her a big thanks when you come buy a ticket. 

You can get all the details on the race, raffle prizes, a track map, and more at www.jaredbolton.com

#ThrowbackThursday (Jared Bolton)

So last week I started some of the awesome Throwback Thursday pictures I’ve found so far in the GNCC archives and I promised some quad pictures. So, here are this week’s entries!

Headlines

Tuesday Toolbox: Kyle Chaney

2014 ISDE Day-by-Day Coverage

Racer X Virtual Trainer on Off-Road Practice Track Training

Did you miss the GNCC Finale at Ironman, or do you just want to watch all the action again? Well, this Sunday at 5:30 PM EST the Ironman GNCC ATV & Bike Highlight Show will be airing on NBC Sports. Be sure to check it out, or set your DVR!

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