Somerset Comes Just as Summer Ends (Chelsea Taylor)

Unadilla has come and gone, and now we are fully focused on heading to Somerset this weekend! Although, don’t let the name trick you… I don’t think we are heading to a “summery” destination this weekend, because we’re definitely in for our first taste of fall. Although we still have Hurricane Joaquin to remind us that summer isn’t quite over. But I think the windmills are on our side this weekend and will help blow the storm away from us.

At the last round, Walker Fowler said he suspected that Mountain Ridge would be dusty again this year, but with the predicted forecast we won’t have to worry about any clogged air filters. Just yesterday the track crew was hard at work laying out the course for this weekend, and Barry Hawk reported that the rain has, if anything, helped the track since we haven’t had much rain for the past month. Plus, every now and then we need a challenging race to see who has more than just speed.

Bolt-On talks more about this later, but I just wanted to take a second and brag on how awesome the DC Vet Homecoming race was last weekend! Although you see us working the races every weekend, majority of us still sneak in some ride time when we can. So last weekend we all packed up and headed out to High Point Raceway. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to work with people that are just as passionate about something as you are! If you didn’t go last weekend, then you definitely missed out! 

Whos Next? (Jared Bolton)

After Josh Strang’s Unadilla win, thus becoming on the 3^rd different rider to claim an overall win in 2015, many have been left wondering who the next rider to claim a win will be. Obviously a big favorite is that of Ryan Sipes, who has been on fire recently claiming the ISDE overall win, 3^rd at Unadilla, and a win at last weekend’s Black Coal National Enduro. There’s no doubt that Sipes has figured out the off-road racing game, but still has yet to claim a GNCC overall win. That all could change this weekend as Sipes comes in fresh off the enduro win last weekend and hungry for his first GNCC win.

Of course, you can’t forget Thad Duvall. While Thad has been struck by some tough luck at Big Buck and Tomahawk, he’s ultimately had his best season to date by consistently staying inside the top 5, including a pair of 2^nd place finishes before and after summer break. Thad also seems to do well in the rocky, technical conditions that Mountain Ridge will present, so is career win number 3 on the horizon for Thad?

Grant Baylor currently sits 2^nd overall in the GNCC point standings, which theoretically makes him the number 1 pick to claim the next win. However, a tough race at Unadilla left Grant with a 9^th place overall finish. Every season it seems like Grant tends to hit a small slump at some point in the year, but hopefully for Grant, it stays away this season. There’s no doubt that Grant has the ability to lead races, but it’s been since 2011 with Kailub Russell’s Powerline Park win that we’ve seen an XC1 rookie claim a win in their first season, but Grant very well could break the streak!

Before Strang’s Unadilla win, the only other rider to claim a win against Kailub Russell this season was Chris Bach. After being a podium contender since making the move to XC1 in 2010, Bach finally broke through to claim his first-ever GNCC overall win at the Tomahawk GNCC. It was a no-excuse day as Russell struggled with bike set up and Bach was able to capitalize to claim the win. With a trip to Japan on the horizon to contest the final round of JNCC in November, Chris will definitely want to make the trip with an extra win under his belt!

Of course, the thing to remember about GNCC Racing is anything can happen! These aren’t the only riders who could step up to become the next overall win. With a number of riders anxious to prove themselves before the end of the season, anything can happen!

Predictably Unpredictable (Rodney Tomblin)

The 2015 Mountain Ridge GNCC will be the seventh running of the event at this facility since it's inception in 2007. There were a couple years we were absent from the facility and over the course of time we have seen a number of changes occur. The history of the race may be as unpredictable as any GNCC event. It's characteristically rocky terrain lends itself to a special kind of off-road racer that generally seems to excel here. It is fairly old school GNCC type terrain that many of the old schoolers love this place.   

If you look back through the history of this event there are some rather interesting things that have happened here in the past. Barry Hawk won the inaugural Mountain Ridge race in 2007 on the bike side of things while Chris Borich won here first on four wheels. Those things themselves are not so surprising given the time frame and all but when you look at past results spread out it appears to be on of the most diverse results history of nearly any event we run.

The same year Barry won on bikes, David Knight literally had to push his bike for nearly a mile to finish the race and receive no points on the day, but gained a whole lot of respect from many individuals. If memory serves me, Barry was on point that day as Jimmy Jarrett, who grew up in the old school days, was not a huge surprise for second but the third place sand rider Garret Edmiston was a bit of a shock.

The XC1 Pro bikes have seen five different winners with only one rider winning it twice. Charlie Mullins won in ’10 and ’11. Hawk has a win here as well as Knighter, Strang, and Kailub Russell. There is a chance after this years race we could see a second multi-time winner here if Josh Strang can pull out a second win for the season. Josh actually will be the only rider able to do this as he will likely be the only rider competing that has ever won here.

As far as ATV racing here at Mountain Ridge goes the early days were rather predictable as to who would win. Chris Borich was a total dominating force since the beginning. Even though Bill Balance would win tittles the first two years Borich was able to always beat the old champ here on his home stomping grounds.

The unpredictable aspects of the four-wheel racing came in the runner up spots. Chris Bithell finished second behind Borich while Bill Ballance finished third. Balance never really seemed to well here at all as that was his best finish here. The second year saw Brandon Sommers and Matt Smiley both old schoolers so to speak taking runner up spots and the third year was Adam McGill and Sommers behind Borich. Then came Taylor Kiser and McGill running behind Borich and it wasn't until 2011 when Brian Wolf took the win and stopped Chris Borich's domination in the rocks of Mountain Ridge.

Interestingly Chris Borich has finished fifth the last two times here. Adam McGill also shares an interesting statistic here, he has been on the podium four times here and even though he has yet to win here, has been on the podium as many times as Chris Borich. This is also the most any of any riders bike or quad.

To say who will be the dominating riders this weekend is going to be tough for either discipline. Kailub Russell is apparently out for the season now and has wrapped up the championship. Many of riders now feel more capable of winning than ever before and that should elevate the completion level for the bikes this weekend. Josh Strang, Thad DuVall, Ryan Sipes, Chris Bach and more are all going to feel they can make this happen and each are going to give their all.

The four wheeled racing on Saturday though may once again steal the show. With big swing in points to Walker Fowler's favor the attention will be on the championship battle between the two. McGill could certainly use a win here to bring things closer together and his experience here may be his strength. Fowler’s strength will come for last year’s win here. The big thing for this battle may be the spoilers though. Chris Borich still searches for his first win this season while Jarrod McClure is only one race off the big win at Snowshoe before sip umber break, The “Cobra” may be ready to strike again. Plus, never count out the PA native himself of Chris Bithell who is closer here than anyone. Talk about racing in your back door, Chris Bithell may have an advantage. Especially since this is his last competitive XC1 season before retiring.

Surprises could be many this weekend and as far as trying to predict this one, it's like predicting the weather. Bring your umbrella, all your rain gear and your sunglasses. Who knows what this weekend has in store weather wise or racing wise. I predict the something big.

DC Vet Homecoming Was a Blast! (Jared Bolton)

Last weekend’s DC Vet Homecoming at High Point Raceway was big fun for everyone who came out and raced! It seemed like just about everyone from the Racer Productions office also came out to ride for Saturday’s GP Moto-X Country. Chelsea, Lindsey from Rider Registration, sisters Jessica Coombs and Melanie Marra all represented the girls, while the marketing guys Nick Koester and Derek Garcia as well as Jordan Roberts and Andrew Fredrickson from Racer X, Mike Holbert from RacerTV and of course Sweepmaster Tommy Harris and Barry Hawk himself all came out to race.

I stepped up to call myself “designated pro sweep rider” and ended up riding about 22 laps total, which was around 48.5 miles. That doesn’t really sound like a whole lot, but considering I’ve only ridden a motorcycle about 4 times in the past 6 months, and had to use Trail Boss Jeff Russell’s bike since I currently don’t have a bike of my own, it ended up being a tall order. Barry Hawk raced 3 different classes, which coupled with practice gave him 20 laps total. Barry and I might still be sore this time next week.

Obviously Barry was the favorite, claiming the win in all 3 classes he raced but there was no shortage of talent as Ryan Lojak and Alex Teagarden (who’s fresh off an injury) joined in on all the fun as well. Sunday’s motocross was blast too as there was a good mix of Vet class racing, Vintage classes, plus some support classes for younger riders. I’m sure everyone can attest to the fact that the whole event was a lot of fun and anyone who stayed home definitely missed out!