Weekly Updates (Chelsea Taylor)

As I sit here and starting writing Quick Fill I’m taken back by the fact that this week marks exactly one year since I moved to West Virginia and accepted the offer for my first professional job. It amazes me how much can change in the course of one year. Prior to this job I had very limited knowledge of GNCC Racing, but the GNCC family and staff instantly took me right in and became some of my best friends. So I just wanted to say thank you all for making my job the best job there is!

Just a reminder that registration for the ISDE Gold Tournament Fundraiser at the Raven Golf Club Course is still OPEN! Grab some of your closest buddies and get signed up today! There will be special activities taking place throughout the day, with plenty of opportunity for a little more friendly competition! Contests include: longest drive and closest to the pin for both men and women, a putting contest, and opportunities to win big with a hole-in-one. KTM has teamed up with the cause once again to create a “Hole-in-One Challenge” so that if a player gets a hole-in-one on the drive for the designated hole, he or she will be the proud winner of a 2016 KTM 450 XC-F motorcycle. All golfers must bring their own clubs. If you need to rent clubs they will be available for a $20 rental fee at registration. All players must wear the appropriate golf attire. All proceeds will go toward funding the transportation for the ISDE trophy team’s trip to Spain.

Did you graduate this year from elementary school, middle school, high school, college or a technical institution? If so you’re invited to the Snowshoe Graduation Commencement on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the podium in the village plaza. Simply fill out this form to register and you will receive a commemorative Class of 2016 key chain. Make sure to come decked out in your cap and gown!

If you’ve been on the fence about racing Snowshoe check out these cool trophies because we think they may just make your decision a little easier. They will be given to each class winner and are reminiscent of the Big Bear trophies of the early 1980s. A local company, Westerwald Pottery, in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania created these special mugs by hand just for us!

Chuck Lemaster with Team Faith will be conducting chapel service at Snowshoe at 7 p.m. at his tent, and right after chapel service will be the Davisson Brothers band in the village at 7:30 p.m. We’ll have more updates regarding Snowshoe next week!

This Saturday, June 18, is the 40th Annual High Point National. I highly recommend taking a break from riding and coming out to see the show if you’re local to the area! You can purchase tickets online or at the front gate. I’ll be manning the VIP tent for the Super Pass holders so I personally recommend those tickets! We’ve got a jam-packed weekend schedule including amateur racing, DJ Elo and of course the pit party! 

It’s Heating Back Up! (Jared Bolton)

After an eventful final lap at the Tomahawk GNCC, the battle for the 2016 GNCC National Championship has heated back up once again. Kailub Russell has been a master of claiming five consecutive wins, but consecutive win number six continues to elude the three-time champ. Once again, Kailub had claimed five consecutive wins prior to the Tomahawk GNCC, and while putting on a last lap charge to catch Josh Strang, who had controlled the entire race, it looked as if win number six was becoming a possibility.

Then the seemingly unthinkable would happen. On the final lap, while battling for the lead, Russell would take a wide line around a lapped rider, and then he and Strang would try to occupy the same place at the same time. The two would end up going down with Russell’s bike suffering the worst of the incident. Both riders were unscathed, but a hard hit to Russell’s machine would leave it mangled and ultimately a broken fuel pump would end his day early.

Unfortunately for Kailub, this would take him out of the top 20 overall for the day, giving him zero championship points for Tomahawk. On the bright side, Kailub had established a strong enough lead that Strang’s overall win would only leave Strang with a one-point lead over Russell heading into round nine. So now, we’re essentially back to square one in the battle for this championship and with five rounds remaining, this means we could see one of the best championship battles this series has ever seen. Both of these competitors know what it takes to claim GNCC National Championships and both are hungry for the 2016 championship.

The other interesting thing is that both of these riders have found success in these final five rounds. Strang and Russell both have previously claimed wins of their own at Snowshoe, Unadilla, Powerline Park and Ironman. While Strang has never claimed a Mountaineer Run win, he has landed on the podium in his two appearances at the event (Strang missed the 2012 and 2015 Mountaineer Run events). With this kind of success from both of these riders, anything can happen and neither rider will back down in their pursuit of the championship.

Sit back and enjoy the show because this has the potential to be one of the tightest championship battles GNCC Racing has ever seen. If these two riders begin to swap wins, the battle for the championship could come down to Ironman, and very well could even come down to the final lap of the race. It wouldn’t be the first time a championship has came down to the wire like this, and it won’t be the last. Best of luck to both of these guys, because it’s not going to be easy for either of them! 

The Turning Point? (Rodney Tomblin)

The Dunlop Tomahawk GNCC may go down in history as one of the most mystical events the tour has seen and in its short time, may gain lore similar to that of the Steele Creek GNCC that nearly always seems to bring about some sort of surprise. While Bolt-On has already discussed the surprise in the bike ranks, the battle in the ATV XC1 championship may not have been quite as surprising but it could showed that taking Walker Fowler’s second championship may be harder than originally appeared with Adam McGill’s three race win streak. Walker actually got his big break at the John Penton when McGill suffered his issues and lost several points, which gave Fowler the breathing room he needs heading into the break. If Fowler can maintain his control after Snowshoe, it will make the final four rounds and championship number two a lot easier.

The biggest factor for this year championships may be the approaching Snowshoe GNCC. This past weekend there was a feeling that something big was going to happen. Then on Sunday there seemed to be an oddness looming in the air, essentially signaling that it was not your typical day of GNCC Racing. In the end, it was obvious that may have been but with the unpredictability of “America’s New Toughest Race” no one really can predict what will happen next.

As far as whom Snowshoe favors, it is honestly hard to say. The key players in our battles all have their Snowshoe stories. Some are good and some are not so good. The ATVs may lean toward McGill and a win here could put him back on the track that he needs to set him up for the final four round battle. You can’t count out Fowler here as his skills are as honed as anyone. The key for these two will not only be speed, but knowing when you need to push and when you need to take it easy as adrenaline can be your friend or foe, and each turn holds something new and different. 

As far as this ATV match up goes, both Fowler and McGill have wins here but McGill has two and to his favor he is the only natural born West Virginian to win the event and he is always the heavy fan favorite. The heat will be on for him to perform here and if he can get a break similar to what we saw happen in New York for the bikes then we may have a brand new battle form for the masses to enjoy in the homestretch.

Another factor to point out which may be a long shot but it comes in the form of the former champ Chris Borich. It has been 21 races since he has seen a win and putting it into perspective; that is nearly one third the total number of wins that Borich has to his credit. He has only one overall win here but has crossed the finish line three times with the physical lead being beaten twice on time adjustment by Brian Wolf in 2009 and 2010 who won from the XC2 Pro Am class. So, in theory, this could be a good place for Borich to turn things around and get pointed in the right direction. It’s a long shot but if it’s going to happen it has to happen somewhere and why not at the celebration of The Blackwater 100, the race that began it all? It was the race that was a true turning point in American off-road racing history why wouldn’t it be the turning point for one of its greatest champions?