by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, August 24, 2017 | 3:25 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
The summer break is winding down and we’re now just over two weeks away from returning to GNCC Racing at Unadilla. There’s a lot of excitement building and it seems like the majority of the GNCC Racing Nation is ready to get back at it. Of course, there’s a lot happening between now and then and we’ll fill you in on those things coming up a little later in this week’s edition of Quick Fill.
Outside of the general excitement building around the return to racing, things have been a little quiet on the GNCC front. There’s a number of guys out taking part in other races and as a matter of fact, Thad Duvall came away with another National Enduro win last weekend in Indiana with Russell Bobbit and Grant Baylor rounding out the podium in second and third, respectively. Also impressive is the fact that Bobbitt came away with second place just one second ahead of Grant! Great job guys.
Things are a little hectic this week as we prepare for Pro Motocross to invade Ironman Raceway this weekend. That’s right, this weekend will see the fourth annual Ironman National and we hope to see a lot of familiar GNCC faces in the crowd! It’s not too late to get tickets and you can even show up the day of the race and get tickets at the track as well, so if you’re looking for a great show this weekend, come on out to Ironman!
You can also take part in some of the amateur racing taking place both Friday and Sunday. While there’s no woods involved, it could help give you an edge on the motocross portion of the Ironman GNCC course later this fall. It doesn’t matter if you want to come watch the top Pro Motocross stars, or come race all weekend, this is a fantastic weekend and is also the final round of the 2017 Pro Motocross season. If you haven’t been paying attention, the championship in the 450 class is coming down to this final round at Ironman so it very well could make for a great race this weekend. Don’t miss out!
Weekly Updates (Chelsea Taylor)
There’s been a lot going on in the GNCC community these past few weeks. Of course the ISDE is about to kick off, but I’ll let Bolton expand on that since he’s much more knowledgeable about it than I am! It seems as if our pro racers are all over the globe. Ricky Russell just got back from Japan where he took part in the first ever JNCC 8-hour team race. Ricky battled back-and-forth with Takeshi but came out with the win in the end. N-Fab/AmPro Yamaha team owner, Randy Hawkins came out and joined the fun as well.
Walker Fowler, Johnny Gallagher and Mark Notman teamed up for Heartland Challenge race and took the overall win for Team Yamaha. Walker also raced his UTV and took second overall and first in the 1000cc division. We also had Team UXC Racing top the charts in the 4x4 Pro class.
Brycen Neal and Jarrod McClure are currently in France to compete in the Pont-de-Vaux race. Five-time ATVMX champion Chad Wienen is also racing it as well. A few weeks ago Cole Richardson told me he was released for light riding, and I just saw this weekend that he competed in a local CRA race and took the overall win there. From the looks of social media, Cole has been putting in extra work off the quad so hopefully we can see him back in action at Unadilla fighting for a podium finish.
Perhaps the biggest update this week is the announcement of Thad Duvall continuing his contract with the Rockstar Energy Factory Husqvarna team for the next two years. Since I’ve been around GNCC, Thad has been a frontrunner, but since joining the team this year he’s overall improved as a rider not only in GNCC but also other series where he just won the sixth NEPG round. With four rounds remaining this year, Thad is in an excellent position to dethrone Kailub and become the next National Champion. Knowing that Thad will be around for at least the next two seasons makes me even more excited for the next chapter of GNCC Racing!
The second annual 1Six Foundation Golf Outing is this Saturday, August 26, at the Village Green Golf Club in Hickory, Pennsylvania. Registration is open now, and that same link is where you can purchase other goodies like hats and t-shirts if you’d like to support the foundation but can’t go to the golf outing. The 1Six Foundation was created in Ty Kesten’s memory and has been making big strides in the local community where Ty was from and also in the racing industry. It will be a great weekend to connect with old friends and make new ones, all while helping out a good cause!
The Snowshoe highlight show also airs this Saturday at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. This show is dedicated to the 1 p.m. pro bikes featuring Ricky Russell with his first-ever overall GNCC win.
That’s all for me this week, I’m currently on the road to Ironman Raceway for the final Pro Motocross round of the season. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, we’d love to see you out there. Not only will it be cool to see the 450cc championship come down to the season finale, but FIM MX2 World Champion Jeffrey Herlings is also slated to race the 450 class. Hope to see you there!
Summer Break Blues (Rodney Tomblin)
Wow! Where has this summer gone? The entire staff has been busy with a number of projects and honestly the rescheduled date for John Penton has thrown my entire game off for the entire summer. However, one may think that now we can slow down and relax but the answer to that is, “not going to happen!” as we had Budds Creek in Maryland last weekend then Ironman MX in Indiana this weekend so there is no slowing down for the team. Am I making excuses? Yes I am! But come on folks hopefully you understand and don’t hold it against the team. That’s why we all get paid the big bucks and live in the lap of luxury. HA!
On a personal note, I have been gone so much that my lawn has been mowed once this summer. I think I got to it around the fourth of July actually. I even came home to a water leak that had been going for days and used over 21,000 gallons of water. Needless to say that is a huge bill that I will be taking a loan out on. I still have about 20 acres to brush hog and have no idea when I will get to that. It looks like a fall project now I suppose. I did go kayaking a couple of times though. I couldn’t help it, I really needed to get away from everything and I did for two days. No cell phone service, no internet and no one to bother me about anything. It was the best two days I have had in a long, long time.
Now as far as GNCC goes I really am at a loss for words right now. WhenI last checked things were so off the path I figured I would focus in other directions. To tell the truth, I still haven’t been able to focus on GNCC. I’m thinking Pro Motocross right now and the GNCC world is still buried deep in the recesses of my race brain computer. It will start to warm up soon but right now I just hope everyone finds a little peace with what time we have left and can charge the batteries for the final four round push for the championships.
The buzz right now is Adam “Gator” McGill and Justin “Billy Goat” Wood were in Las Vegas last week to race the famous desert run from Reno to Vegas. I saw he had teamed up with Factory Kymco for the ride and this should yield some interesting stuff. If you follow Adam’s social media then you know he has been quite busy stirring the pot some this summer and has been more than willing to let us following along in some of his antics. The fact that Adam is teaming up with Kymco lends one to wonder if maybe he might have something in the works for the future. Will Adam McGill be the rider that brings the brand to the forefront in GNCC and challenge Walker Fowler for the title? Likely not but it was fun to write that and wonder how many people started believing there may be an underlying story developing. Or maybe there is?! I am not at liberty to say is all I can tell you.
The 2017 ATV Motocross National Championship wrapped up its season a couple of weekends ago at Loretta Lynn’s. There is a new champion in Joel Hetrick and Honda has won its first national ATV title since 2007. The new champion is something big in the ATVMX world. Chad Wienen has all but dominated the racing for the past six seasons. Chad only lost by 11 points to Hetrick so the fight was tight till the end. Next season will be equally as exciting as we all know Chad will be back with a vengeance to reclaim what he feels belongs to him.
In the meantime of the ATVMX offseason, the top three riders from this past season are all teaming up to go to Italy in late September to race their equivalent of the Motocross Des Nations, known as Quadcross of Nations. The event will mark the first time the USA will send a team to compete on the world stage. Even though we are known as the best in the world the team will try to prove that against all odds in a foreign land, on foreign soils against foreign riders. The odds really are stacked against them for the first time. They have no idea what to expect but have been working closely with the bike side of things to try and familiarize themselves with the certain obstacles and struggles they will face.
That’ll do it for me for now. Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs.
ISDE Starts Monday! (Jared Bolton)
It seems as if this event has crept up on everyone but the International Six Days Enduro kicks off on Monday! Most everyone should already know that USA enters this year’s event as the defending World Trophy Champions. This is huge as last year was the US ISDE Team’s first time claiming the World Trophy thus making them the favorite heading into this year.
As it has been the past few years, the US teams are full of GNCC talent including Kailub Russell, Thad Duvall and Ryan Sipes on the World Trophy Team with west coast superstar, Taylor Robert. The Junior Trophy team consists of Grant Baylor, Layne Michael and Josh Toth. Both the World and Junior Trophy teams are strong and have a good shot at their respective titles. However, with six days of racing, its extremely important that each rider stay focused on not only putting in solid times but also making sure they keep their machine in good condition to last through six days of racing.
While individual honors are also a big part of the event, it truly is a team event and the prestige follows the team honors. These guys who are typically competitors are now teammates and must work together to put in the most solid days of racing they can. The biggest thing about the ISDE is that it’s not always about strictly having the absolutely fastest guys, but a big part of it is having guys who will ride smart, keep their machines together and finish. Like the old saying goes; to finish first you must first finish!
While the USA came together last year to claim their first World Trophy title and come into this year’s event as the favorites, it’s not a time to get cocky. There are plenty of other countries looking to step up and make their mark in the ISDE, so the US riders have to play it smart on top of being fast. The good news is that the French terrain is very similar to what we have here on the east coast of the USA, so in many ways they will feel right at home. At the same time, the European riders are known to be extremely fast in the short sprint-style format that the ISDE consists of, so a win is not going to come very easy.
As usual, we’ll be monitoring the live results throughout the week and will be sure to keep the GNCC Racing Nation updated via social media. So make sure you’re following GNCC Racing on your favorite social media outlet! Stay tuned, it’s going to be good!
Ironman Pro Motocross National News!
Cruising up to the Christi Hubler Chevrolet Ironman National, not far from the motorsports mecca of Indianapolis, Indiana, you’ll see picturesque views of small town America. The late summer date produces porch weather, and that draws all the locals, who marvel at the professional cavalcade that has rolled into their town. You get a sense that this race offers up everything you want in a big-time motocross race….well, except one thing. Check out more on the event page located online at www.mxsportsproracing.com.
Check out Amateur Racing going on Friday and Sunday, as well as the Pike Bike National going on Friday evening!