Weekly Updates (Chelsea Taylor)

Well the time is finally here and we are ready for a great race at Ironman this weekend. Jared will have a course preview below, but I’ve got all the details you need for the special activities this weekend. Gates will open starting on Friday and if you were selected for the preferred parking lottery make sure to print off your email and show it to the front gate attendant. They will call for security to take you to your spot to get parked. You can check the winner’s list HERE.

Saturday is jam-packed with special activities. Fantic Bicycles will be on site near the front gate with a demo course set up. Make sure to stop by and check out their line of pedal assist bikes. I think they are also offering a special discount if you’re interested in buying a bike so stop by and see Stefy with Fantic Bicycles.

Loft Powersports will also be on hand at this weekend raffling off tickets to win the fully restored one of a kind Loft Powersports 1989 Honda TRX250r. The Loft Powersports will be donating $1000 to the Susan G. Komen foundation to benefit cancer research. The raffle will start tomorrow Friday, October 27 where you will be able to purchase your tickets at the Loft Powersports tent! The raffle will run until all slots are filled, followed by a live raffle selection, ideally all slots will be filled by end of race weekend! There will be 250 Slots to be filled - $25 per slot.

Before the world’s top-talented ATV riders fire up their motors on Saturday, race fans will be treated to a special national anthem presentation from the Montgomery County United Marching Band. The band consists of members from three different local high schools – Crawfordsville, Southmont and North Montgomery. We are excited to have the band and their director, Brian Bartlett, treat us on Saturday!

The GNCC Trick-or-Treat will take place on Saturday from 5-6 p.m. with the Team Faith Costume Contest following at 6 p.m. Team Faith chapel service is at 7 p.m. with live music kicking off at 9 p.m. A mechanical bull and beer tent will accompany JJ Lawhorn’s show. We will also be auctioning off the pink backdrop during the show. Just like previous years, each race winner will autograph the backdrop and donations will be added to the MCFC fundraiser. 

Zakowski Motor Sports will be there this weekend with their annual breast cancer awareness fundraiser with an all-new 2017 T-shirt design, along with previous years designs. The t-shirts are $10 with 100% of funds being donated to various breast cancer foundations, one of which is MCFC. Aside from the new shirt design they will also have hoodies and a large assortment of miscellaneous “pink” items. For the first time ever, they will be selling limited edition autographed pink Walker Fowler Racing t-shirts as well. Walker’s t-shirts will sell for $20 each which all proceeds going to the Zakowski fundraising effort.

Please note that spectating is not allowed inside the motocross track this weekend. We released the competition bulletin regarding that earlier this week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but feel as if it’s the best bet for the safety of our racers and fans!

MX vs ATV Alive will be giving out their new game, All Out, to each class winner in both Youth races. Yamaha will also be contributing to the breast cancer fundraising efforts and will donate $50 for each Yamaha class win and $100 for each Yamaha championship. Overall, we are expecting a large sum of money to present on Sunday’s 1 p.m. start to the Montgomery County Free Clinic!

After a great first run at Powerline Park, we are pleased to welcome back Steve Hatch to the TV booth on Sunday. Steve brought some awesome insight to the last show and we are looking forward to ending our season on a high note. Also, we will continue streaming the Racer TV broadcast to Facebook Live for ATVs, UTV and bikes.

Last but not least, we are ecstatic to announce that the Ironman NBCSN show will feature the WXC ATV class! With the race being “pink” for breast cancer awareness and the championship so close, it only makes since to feature the awesome ladies. The show will air on December 10 at 5 pm.

Safe travels to Ironman and pack warm clothes!

Rappin' For Rodney (Jared Bolton)

Each week in Quick Fill this is the section where Rodney typically gets you hyped for the upcoming weekend of racing, or the previous weekend of racing by talking about the various happenings and other things that have been taking place in the world of GNCC Racing. Well, Rodney is swamped this week with regular life and trying to get things ready for this weekend, so we’ll give him a break and I’ll try my best to fill “Rappin’ Rodney’s” spot this week. 

There’s a bit of excitement surrounding this weekend’s Ironman GNCC. Obviously it’s a huge event with lots of fans, lots of racers, lots of vendors and loads of good times. However, the main reason we’re all here is for the racing and this year’s Ironman very well could produce some of the best racing we’ve seen in a long time and it could be great racing all across the board from Youth to Pro.

Saturday’s 4x4 Pro race has potential to be a great one, as these guys will ultimately be looking to end the season on a high note. The championship already belongs to Indiana’s own Kevin Cunningham, but he’s got some stiff competition that will be looking to claim their own win before the season comes to a close. Kevin Trantham has had a pretty good 2017 season and sits second in the 4x4 Pro points with one win and eight additional podium finishes. Bryan Buckhannon has two wins of his own and five more podium finishes, thus making these two the biggest threat to Cunningham claiming a win in his home state. However, Cunningham has proved to be the man to beat and a season ending win in his home state would be a great way to cap off an excellent season.

There is also Walker Fowler’s chance to further his single season wins record. He’s already broken the record held by Chris Borich and Kailub Russell, and a twelfth win would make that record even harder to beat. However, he still could have his work cut out for him as guys like Adam McGill and Brycen Neal will be hungry to claim their own wins, and don’t count out Chris Borich. His last win came at Ironman in 2014 and he’s definitely hungry for another. There’s still one more you can’t count out and that’s the man who has claimed the past two Ironman wins, Jarrod McClure. It could be a heck of a race Saturday, don’t miss it!

Sunday has history making potential as well as Kailub Russell will be looking to break Scott Summers’ all-time bike wins record. After his Powerline Park win, he sits tied with Summers and an Ironman win would set him as the GNCC bike rider with the most wins. Of course, Kailub has his work cut out for him as well. We’ve seen a number of guys riding very strong this year and Ironman will also mark the return of Thad Duvall to GNCC Racing after suffering an injury at the ISDE. 

This could make for a great race on Sunday as there’s a number of guys looking to end the season on top. Ricky Russell claimed his first-ever GNCC win earlier this year, as did Steward and Grant Baylor as well as Ryan Sipes. That makes four first-time winners in 2017 and there’s a few other guys who will be hungry for wins of their own, including former GNCC champ, Josh Strang who has had a pretty tough 2017 season. When you factor all of this in, the Ironman has huge potential to produce one of the tightest races we’ve ever seen.

One rider who will not be lining up Sunday will be Chris Bach. Yesterday Chris announced his retirement from professional GNCC Racing and also stated that he will not be contesting the Ironman GNCC due to some lingering injuries. Chris has seen a stellar professional career, starting with a strong rookie XC1 season in 2010 claiming five podium finishes that season. Additionally, Chris’ 2013 season was one of the most impressive overall performances in recent memory. While he only landed a couple of podiums, he was a consistent top five threat and finished the season third overall on a completely privateer effort. 

Naturally, everyone at GNCC Racing would like to thank Chris for his years of racing and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors. 

Update, Update From the Woods of Ironman! (Jared Bolton)

This year’s Ironman GNCC course is shaping up to be one of the best ever, and hopefully it produces some of that excellent racing I was just talking about. The thing about Ironman is, it really has something for everyone. There are hills, there are fast cornfield sections, there’s motocross, there’s rocks in some areas, there’s tight woods, there’s open woods and there’s even a little sand if you know where to find it. There’s a reason so many people turnout to race it, and the cold hard fact is, it’s a lot of fun to ride. 

This year the course will be running the same direction to ensure that we’re going to correct direction on the motocross track, but a lot of the woods portions are hooked together a bit different and make for a great course. The start is in the same place, so when you take off from there you’ve got a short woods section that will thin you out a little bit before you head onto the motocross track. You’ll exit the motocross just before the tower, and cross the back of the motocross pro pits. From there, you’ve got a mix of woods and trackside pitting over to the one-mile mark into some slightly tight woods. That brings you to a short field section and over to some good flowing woods, back into the field, and back to some nice flowing woods again to the two-mile mark. 

After the two, you’ve got a grass field section to a little creek crossing before you head back across the back of the motocross pro pits and into some open woods to the three-mile mark. The ATV racers will have an option at the three to either go up a hill or up a ravine. This would be a good place to walk, because it’s not clear if one is faster than the other, so pick your lines carefully! That brings you through a mix of open and tight stuff to some little up and downs to the four-mile mark. It’s opens up a little from there before you drop into a section of tighter woods to the five-mile mark. 

It’s a mix again of tight trail, open trail, flowing trail and a few little up and down hills to the six-mile mark. Past that, there’s a couple of little technical sections with some up and downs and tight trail that brings you to the creek crossing and Ironman Hill. At the top of Ironman Hill, you’ll pass the seven-mile mark and into some more flowing trail to a big cornfield crossing and some tight woods to the eight-mile mark. Beyond the eight, you’ll run along the side of the creek to a field section, and cross under the bridge to the nine-mile mark. 

From the nine to the ten-mile mark is a bit more open and at the ten, you pop out into the big cornfield section. It’s loads of fun and has a couple of turns that are big sweepers that you can go as fast (or as slow) as you want. That brings you around to the FMF Powerpoint behind Pro Pits and to the eleven-mile mark before you run the second section of cornfield. After that, you drop into the woods and run out the bottom to Twin Hills, then back to the motocross track and over to the finish.

Overall, it’s going to be around 12.5 miles for the 1PM ATVs and is arguably one of the best Ironman courses we’ve ever had. The 10AM ATV race will be just a hair shorter, right around the 10.5 mile mark and the 10AM bike race will have a couple of extra sections that will make them just around 11 miles, while the 1PM Bikes will run those 10AM Bike sections and a couple extra, which will put them just over 13 miles! Don’t’ miss out, this is going to be a great weekend!

Industry News

Twin Air 2018 Model Year Products Now Available

With the GNCC season finale upon us, so too are new offerings for the 2018 Model Year; Twin Air already has new product designs for models such as the KTM SX85, Suzuki RMZ450 and Yamaha YZ450F, many of which will available at the Ironman GNCC!

As always, Twin Air Race Support will be set up on vendor row with our usual wide selection of products for dirt bikes, ATV’s and UTV’s at our unbeatable track-side discount. Take advantage of this opportunity to stock up on Pre-Oiled Air Filters, Filter Maintenance Kits and other related accessories!

Mad Moose Media Official Event Photographer at Ironman GNCC

Mad Moose Media has been named the official event photographer for the final round of the 2017 GNCC Series at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, IN. The event is scheduled for October 28^th-29^th 2017.

Mad Moose is excited to be participating in this year’s event. Mad Moose Media’s motto is “Capturing your Moment” and strives to provide the all riders with professional quality photos and posters. We have a photo studio that is fully equipped with high end cameras, computers, and printers, enabling us to handle everything from capturing the highest quality image to printing eye catching pictures.

Get ready for the off season with Cometic Gasket!

With the final round of GNCC approaching and the 2017 race season coming to an end, rebuild season begins! Cometic Gasket has a top and bottom end gasket kit for your bike or ATV. Each kit will include all necessary gaskets, seals and o-rings to rebuild your engine. Cometic Gasket offers a comprehensive list of gaskets in all thicknesses, bore sizes, and materials. Family owned and operated since 1989, Cometic Gasket offers the highest quality gaskets for your bike or ATV. All Cometic products are made in the United States with materials manufactured on American soil.

Come See Trailers of the East Coast at Ironman GNCC!

Hinson Racing at Ironman GNCC

Hinson Racing is pleased to announce that we will be in attendance at the final round of racing at Ironman MX. This is a great racetrack to end what has been a great season of GNCC Racing for Hinson, while also supporting such a great cause of breast cancer awareness. We will be setup on vendor row so come by and see us with any of your clutch needs. Also be sure to talk to us about our 2018 rider support program. Look forward to seeing everyone at the race!