by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, November 30, 2017 | 5:20 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
Thanksgiving has come and gone as we press through the final portions of 2017. We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and no matter if you got in some weekend riding or stayed away from your machines all together, there’s no doubt that everyone involved in the world of GNCC Racing in any aspect has a lot to be thankful for. It’s easy to get caught up in life, let the little issues bother us and forget to take a few moments to remain thankful but just remember, even if you’re able to simply sit there and read this right now, you definitely have a lot to be thankful for.
The focus now turns to this weekend’s GNCC Night of Champions as we honor our champions and top finishers in the ATV, UTV and Bike ranks. This is always a great celebration of a great year and in many ways is almost like a 14th round of GNCC Racing. If you’re making it this weekend, we’re looking forward to seeing you! If you’re not making it, well, you don’t have to miss out! , Racer TV will be live streaming the banquet both Friday and Saturday night.
We are working on the seating chart, which will be posted on the website when it’s finished. If you’re planning on racing next season and would like to participate in the riders meetings at the banquet, the times are as follows:
- Pro ATV: 2 p.m., Friday, Dec. 1
- Amateur ATV: 9 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 2
- Youth ATV: 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 2
- UTV: 11 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 2
- Pro Bike: 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2
- Amateur Bike: 9 a.m., Sunday Dec. 3
- Youth Bike: 10 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 3
That’s it for the intro this week. Enjoy the Quick Fill goodies!
Looking Back on 2017 Part Five (Jared Bolton)
Continuing with our off-season series of a recap from the past season, we’ll pick up where we left off and take a look at a couple more rounds. After a tough and muddy X Factor GNCC, we had a couple of weeks off before heading to Odessa, New York for the Tomahawk GNCC, and it would prove to be a pretty good weekend of racing!
Saturday’s ATV race would end up finally being one of the close races we had waited to see all season. The theme of 2017 for the ATVs seemed to be that Walker Fowler would jump out early and control the race, while others would settle to battle for podium spots behind him. At Tomahawk, Adam McGill must have said “enough of that!” and put a charge on! McGill would be all the way back in sixth place on the opening lap, but he put his head down and began to charge.
He would begin to challenge Walker Fowler, closing up his lead to less than one second when the white flag flew. The final lap would see the duo of Fowler and McGill close together all the way around the course but Fowler was able to pull away in the closing portions and come away with the win by just five seconds. McGill would end the day in second place, while Chris Borich controlled the third place spot wire to wire to round out the podium.
On the bike side, things would once again be a little mixed up from what we had come to expect in the opening rounds. Ryan Sipes would jump out and lead the early portions of the race. On lap three, Kailub Russell would take over the lead but mechanical issues on lap four would see him drop all the way back to fifth. However, the man on the charge that day would be Thad Duvall. Thad was as far back as ninth place on the opening lap and came up to fourth, then third and then into the lead on lap four. It would be smooth sailing from there for Thad as he held on to take the win ahead of early leader Ryan Sipes in second, while Steward Baylor would round out the podium in third.
In the XC2 ranks, it would be the Josh Toth show, as he would finally lead wire to wire for the win. Most of Toth’s wins were come from behind performances, but that day it was all Toth. Jesse Groemm would be in podium contention early, but a few issues would drop him back. Layne Michael would hang tough to take second while Ben Kelley worked his way through the pack, coming all the way from tenth, to round out the podium in third. As for the XC3 guys, Jason Thomas would once again take the win ahead of Hunter Neuwirth and Mark Heresco in second and third, respectively.
Keep on reading to pick up with part six as we head to one of the toughest events around, with the Snowshoe GNCC!
Weekly Updates (Chelsea Taylor)
This week has been full of big announcements whether it be ATV, UTV or bike related. I think it was a big surprise to see Landon Wolfe line up on the first row of the 10 a.m. race instead of the 1 p.m. race at Ironman, but after his big 4x4 Pro win there was a lot of speculation if Landon would officially make the change in classes. Well earlier this week, Derisi Racing posted a press release that confirmed Landon will officially be on a Factory BRP Can-Am machine for the 2018 season. We’ve seen Walker Fowler switch it up and race UTVs and Cody Miller move from ATVMX to 4x4 Pro and now UTV racing, but Landon is the first to elect to move from the XC1 Pro class to 4x4 Pro. The two-time class champion, Kevin Cunningham, had a mechanical issue at Ironman so it will be exciting to see how Kevin and Landon match up come round one.
Josh Toth will defend his XC2 title, but on an orange bike this coming year. Just yesterday, FMF/KTM Factory Racing released their 2018 lineup. Kailub Russell will be returning to defend his GNCC title, but will also try his bid against some of the best west coast riders in the AMA Big 6 Grand Prix Series. Josh is the newest addition to the team and will also be contesting the AMA National Enduro Series. Josh is familiar with the orange machines as he was part of the Trail Jesters crew for the first part of the 2016 season, so while there will be a bit of a learning curve coming off the Yamaha, he will surely pick things up quick and be a tough competitor in his bid for a second XC2 title.
Walker Fowler and Cody Miller were inducted into the 2017 Yamaha Wall of Champions earlier this week at the Kennesaw, Georgia Yamaha office. This is Walker’s third induction and Cody’s second. There were a total of ten inductees, two of which were our very own GNCC racers. How cool is that?!
Congratulations to Chris Borich for placing third at the PA vs NJ 90cc Shootout (aka the biggest pit quad national at Nick Gennusa’s house)! It was hilarious to see the friendly competition between the ATVMX and GNCC pros leading up to the event on social media, and we know you’ll get em’ next year Chris!
Looking Back on 2017 Part Six (Jared Bolton)
After an eventful Tomahawk GNCC, the series would roll into the picturesque Snowshoe Mountain Resort for the Snowshoe GNCC and boy was it one to remember. We had some discussion earlier in the year about running the course back down to the Silver Creek area at Snowshoe, which hadn’t been done in quite some time. The reasoning behind this is to prevent any sort of environmental impact on Slide Run Creek, which runs into Shaver Fork of the Cheat and eventually to the Cheat River.
This year we devised a plan that would allow us to miss that creek crossing. This started out good but unfortunately for the bike races, some areas became impassible and required a couple of re-routes that proved to not be very popular. It wasn’t ideal but I can assure you guys that you would’ve been even more upset had we left the course the way it was. Hopefully we have some changes in mind for 2018 that will fix this.
Saturday’s ATV race would stick with the theme that we had seen for the majority of 2017. Walker Fowler controlled the entire race, leading wire to wire for the overall win. The surprise came out of part-timer Kevin Yoho would come out of “semi-retirement” to claim second place while Chris Borich would finish the day in third. Brycen Neal would hang tough to finish fourth while another part-timer and previous Snowshoe winner, Brian Wolf would round out the top five.
It was ultimately a Snowshoe that Adam McGill would like to forget. McGill holds the most wins on the mountain, but the past two years the mountain has won against McGill. This was a tough one for McGill as he ran into issues early and finished outside the top 10.
On the bike side, things would be mixed up once again. Trevor Bollinger would lead the opening lap before Ricky Russell would take the lead on lap two. Lap three would see Kailub Russell take over the lead before Ricky Russell would come back on lap four. There was another lead change on lap five when Thad Duvall took the lead, but then Ricky Russell would take the lead back and hold on to claim his first-ever GNCC overall win. Thad Duvall would take second in XC1 and Kailub Russell would in up third in XC1.
However, while these guys were duking it out, it was actually XC2 leader Josh Toth who was attempting to play spoiler and not only claim the XC2 win, but also the overall win as well. Ricky Russell would finish far enough ahead to secure the overall but Toth would land on the overall podium in second and claim the XC2 class win as well. That means Duvall and Kailub Russell actually finished third and fourth overall, respectively. Coastal teammates Layne Michel and Craig Delong would round out the XC2 podium after both would charge through the XC2 pack throughout the race.
In the XC3 class, it was a similar story to the previous round as Jason Thomas would claim the win yet again with Hunter Neuwirth in second but third would go to “DQ” David Quillen, who strives in the tough conditions and had claimed an XC3 podium at the X-Factor.
Tune in again next week as we continue the saga of the 2017 season. There’s no doubt it was one of the best seasons we’ve seen in quite some time and things continue to get exciting from here. Don’t miss out!