by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, March 15, 2018 | 7:40 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
Wow, that was a tough one. Every year when we head to Florida, we know that we’re in for miles and miles of rugged terrain and some challenging sand whoops. While it definitely gets rougher as the weekend rolls on, riding in the sand is a real treat for a lot of folks. Some may not enjoy it too much, but others like feeling as if you’re riding on a beach, so there’s no doubt that the Wild Boar course was a fun one even when it got tough.
Now we put Florida in the rear view mirror and move a few hours north as we return to Aonia Pass MX for the first time since 2015 for The General GNCC. We called The General home in Georgia for a number of years, and now we’re glad to be back. However, there have been some changes and it almost feels like a whole new place. A few weeks ago I gave a few early details on what to expect here, but we’ll revisit those as you head to Georgia.
The biggest change you’ll notice is the facility layout. The start, finish, pro pits, vendors, registration and a good chunk of parking will now be located on the side of the property where the motocross track is located. The other side of the property, where we last based everything out of, has seen a big piece of the fields converted to farm use. However, there’s still a lot of parking and trackside pitting on this side as well. We realize it’s a little bit of a hike from one side to the other, but both have their advantages and wherever you end up parked at will still present a fun weekend.
It’s actually kind of funny how things have come full circle. When we first came to The General in 2003, the facility layout was pretty similar to what we have this year. The start was actually in the exact same location as it is now. When you couple this with the fact that later this season we return to Mathews Farms and High Point Raceway for the Mason-Dixon GNCC, then it’s actually pretty interesting to see things bearing some similarities to the early 2000s.
While we’re on the subject, looking back through the archives you’ll also see that we actually ran the original Palatka, Florida event (then located just a mile or so up the road from the Wild Boar) and The General back to back exactly like we are this year. Our inaugural winners at The General were Bill Ballance on the ATV side while Mike Lafferty came on strong to win the bike race. While both of these guys are retired from racing these days, it would actually be pretty cool to see them come back and race. So Bill and Mike, if you’re reading this and can make some last minute plans, come on down and ride because it feels like 2003 all over again here!
That’s it for the intro this week. Unfortunately we’re going to be a little on the short side this week as we’re extremely busy getting everything ready to roll for this weekend, but come back next week and we’ll discuss the previous two rounds! Enjoy!
The General GNCC Track Info
Now we move onto the part that many of you check Quick Fill for each week; info on the course layout. Well, we figured since we’ve got a similar facility layout to the old days, we should try to get a track as close as possible to some of the early 2000s tracks. While it’s not exactly doable these days due to larger numbers of riders and the fact that new sections of trail are difficult to find here, I feel like we’ve gotten pretty close. There’s nothing overly technical on this year’s General GNCC course, we’ve found some fun spots that will slow you down and even have a few small areas of new trail, plus several bike-only sections for Sunday. Overall, this is going to be a pretty cool course and we’re excited to get everyone out on the track.
When you take off from the start, you’ll hit the woods just a bit before the one-mile mark. There’s some more open trail here that gets into some medium speed-stuff a little way into it that will help thin you out some from the start. After the one-mile mark, you’ll come onto the mulch piles we’ve ran here in the past, then out to a little section of fast trail before dropping into a brand new section that will be pretty tight for the quads and a little on the tight side for the bikes.
That brings you by the motocross track and into some faster trail to the two-mile mark. Just beyond the two, you’ve got a really nice mix of some medium speed trail and some tighter spots to keep the speed down just a bit. That takes you to a shorter tight section past the three-mile mark before heading back to the motocross track just before the four-mile mark. The 10AM races will skip this bottom section of the motocross track while the 1PM races will run a quick section of motocross before hitting some open trail that brings you to the other side of the property and the five-mile mark.
There will be some faster sections and tighter sections mixed together once again that bring you out to the six-mile mark. Just past the six, you’ll hit a section that will be pretty tight for the quads and a little more medium-speed for the bikes. That takes you to some flowing trail over to the seven-mile mark where you’ve got a couple of little fast sections over to the eight-mile mark.
Beyond the eight, you’ll have some trail that zigzags back and forth a bit before crossing back over a big field and back towards the side of the property you started on. You’ll come into some grass track sections at the nine-mile mark that takes you to some fast sections all the way to the ten-mile mark. The 1PM races will then hit another short section of the motocross track before heading back to the woods at the eleven-mile mark and out to the Monster Mile.
You’ll pop out of the woods and run through this big area where they dumped a bunch of piles of dirt. You’ll go down one side of those piles, and then back up the other to the twelve-mile mark, then you’ll go back through the piles again before dropping back into the woods and essentially head straight to the motocross track and into the finish, where you’ll hit 13 miles on the dot! We didn’t do that by design, it just happened to work out that way, which is pretty unique.
From there, you’ll hit a couple of jumps on the motocross track, then into a section of grass track that brings you back to the start. Overall, this is a really fun course and a lot of it feels a lot different than it did when we visited here previously. It definitely has a little bit of something for everyone with its mix of fast and tight sections, so hopefully everyone really enjoys the track this weekend. So if you’re on the fence, hop off and get ready to race. We’ll see you out on the trail!
The General GNCC T-Shirt Preview!
Week after week, one of the most exciting parts of visiting a GNCC event is stopping by the MotoTees trailer and seeing the event t-shirts. For this round, Chris Borich will be featured on the ATV shirt and Grant Baylor is on the bike shirt. If you think these preview images look nice, wait until you see them in person! The folks at MotoTees have been doing a great job this year on making some really nice looking event tees, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings.
GNCC Live on RacerTV.com
Don't miss the online coverage from The Maxxis General, round 3 of the AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series, an AMA National Championship this Saturday, March 17, at 1 p.m. and Sunday, March 18 at 1 p.m. EST on RacerTV.com.
Saturday, March 17
ATV Racing
Online: 1 p.m. EST, www.RacerTV.com (LIVE)
Sunday, March 18
Bike Racing
Online: 1 p.m. EST, www.RacerTV.com (LIVE)