by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, May 10, 2018 | 12:25 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
Another week is in the books and it’s time to go GNCC Racing once again. This time we make our first trip to Indiana for the second annual X-Factor Whitetails GNCC. I don’t believe anyone will soon forget last year’s inaugural X-Factor event, which stands out as one of the sloppiest GNCC events of all-time. However, even with some rain in the forecast, this year promises to be better (fingers crossed!) It actually could use some rain because it’s very, very dry here right now. We’ll have the low-down on the track coming up a little later in this week’s Quick Fill.
There's a lot of extra things that come along with this weekend's X-Factor event. Can’t get enough racing with the X-Factor Whitetails GNCC? The Circus City Speedway located right in Peru, Indiana will have racing Saturday night starting at 7pm. Show your GNCC wristband for $4 admission!
It doesn't end there! X-Factor Whitetails proves to be a perfect venue for a GNCC event. We know many of our racers are avid hunters and our friends from X-Factor Whitetails are actually offering up a great deal, exclusively for the GNCC Racing Nation. If you book a hunt now and mention “GNCC” you can instantly save $500! Give them a shout at https://xfactorwhitetails.com/contact/ if you’re interested.
The Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Ticket to Ride took place last week out in Utah and boy was it a good one. We’ll be catching up with some of the winners for next week’s Tuesday Toolbox, but in the meantime, be sure to check out some of the photos to see how much fun everyone had. You can see that photo gallery HERE.
Are you a GNCC racer who attended prom this year? Time to clean off that mud and make sure your dresses and suits are ready to go! We want to show off how well the GNCC Racing Nation can clean up! Post your prom photos on social media with the hashtag #GNCCProm by Wednesday, May 16 and our team will get them shared on the website and social media this week. You can post on Instagram or Twitter and all you have to do is make sure you include the hashtag, #GNCCProm.
As for the rest of the info on this weekend’s race, well, it promises to be a good one! The racing has the potential to be pretty intense as there’s a slew of ATV racers who will be looking to take the win. Guys like Adam McGill, Chris Borich and Cole Richardson all suffered mechanical issues at the previous round, and all of these riders have the potential to challenge for the race win. However, they have to contend with the likes of Brycen Neal, Jarrod McClure and of course, Walker Fowler. When you take all of these guys into consideration with the rest of the XC1 ATV pack, then you’ve got the makings of an intense battle for the X-Factor win.
The bike side promises to be equally exciting as Kailub Russell and Thad Duvall will line up for what should be another close race. These guys are on top of their game right now and all eyes will be on them when the green flag flies. However, they have to stay alert when it comes to additional challengers. Steward Baylor, Trevor Bollinger and Ricky Russell have all challenged for the lead at various points this season but you can’t leave out the former champ, Josh Strang. On top of this, Grant Baylor is fresh off a win at last weekend’s National Enduro, so Sunday’s bike action could be one of the closest races we’ve seen all season.
That’s going to do it for the intro this week, so lets jump right into the rest of the Quick Fill goodies. Enjoy!
Update from the Woods of X-Factor!
Last year’s X-Factor Whitetails course never got to live up to it’s full potential due to the massive amounts of rain that saturated the course throughout the weekend. The current forecast is calling for scattered showers this weekend, but the total rainfall amounts are looking to be much, much lower than last year and it looks as if the periods of rain may not have a huge impact on the course. We don’t want to speculate too much but we hope this means we can keep the course as close to our current layout as possible because it’s a good one!
When you take off from the start, you’ll work your way around a big field section just past the one-mile mark. This takes you to some grassy areas that zig-zags back and forth, up and down a few small hills to slow things down before entering the first section of hard woods at the two-mile mark. You’ll drop across a little hard-bottom creek crossing, then up a small uphill section before dropping off and crossing the creek once again.
Just on the other side of the second creek crossing, you’ll come to a section with multiple lines up the side of a short but steep hill. That takes you across the top of the hill before you drop down by the X-Factor main gate, which is different from the GNCC main gate. You’ll cross the road and work your way up another hill and across the top to the three-mile mark where you’ll drop down to a big mulch section. You’ve got a few turns out in the mulch, which will surely get a bit rough as the weekend wears on.
From there you’ll go back up into the woods and to a little off-camber section before picking up some fast trail to a long and fun downhill section that brings you across another creek. After that, you’ve got one of the most fun sections of the course where you’re dropping in and out of a couple of small valleys to the four-mile mark, and the fun continues past the four to something really cool. You’ll come to what we’re calling the “Ironman Gorges” section, which is similar to the two gorges we’ve ran up and down at Ironman throughout the years.
These gorges are a good bit smaller than the ones at Ironman but you’ll run up and down four of them before you hit a creek run that takes you to a steep uphill to the five-mile mark. After the five, you’ll run through some brand new trail and down to another creek run before heading uphill and over to another off-camber section. This will also have a few up and down hill sections that take you all the way to the six-mile mark. After the six, you’ve got a couple of fast sections that will begin to tighten up and into some technical, twisty trail to the seven-mile mark.
Just past the seven, you’ll drop down to another creek and have the option to go up a steep hill, a less steep hill or an easy route. The steepest route is the fastest, so choose wisely! This brings you to some more technical areas to the eight-mile mark before you’ll drop downhill and cross back over the paved road at the X-Factor gate. That takes you into some faster woods and back into the field at the nine-mile mark. You’ve got some really cool zigzags in an area below last year’s start before hitting some fast field sections to the ten-mile mark.
After the ten, you’ve got a small woods section that takes you over to a grass track section and over to the finish line. Once you’re out of the finish, you’ll head through pro pits and back towards the starting line. On the other side of the start, you’ll pick up a fast woods section that takes you past the one-mile mark and tie back into where you started. Total mileage will be 10.7 miles for the 1PM races and just a little shorter for the 10AM races at just below 10.5 miles. Overall, this is shaping up to be a great course and we have our fingers crossed that the rain doesn’t have much effect on the course. Don’t miss out!