Competition Bulletin: Black Sky GNCC Cancelled

The Parts Unlimited Black Sky GNCC event scheduled for September 15-16, in Harpursville, New York has been cancelled, due to onsite conditions that prevent the possibility of conducting an event this weekend. The Harpursville area specifically, and the entire Southern Tier region of eastern New York State, has been inundated with rain over the past week as a result of the remnants of tropical storm Gordon, leaving conditions onsite impassable with additional rain accumulations continuing today.

According to GNCC Series Director, Tim Cotter “In addition to these adverse local weather conditions, the imminent weather challenges associated with Hurricane Florence, which is currently impacting the entire mid-Atlantic region of the east coast have combined to create conditions that simply won’t allow us to conduct the Harpursville event as scheduled. Racer Productions and the AMA will work together to explore rescheduling opportunities if possible.”

The GNCC Series will resume on September 29-30, with the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Mason-Dixon GNCC National, in Mount Morris, PA.

Catching up with Ken (Ken Hill)

Well by now the word is spreading like wildfire across the racing nation that the Black Sky GNCC is cancelled. I haven’t chatted with any of the crew, but I would imagine it is pretty ugly there for them to make this call. So, as much as I hate to see an event cancelled or possibly rescheduled, I trust they know what’s best and will have to set my sights on the next round and pray for better weather!

The news also kind of wrecks any preview of the race and throws my contribution to this week’s Quick Fill into a tail spin, but in the big picture the safety of everyone means everything so this too shall pass. I would imagine many of our racers from down south are getting ready to deal with the impending hurricane that is about to throw down in the Carolina’s and I sure hope and pray those folks remain safe through it all. Sometimes it seems like the news media join forces with the weather folks so everyone will rush out and empty every store shelf but flooding is no joke. I know I spent $750 to update our generator here just so I can save my freezers and we are or were just expecting rain but a wind with saturated ground means trees down and power out so money well spent I believe. Back when we were racing the trailer was emergency command one and I am positive many of you utilize your racing rig as a power back up and have everything you need to survive for a few days, after all, we kind of live for mayhem just not 40 inches of rain! Once again, head the warnings in your area and we will be watching closely as things develop in the affected areas. We don’t have a ton here but if any of you need a place to shelter the storm, our doors are open.

Now this has been a pretty insane week here. Gearing up for a new location is stressful and I was going to leave early so I could scope out the Black Sky course to get a handle on finding my way around and search for some cool spots to take photos. Combine that stress with the typical “get ready for anything” preparations that need to be done before I roll out and the final week before returning to racing got short real fast! Throw in that my first grandson joined this world as the week kicked off and the stress-o-meter just plum went off the charts! That’s right, I am officially a grandfather! James Ryder Hill came into this world after a 41 hour fight that ended in a C-section birth, but mom and baby are healthy and fine and due to come home today. I was actually looking forward to heading out of town this weekend just to get some structure and sanity back in my life if you know what I mean! Ryder’s birth was an amazing experience and I am so happy that I was home to be there, but when you are plugged in to this life you know that when it’s time to ruck up and roll out you do just that. Besides, dirty diapers and the other messes that come with a pint sized human just aren’t my bag of gold so I wouldn’t miss him one bit. Ok, so I am full of it but seriously I am ready to get back into the action as much as you all are but sometimes we don’t get a say in how or why things happen so we just have to roll with it. 

So, our family is heavy one baby and I want to thank all of you who blew up my social media offering blessings and congratulations and as I do every week I started thinking about how this all changes things. I mean it’s been 20 years since I had a baby of my own but I sure don’t feel old enough to be a grand dad. If I am fortunate enough to keep doing this though, it should make for some fun times as the new bundle of joy grows up and I get to watch my son teach his son all about riding and racing and maybe one day get to photograph him racing a GNCC. That got me to thinking about how many others I have had the pleasure of watching come in to this sport as kids and grow up with the GNCC family. Sometimes we forget about the ones just starting out as we converge on our own racing or a select few that capture the world’s attention each season but the new riders is what keeps us healthy. We all say it, we are family, and the majority mean it and live it because doing this on your own is almost impossible. And with the additional micro races added to the 2019 schedule, there is tons of room to bring in even more youth racers as they begin what could be a lifelong obsession. I will make it a point to try and get even more coverage of the micros so we can all share in the pure excitement that only these little racers bring to an event.

That is about all from me this week, and yes, I am bummed about the cancellation as many of you are, but when you start seeing folks post that conditions are equal to X-Factor then you know the staff made the right call. With a hurricane bearing down on a big portion of our racers home turf it is probably for the best but I have a feeling we see waves of racers fanning out to other races that have avoided the deluge of rain and hit the weekend wide open! I myself just checked travel time to another event just to see if it would be feasible so I feel it too! As always, be safe in your travels and in all that you do and may God bless you all!