by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, December 13, 2018 | 2:00 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
The off-season rolls on and we begin to inch closer and closer to Christmas time. This is pretty exciting because it’s cool to see new bikes, new gear, new graphics and more new stuff as we head into the new season. It’s also cool to see everyone spending time together because it seems like everyone stays so busy that it doesn’t leave much time for that kind of thing the rest of the year. It’s also a sign that the new race season is that much closer. A lot of folks are already looking to get the 2019 season started but the good news for those who still need to prepare is that we still have quite a while until the season begins.
Last Friday we officially released the 2019 schedule, and if you haven’t taken a look at that, you can check it out HERE. When you take a look, you’ll see that it’s pretty similar to what we had in 2018 but we do have one change in the fall. I talked about this in last week’s edition of Quick Fill, but we will not be returning to Powerline Park in 2019. A lot of folks already know that Powerline closed their riding park after their 2017 season and while it was no issue for us to race there in 2018, moving forward there will be a pretty major pipeline project coming across the Powerline Park property. We’re sad to see Powerline Park go but completely understand the circumstances and wish the best to everyone involved there.
So with Powerline Park out, we’re actually sitting on a TBA event at this time. We’re looking into several different options and hope to have an announcement for you as soon as possible. Once again, I mentioned this last week but just in case anyone missed it; if you know of any property that could handle a GNCC event, then drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know what you’ve got. We’re looking for at least 500 acres and need somewhere close to 70-100+ acres of usable parking. It can be a little under that 70 acre mark for parking, but obviously if there’s only 20 acres, it’s not going to work. I got a good bit of feedback on this last week and appreciate everyone who took the time to send info.
One more note on the 2019 schedule; I’ve seen a few comments on social media where people seem a little confused. That July event at Loretta Lynn’s is an eMTB event ONLY. We’ll be there for the Amateur National Motocross Championship and decided to host a round of GNCC eMTB racing in conjunction with the event. So, don’t show up to Loretta’s in July with your dirt bike or ATV and expect to be racing. I mean, unless you qualify for the Amateur National or plan to race the ATV Motocross event the following weekend. But if you’re doing one of those, don’t plan on being in the woods.
A few of us were in attendance for last weekend’s AMA Legends and Champions Weekend in Columbus, Ohio. In years past, the AMA has hosted their Championship Banquet, Hall of Fame Induction and AMA Congress at different times. This year, they combined all of these events into one weekend and it proved to be pretty successful. AMA Congress is the process that helps to approve and amend rules for the AMA Rulebook. They actually went through a format change for this year’s Congress where the congress delegates are selected to serve on a year-round Commission. In past years, AMA districts would select congress delegates but these days not all districts have an established racing organization. This resulted in a low participation in Congress, so the new Commission format was developed.
This opens up the Congress process to folks from various racing organizations and not just AMA districts and I was actually fortunate enough to be selected to serve on the Off-Road Commission. While this year didn’t see any groundbreaking changes specifically to the off-road side, the AMA Technical Commission voted to incorporate both Electric Motorcycles and Electric Bicycles into the AMA Rulebook. All changes made at Congress do not go into effect for the very next season, so that addition will go into the 2020 AMA Rulebook.
It was also really cool to attend the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony as well as the Championship Banquet. There were a number of familiar GNCC faces in attendance for both of those events and it was cool to see everyone around. Terry Cunningham was inducted into the Hall of Fame and while Terry is primarily known for his four AMA National Enduro titles, he was also a pretty accomplished GNCC racer as well. He won several GNCC events in his career, including the 1985 Blackwater 100, so big congrats to Terry on a very well deserved honor.
As promised, this week we’ll begin our look back at the 2018 season. So that’s going to do it for this main part of Quick Fill this week but we do have a really cool photo to share before we end things here. Check it out!
Looking Back on 2018 Part 1
When the 2018 season began at Big Buck, all eyes would be on returning champions Walker Fowler and Kailub Russell. While the champion comes in as the favorite, many folks also wonder who will step up and challenge them for that championship. Walker is doing what has become the norm on the ATV side of GNCC Racing where champions go on a multi-year run. Barry Hawk won seven straight titles from 1993-1999, and then came Bill Ballance who went on a legendary run with nine titles from 2000-2008. Chris Borich was the next in line and claimed six titles from 2009-2014 and now Walker has made it four in a row from 2015-2018.
Things are a bit different on the bike side. Kailub Russell is the first rider to ever claim six consecutive titles, breaking Ed Lojak’s previous record of five straight from 1980-1984, back when it was the 100 Miler Series. Lojak was injured in 1985 and lost the 100 Miler title to Jim Maltba, but when the series evolved into GNCC in 1986, Lojak would go on another run winning four more titles from 1986-1989. After these two epic title runs by Lojak, Scott Summers would win three straight from 1990-1992 but after that nobody would be able to claim more than two consecutive titles until Kailub Russell’s current title run.
Obviously, neither of these changed for the 2018 season as both riders who entered the season as National Champions, ended the season as National Champions once again. However, the point of explaining all of this is to show that we’re living in a prime age of GNCC Racing where history is being made right in front of our eyes and even if we don’t realize it now, one day we’re going to look back on it and think back to how incredible and exciting the racing was. Of course, hopefully we’ll be seeing some tight racing when that time comes too but only time will tell.
As for the first round of the 2018 season, things stayed pretty interesting all weekend long. When the green flag flew for the 1pm ATV race, Walker Fowler would jump out front with the holeshot and pretty much just lead wire to wire to take the overall win. It was an impressive start to the season but the rest of the podium contenders would put in impressive rides of their own. Brycen Neal would end the day in second place but he would come all the way from tenth place on lap one up to podium contention on lap two.
He wasn’t alone as Chris Borich was in the same boat. Borich would end lap one in the eighth place spot and begin working his way through the pack to eventually finish third place. Adam McGill was ninth place on the opening lap, but worked his way up to second place on lap two before dropping to fourth place at the end of the day. Jarrod McClure would round out the top five at Big Buck after he also worked his way through the pack, coming from 12th place on lap one.
Watching these guys work their way through the pack made for an intense opening round, even though it would be a runaway win by Fowler. It set the bar high for the rest of the 2018 season and after the first round, Walker would walk away with a pretty big target on his back. The competition didn’t want a repeat of the 2017 season where Fowler won 12 of the 13 rounds. Walker on the other hand was looking to take all 13 wins if at all possible. While we already know what would happen throughout the season, at the conclusion of round one it definitely looked as if Walker would be extremely tough to beat and it left folks to wonder how possible it is to win all 13 rounds.
On the bike side, Josh Strang grabbed the holeshot but it would be Thad Duvall taking over the early lead. Steward Baylor and Trevor Bollinger would battle back and forth for the second place spot on lap one, while the defending champ Kailub Russell would have a tough first lap, coming around in seventh place. Russell put his head down and worked his way through the pack to make a four-way battle for the win between himself, Duvall, Baylor and Bollinger. Eventually it would become a two-rider fight as Russell and Duvall would battle down to the wire with Russell taking the win just 1.2 second ahead of Duvall. Baylor was able to hold on for third place with Bollinger and Strang rounding out the top five.
Much like the ATV race, this would set a standard for the season in the minds of race fans, as everyone would be excited to see the Russell and Duvall battles continue. It’s pretty interesting to look at how things have changed. Thad is actually right around a year older than Kailub and while both of these guys are the ones to beat and absolutely on top of their game, both are at a stage in their careers where they can sort of begin to look towards the future as they now have completed more of their careers than what lies ahead.
Duvall claimed the 2008 XC2 title, and then went straight to the XC1 class in 2009. The next few seasons would be disastrous for Duvall as he would be plagued with mechanical issues and slight injuries. Out of 35 races he contested from the 2009-2011 seasons, he was only able to finish 13. However, things really began to change for Thad and he would finally pick up his first win in 2012. He picked up a couple more wins and things changed drastically in 2017 and 2018. Gone are the days of “Bad Thad” and we now see a consummate professional in Thad Duvall. Easily the biggest challenger to Kailub Russell’s title runs, today’s version of Thad is easily one of the top off-road racers in the world right now.
Russell would claim back-to-back XC2 titles in 2009 and 2010, but would struggle a bit in his rookie XC1 season. He managed to claim his first win at Powerline Park in his rookie season; something that no other XC2 champion has been able to do. 2012 would see Kailub’s first serious run at a GNCC National Championship. He would come up short in the end, losing the title to Paul Whibley by just four points. (Note: In 2012 XC1 class points determined the National Championship) Kailub would rebound in 2013 to claim the title but not without a tough challenge from Charlie Mullins. The 2014 season would be pretty similar with Mullins challenging Kailub throughout the beginning of the season, but Charlie would end up injuring his wrist around the halfway point of the season. 2015 and 2016 would see Josh Strang step up as Kailub’s top challenger, taking wins of his own but coming up just short of the title. The past two seasons have been a tight battle between Russell and Duvall, making for some of the best racing we’ve seen in the history of GNCC Racing.
That’s going to do it for this first edition looking back on the 2018 season. Be sure to check back in the coming weeks as we dive deeper into each round of the 2018 season!
#ThrowbackThursday
