Welcome to Quick Fill. 

It’s hard to believe it but it’s time for the season finale at the Ironman. There’s a full weekend of action coming up, and a lot of people ready to see all the action unfold. There’s a reason Ironman is so popular; this is a fun course with all sorts of different terrain. From big hills to creek crossings, tight woods, fast woods, field sections, motocross and more, one lap around the Ironman course will tell you exactly why it’s so popular. If you’re attending Ironman this weekend, we do have a few things we want you to keep in mind… 

First off, we do have some time changes on Saturday. Due to the lack of available daylight, the AM and PM races will be bumped up 30 minutes. This means the morning ATV race will start at 10:30 AM and the afternoon ATV race will start at 1:30 PM. Now, this may leave you wondering about the Micro races. Those will run their usual times with Micro ATVs taking off at 9:15 AM and Micro bikes at 10:00 AM. The Micro races will have a separate start and finish line area, as well as their own course. This is all located in the field across the street from the front gate. Of course, there will be signage to point you the way. 

The Youth ATV race is scheduled to start at it’s regularly allotted time, and Sunday’s schedule will remain the same as usual. eMTB racing will be taking place Saturday evening at 5 PM, and these time changes on Saturday will ensure we get all racing in before dark. Plus, we’ll be done with plenty of time for everyone to catch the evening activities, which promise to be pretty big at this year’s Ironman! Saturday evening will see ePeeWee racing, Trick or Treating, a Costume Contest and of course a concert featuring Craig Morgan, who is a pretty hot commodity right now! Check out the event page for all the details and times. 

In other news, this time next week a group of us will be in Japan in preparation for the Japan National Cross Country finale. As tradition, the JNCC folks send racers to participate in a GNCC event. This season Takanori Nakajima and Yuka Suganara, competed in the Mason-Dixon GNCC with Taka finishing 10^th place in the XC1 class and Yuka landing an impressive third place in the Women’s class. 

The tradition continues as GNCC Racing always selects a rider to attend the JNCC finale and this year Andrew Delong got the selection. Josh Strang will also be racing in an effort he put together himself. This is always a really cool trip as Japan is a beautiful country with fantastic views, great racing and some great people. Our Media Manager, Kayla (AKA my wife) and myself will be attending this year and we’re both pretty excited for the event! 

However, we still have the Ironman this weekend! As for the racecourse, well it’s shaping up to be a really fun one! You’ll be starting in the cornfield, in the usual spot but the start layout is slightly different and should be a cool change. You’ll start at the end of the lap, head over to the motocross track and bypass the finish the first time by. You’ll continue around the motocross track, then head off just before the announcer’s tower. You’ll run through the motocross pro pits, on a divided two-way section of racecourse before dropping off a hill into a rocky creek bottom, and through some twisty woods into another field section to the one-mile mark. 

You’ll head into a short patch of woods before hitting a short field section and back into the woods again. From there, you’ll pop out into a longer field section before heading back into the woods to the two-mile mark. The quad races will take a shorter path through these woods, while the bikes will continue through the woods for a bike-only section. These two tracks will merge back together before dropping into another rocky creek section, with a short little uphill to the three-mile mark. 

This brings you back to the motocross pro pits and to the two-way once again, where you’ll drop off a hill into some faster trail. You’ll then come to a fun uphill where the bikes will split off into a tight section that leads them to the four-mile mark, and the quads will continue straight and miss the four. These tracks come back together about the 4.5 before running through some slower trail and dropping down to the five-mile mark. 

This trail zigzags back and forth in a valley bottom before going up and down the side of a hill. The last time up the hill, you’ll head out through some tighter woods to the six-mile mark where you’ll hit another field section. This field continues to another tighter section over to the seven-mile mark, before it opens up and winds along beside a creek. The PM races will cross over the creek, run a little faster trail then cross the creek once again and hit Ironman Hill. This will drop you down the other side of Ironman Hill, passing the eight-mile mark and into Raccoon Hollow, where you’ve got the option to hit another steep hill, or take the easy way up a valley. 

There’s a good section of zigzagging trail and a fun creek crossing that leads you to the nine-mile mark, before heading over to Twin Hills. You’ll make a left at the top of Twin Hills and work your way though some fun ups, downs, off-cambers and more all the way to the ten-mile mark and into what we call The Enchanted Forest. You’ll cross over a little field and pick up another section of woods before entering the big field section to the eleven-mile mark. This leads you in and out of pro pits, then continue around the field to tie back in where you started at, and past the twelve-mile mark. 

Overall, it will be a 13-mile course for the PM bikes, and right around 11 miles for the PM ATVs. This is a really fun, really cool layout for the Ironman and we’re pretty excited to get this weekend off and rolling! With this much fun on our plates, there’s still a lot of work to be done so we’ll end this week’s edition of Quick Fill here. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you at the Ironman!