Welcome to Quick Fill. 

It’s time to go racing once again! We’re full swing into getting ready for this weekend’s Camp Coker Bullet GNCC in Society Hill, South Carolina. We did get a full day of rain in Wednesday but dodged all the rain on Thursday and got a good bit of sunshine throughout the day that really dried out a lot of the course. We rerouted a few spots that ended up staying very wet, and also stayed out of the low spots to begin with, so as of Thursday evening everything is looking really great! 

Since we were faced with rain, and had been planning for it from the get-go some areas of the course are a bit on the fast side, but we’ve also got some weaving, slower and tighter woods to break it up. It’s actually a pretty cool layout this weekend, and the course is a lot of fun. If we do get more rain on Friday or Saturday, it really shouldn’t hurt too much because the magic of sand is that it actually gets better when it’s wet. I know, the same can’t be said for swamps but we’ve done everything we can to avoid the obviously swampy areas. 

We realize our friends down at South of the Border have cancelled their event for this weekend, which is only a little over 45 minutes away from Camp Coker. However, we were extremely lucky and did not get anywhere near the same amount of rain. So, I’ll squash all the rumors right now and officially say that we ARE racing this weekend. I actually watched the rain clouds skirt just past us today, which was a pretty wild sight to see from the backside of the property. It was raining just to the southeast of the property and the sun was shining to the northwest. That northwest sun stayed on the property and we got nothing more than a sprinkle on Thursday. 

As for a little info on the course, you’ll start on the motocross track again this year and make a few turns before heading off the track towards the ponds. This is actually just after the two-mile mark, so the first lap will be a bit shorter. You’ll run up through an open area before dropping into a slower section of woods to the three-mile mark. You’ll work your way out of those woods and over to the old Supercross track back in the woods, which you’ll run across a small portion of. That track was Larry Ward’s practice track at one time and hasn’t been used for many, many years so it’s actually tough to tell it ever was a Supercross track, but you’re running over the old whoop section, which are pretty worn down these days.

You’ll pop in and out of some short woods and field sections over to the four-mile mark where you’ll pick up another woods section all the way to another field at the five-mile mark. This woods section is twisty and a lot of fun, as is the field section after the five. That field section is a bit long but will transfer you to the back part of the property and into the woods at the six-mile mark. This is another twisty woods section with a cool uphill in it that eventually brings you over to a section that was clear-cut several years ago.

This started growing back, so the saplings and undergrowth are pretty thick, which will slow you down a good bit. It brings you past the seven-mile mark and continues back into the hardwoods once again to the eight-mile mark. Around the eight, you’re running through some really cool planted pine sections before you’ll hit a fast section over to the nine-mile mark. This continues to around the nine and a half where you’ll run back across a portion of the field to head back to the other side of the property. In that field, you’ll run through a long section of pine trees to the ten-mile mark before popping into the field once again.

When you get across that field, you’ll head through another section of hardwoods over to the 11-mile mark, before picking up a short field section to another short woods section. After this, you’ll come out into the trackside pit areas to the 12-mile mark before running through the finish, through pro pits and heading out through a mix of fast and flowing woods to the one. This brings you back into another slightly tighter section before heading down to the motocross track and the two-mile mark. This time you’ll run a few sections of the motocross track before tying back in where you started.

I know it’s tough to follow along just reading that, but it’s shaping up to be an awesome weekend and this is a really fun course. Also, don’t forget that we’re co-sanctioned with TWO different series this weekend. We welcome back our friends from SETRA, who co-sanction several events with us each year and always welcome us with open arms. We’re also co-sanctioned with the AMA East Hare Scramble Series this weekend as well. 

If you’re not familiar with the AMA East Hare Scrambles, it’s what we would historically know as the AMA National Hare Scramble Series. The first ever AMA National Hare Scramble took place at High Point Raceway back in 1979 and for many years ran in conjunction with many GNCC events. In 2008, the series was split into an East and West series and for the past several years Keny Held out of New Jersey has been managing the AMA East Hare Scrambles. The series is obviously no stranger to GNCC, but it’s been a number of years since we’ve seen an AMA East/GNCC co-sanction, so it’s really cool to see these guys back and great that they’re able to return to racing as well. 

I’ll keep my contribution short this week, as there’s still a lot of work to do before the weekend. We hope you enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you at Camp Coker!