by: Jared Bolton
Thursday, October 8, 2020 | 7:30 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
It’s time to go racing? We’re ready to get this weekend’s Mason-Dixon GNCC off and rolling, and boy is it looking like a fun course. As usual, I’ll have a quick run down of what to expect coming up a little later in this edition of Quick Fill. This weekend also promises to be big as there’s an opportunity to wrap up a number of National Championships, but there are also a number of other riders who have been on fire lately who will be looking to continue their success. On top of this, this week we also made an announcement on the location of the final round!
That final round will take place at CJ Raceway in Newburg, West Virginia. The venue has hosted a number of local events over the years, and is actually a really cool piece of property. We’ll have the full details on the event coming up soon, but you can plan for that location on November 7-8.
As for this weekend’s event, you may already be aware but as of right now the property is pretty dry. There’s a chance of rain on Sunday, but there is also a chance that it does NOT rain. Expect it to be pretty dusty, but overall this will be a really fun course. The starting line has moved to the hillside underneath the big powerline directly across from the main gate of High Point Raceway. The start will actually be just past the three-mile mark, so the first lap will be a bit quicker than the rest.
When you drop into the woods off the start, there will be a bit of a tight section before dropping downhill into a couple of open trails. These will work back up a hill and pop into a short field section to the four-mile mark and drop back into the woods. This woods section is twisty and has quite a few turns in it with some medium speed trail. There’s a few up and down hill sections, plus some off-cambers that make this section really cool all the way to the five-mile mark.
It opens up briefly around the five, and about the 5.2 you’ll cross the state line into West Virginia. The trail tightens up a little bit over to the six-mile mark where you’ll run through some rolling terrain. That means more hills and off-cambers all the way to the seven-mile mark. Around the seven you’re working your way across a hillside through some faster trail, which continues all the way over to the eight-mile mark. A bit past the eight, you’ll cross underneath a powerline and drop into another tight section. These will be some of the steeper hills and off-cambers you’ll experience as it winds across both sides of a steep valley.
You’ll cross back under the powerline and head over to the nine-mile mark. The trail opens up in a few spots before crossing another field section and dropping into the woods once again to the 10-mile mark at the bottom of a steep downhill. You’ll pick up a couple of sections of new trail after the 10, and then tie back into some previously used trail just before the 11-mile mark. After the 11, you’ll work your way up the FMF Powerpoint Hill and head into the finish line.
Out of the finish, you’ll run through some field, and then drop in and out of a few woods sections all the way to the one-mile mark. These trails have more up and downhill sections before hitting the one. A short field crossing at the one will drop you into another section of new trail that is actually pretty off-camber with a few hills as well. This brings you to the two-mile mark where the trail opens up just a bit before heading into the Pro Pits.
As you exit the pro pits, you’ll run through a slower section of woods and pass the three-mile mark before tying back into the starting line. A full loop will be just shy of 12 miles of all sorts of terrain going up, down and across the hills in two different states! Overall, this promises to be a really cool layout for the Mason-Dixon and we’re excited to see how it all turns out.
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you at the track!
Catching Up With Ken (Ken Hill)
Oh my, it is race week again! Looks like we are heading to Pennsylvania for another round of GNCC racing and I am pretty stoked to have a round that’s fairly close to home. Travel really starts to get to me as we head late in the season and this year has been made worse by the ATVMX schedule being pushed back. Normally I look forward to having that series completed in August allowing some rest in between race weekends. But hey, you roll with things and make the best of them and combined with the announcement of the final round being in West Virginia only leaves the trek to everyone’s favorite Ironman as the last major run of this 2020 race season.
It is kind of crazy when you think about how upside down and sideways things have gone this year and for the most part, the racers haven’t been terribly impacted sans the changing venues or the not knowing part of the schedule. I have praised those charged with handling this mess with the various state agencies and continue to do so as their hard work and dedication to you and the series sponsors are always paramount in the decisions they have to make. Are they perfect, of course not however the challenges of the unknown have been met and faced head on.
Now last round and the one before that has seen the rebirth of Steward Baylor and man the fans have really been ecstatic over his victories. This weekend’s race is going to be rough and it is very possible we see him stand tall, center stage of the podium yet again but there are a few that want to knock the shine off his recent performances. Nothing personal, it is just that the industry and what not needed something fresh and boy did he hand it to them! With Kailub on the mend, there is room for some top tier talents to push even harder for some of that attention so watch for this to be an epic race! The ATV side is always full of surprises and we should start crowning class champions throughout the day so have your smile game fully charged if you are with a championship winning team!
This weekend hosts another full day of events on Saturday including the Micro racers and the eMTB riders however the fun doesn’t stop there. The Dog Show will take place Saturday evening so get your pooch primed and read. You know, when they first started the dog show thing I was like, oh great, this is going to be lame but over the past few seasons its turned out to be a really fun time. Watching the handlers out preform the dogs at times is hysterical! I think maybe that was the goal but let that be our secret haha! It will probably be cool so be sure to dress warm.
Other than getting packed I am about ready to load up and roll out as I want to get a better handle on this track to try my best to find some fresh locations to photograph everyone. No better way for that than to get there and pre ride the tracks so that’s the plan! So that’s it from me this week. Be safe in your travels and may the good Lord continue to bless us all! See you in the woods!