Welcome to Quick Fill. 

The off-season is just about in full swing as not only has the 2022 GNCC season wound down, but numerous other off-road series are finishing up their seasons as well. The time for a little rest and relaxation is almost here, but before we know it we’ll be gearing back up to start it all over once again. I feel like I’m starting to just reiterate the things we discussed in last week’s edition of Quick Fill, but there’s a long winter ahead to fill with all sorts of Quick Fill goodies so hopefully this just means we’re saving all the other discussions for the weeks to come. 

Speaking of discussions, this week we spent several hours in discussions on next year’s GNCC schedule. As I mentioned last week (again, reiterating more of the same info!) we have a ton of factors at play with Pro Motocross, Loretta Lynn’s, ATV Motocross, local motocross, and more events that we’re involved with as well. But, we’re in a pretty good position with a good chunk of it. Next, we just need to work on filling a few gaps regarding some existing and possible new locations as well. 

Traditionally, the new schedule is released at the GNCC Banquets so we’ll keep chipping away at it and you’ll more than likely have some info then, if not sooner. Like I said last week, it’s not as simple as just picking some dates and saying we’re going racing on those days. So, once again just give us some time to finalize everything and once there’s a definite plan in place, we’ll be sure to let you know. 

Of course, with that said, we’re always looking for potential new venues whether we use them in the coming season or further ahead in the future. So, again reiterating things from last week, if you have somewhere around 500+ acres (or know someone!) with somewhere close to 75-100 acres for parking, drop me a line [email protected] and let me know the details. 

This week we released the tentative top 10 lists for the banquet. These will be open for public review through Monday, so be sure to check your results and confirm everything is correct and if you have any issues let us know. This also includes spelling of your name as this list is what is used for the custom awards and championship jackets. You can get all the info in the Competition Bulletin HERE. 

Since these are updated and ready to go, we’ll go ahead and kick off our annual recap of the various amateur classes. Each week we’ll talk a little bit about what happened in each class, a few classes at a time. This week we’ll start with the A classes in the PM bike race, then move onto others in the coming weeks, so on and so forth. So, let's take a look! 

The Open-A class saw quite the championship battle between Cole Whitmer and Neil Enman. These two guys won 11 of the 13 races, with Cole only finishing one race outside of the top three. In addition to these guys, Tanner Whipple also put together a solid 2022 season claiming the win at Camp Coker. Unfortunately, an injury at Snowshoe would end up keeping Tanner out of championship contention, leaving him only contesting two of the final four rounds where he suffered some freak issues finishing outside the top five in those two rounds. Whitmer would end up sweeping all four wins in the final four rounds to secure the Open-A National Championship with Enman finishing second and Whipple rounding out the top three. Dylan Dela Cruz and Ezra Prine would have a season-long battle of their own for the fourth-place spot, eventually ending the season with Dela Cruz in fourth and Prine in fifth. 

The 250-A class saw a bit of a different story as six different riders would claim race wins throughout the season. However, in a class this highly competitive consistency is key, and Grant Davis would prove to be the most consistent rider of the season. With a total of five wins, Davis would take the 250-A class title ahead of Michael Delosa who may have only claimed one win but was also incredibly consistent only finishing outside the top five two times all season. The same consistency could be said for Trevor Maley, who may not have won any races but consistent top five finishes through the first nine rounds of the season would earn him the third-place spot. Jason Tino and Tyler Palmer would finish fourth and fifth, respectively, with one race win each to their credit, as well as a number of top three finishes each. 

Jhak Walker and Toby Cleveland battled back and forth for the 150-A class championship through the early part of the season. Eventually, Walker would wrap up the title early by one single point with Cleveland in second. Cleveland would then bump up to the XC3 class at the penultimate round, actually coming through with the XC3 class win! Brady Weimer would put together a pretty consistent season of his own to end the year third place in the 150 A class while Cameron Mattison and Caleb Baltimore would round out the top five. Also interestingly enough, all five of these top riders would claim race wins at some point in the season! 

Much like his older brother in the Open-A class, Lane Whitmer would experience a championship battle of his own in the 4-Stroke A Lites class as he went head-to-head with Cole Forbes for the class title. These two riders would win 11 of the 13 rounds (sounds familiar?) with multiple consistent top three finishes mixed in as well. Eventually it would be Whitmer emerging as the class champion over Forbes while Mitchell Owenby rode a consistent season to edge out Chase Landers for the third-place spot. Landers would end up fourth while Ty Ely would round out the top five. 

After skipping the first three rounds, Brady Myers would go on a tear in the Junior A 25+ class, winning eight of the nine races he contested, while also having a go at the Junior A class on the ATV side as well. Brady would end up claiming the title on the bike while Andrew Boggs would finish in the runner-up spot for the umpteenth time. Sorry Andrew, maybe eventually you’ll win one of these things! Bradyn Mohr and Matt Cerven would round out the championship contenders in the Junior A class, finishing third and fourth, respectively. 

There was quite the championship battle in the Vet A class between Shane O’Banion and 2020 Vet A champ, Robby Norwood. While race wins in this class were all over the board, these two still managed to claim six wins between the two of them and rolled to consistent finishes as well. While both were struck with bad luck at various points in the season, and both of them would drop out of the Ironman event early with bike issues, O’Banion would end up with the championship by just four points over Norwood. Danny Haftl would win the final two races of the season on his way to a final third place standing with Mark Heresco and James Bower rounding out the top five. 

The last class we’ll take a look at this week will be the Senior A class where class newcomer, Joe Marsh would merge with the championship. However, Joe is no stranger to class championships as he was a consistent Vet A champ for a number of years before dabbling in the 200 A and XC3 classes against young guns for a while. Since 2018, Frank Messina has been the Senior A class champion but with the addition of Marsh to the mix, Frank would end up in the number two spot. ‘Shotgun’ Shawn Remington is another long-time GNCC racer who always seems to get edged out for a class championship, year after year. Shawn claimed the 2006 Vet B class title, and since then has been topped by guys like Scott Summers, Duane Conner, Phil Smith and Joe Marsh for a number of years in the Vet A class and then since 2018 Messina has topped him in the Senior A class. Shawn would finish yet another season out behind Marsh and Messina to take the third-place spot. Rounding out the top five in the Senior A class would be Joe Dean and Vinny Tomich.

Wow, that’s a lot to talk about and that’s still just the A classes in the PM bike race. We’ll save the rest of the goodies for the coming weeks of this off-season. So, that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of Quick Fill. Be sure to check back next week for all the latest updates and we’ll continue breaking down some more championship battles. Until then, enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you back here next week!