Welcome to Quick Fill. 

Well, here it is. The 2023 GNCC Racing season has reached his finale at the Ironman, and boy is it shaping up to be a good one. It seems like Ironman just gets bigger and bigger each and every year, which seems hard to believe because it’s already a massive event. Then to grow even more on top of them seems, well, just frankly crazy. However, here we are leading into what could very well end up being the biggest GNCC event we’ve ever seen. 

With that said, obviously this week’s edition of Quick Fill is going to be a bit on the quick side as we’re wide-open getting things ready for the race weekend… And because a large amount of you are already here! Regardless, lets jump into a few things before getting the ball rolling on a weekend of epic proportions. 

First off, our Event Director Tim Cotter went over a lot of things in a video. If you prefer to get your information that way, you can take a look at the video HERE. We’ll also go over a few things right here as well beginning with the modified weekend schedule. This is the biggest thing as it effects a large majority of those coming to race this weekend. As a reminder, we’ll kick things off with eMTB racing at 4pm on Friday, then the Youth ATV race will take place at 8am on Saturday morning. Then, on the separate racecourse across the street, the Micro Bikes will race first at 8:30am, followed by Micro ATVs at 9:15am. 

The Morning ATV race will take place at 10am, and the Afternoon ATV race will kick off at 1pm. And since that’s not enough racing for one day, the Youth Bike race will run at 4pm on Saturday afternoon in order to split the Morning Bike Race on Sunday.  This means that the first Morning Bike Race on Sunday will take place at 8am, followed by the second Morning Bike Race at 10am and the Afternoon Bike Race at 1pm. If you’re a Morning Bike racer, be sure to check out the Ironman Start Rows page HERE to see exactly when your class will race. 

Outside of racing there are a ton of other activities taking place off the racecourse. There’s Trick or Treating, a Halloween Costume Contest and of course the Monster Energy Concert Series wraps up 2023 with two great acts. Friday night will see Jonny James, while hit country act Parmalee will headline on Saturday night. For all the details, be sure to check out the Ironman Event Page HERE. 

Now let’s talk about the racecourse. We received a bit of rain Wednesday night and into Thursday which will make things a little greasy in spots for Friday’s eMTB race, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that no more rain finds its way in and we could potentially have some seriously epic conditions for racing. You’ll start in the big field as usual, this time just past the one-mile mark. You’ll run the majority of that field off the start, then drop into your first woods section, which is a slightly open and flowy section before popping into another field once again. 

On the other side of that field, you’ll enter what we call The Enchanted Forest. This is a more medium speed section with a little rolling terrain over to the two-mile mark. From there, the PM quads, plus the 10am and 1pm bikes will head up the infamous Ironman Hill. As a reminder, for the quads, all B Riders must take the lines to the left of the ‘B Riders’ sign. Truthfully, these are actually the better lines for the quad racers anyway as those main lines have become a bit too cupped out for quad or have a pretty good rock ledge in it. Also, we do have a longer go around option for any 10am bike racers who aren’t interested in making the climb. Once you’ve made it up the hill, there’s another short field section and into some more trail along the creek. 

You’ll pick up the three-mile mark just before a field section crosses you over into a tighter woods section and then the zig-zagging log jam section. This brings you to the field another time and back into the woods at the four-mile mark. This will be another slightly tighter section for a bit before crossing the field another time and back into the woods once more. This next woods section has some medium speed trail leading you to the five-mile mark, then some really fun and flowing trail that rolls up and down a good bit all the way to a short field section behind that start line like that brings you back to the woods at the six-mile mark. 

After the six you’ll hit some faster, but flowing trail all the way over to the Monster Mile where you’ll zigzag back and forth a bit, then up to the seven-mile mark. After the seven, you’ll find another section of faster trail with multiple line choices for a bit, that eventually tightens up in a few spots before hitting another field section and back into the woods at the eight-mile mark. This is more medium speed trail, then back to the Monster Mile and out through some tighter sections for a bit. 

The 1pm bikes will split off and head out into what we call The Ultimate Warrior Section to the nine-mile mark. This section isn’t overly technical or anything, but rather is named in honor of the professional wrestler, Ultimate Warrior from the 80s and 90s. James Hellwig, who played Ultimate Warrior was born in Crawfordsville, so this is a little nod to a cool celebrity who came from a small town. This single track leads you back to the main trail and down to the motocross staging area, then up to the ten-mile mark. 

At the ten, you’ll go behind the tall fence in the motocross pro pits and head out on the other side of the property. The bike races will split off and run a slightly tighter section, then tie back into the main trail just before the 11-mile mark. This will be a multi-lined medium speed trail to another short field section, then back into the woods once again. You’ll zigzag through a couple of tight areas, then into the trackside pitting area and to the 12-mile mark. This leads you back into the woods for a bit, then back across the two-way section and to the ATV Pro Pits. 

From there, it’s down to the motocross track and past the 13-mile mark and into the finish. From the finish, its back down to a short a motocross section and into the Monster Mile once again before crossing the creek to Twin Hills. Once you make it to the top of Twins, you’ll pass the one-mile mark before hitting the field section back to the start, and that will be one full lap here at the Ironman. 

So, that’s going to wrap things up for this week’s edition of Quick Fill. We hope you have a great time this weekend and we’ll see you here at the Ironman!