![Moose Racing Wild Boar Youth Bike Race Report]()
Moose Racing Wild Boar Youth Bike Race ReportMarch 15, 2019The Moose Racing Wild Boar, round one of the 2019 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series presented by Specialized, an AMA National Championship, took place on March 9th and 10th. The race takes place at Hog Waller Mud Bog, on the edge of Rodman Plantation. Many years ago, Rodman Plantation was the site of The Hurricane GNCC, and since 2015 GNCC has been returning for the Wild Boar.
![Moose Racing Wild Boar Youth ATV Race Report]()
Moose Racing Wild Boar Youth ATV Race ReportMarch 15, 2019The Moose Racing Wild Boar, round one of the 2019 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series presented by Specialized, an AMA National Championship, took place on March 9th and 10th. The race takes place at Hog Waller Mud Bog, on the edge of Rodman Plantation. Many years ago, Rodman Plantation was the site of The Hurricane GNCC, and since 2015 GNCC has been returning for the Wild Boar.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Steward Baylor]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Steward BaylorMarch 12, 2019Steward Baylor Jr. was the winner of this year’s opening round, the Wild Boar GNCC. He’s been around this series for most of his life, and signed his first pro deal at the tender age of 14. He told us about his off-season, racing strategies, and plans for this season. Although he has struggled with injuries the last few years, it looks like his career is back on the upswing. We look for him to have a very successful GNCC season this year!
![Tuesday Toolbox: Josh Toth]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Josh TothMarch 5, 2019Former XC2 champion Josh Toth will be making his XC1 debut this coming weekend at the Wild Boar GNCC. He is one of the few XC2 riders who has made it to the overall podium from the second row, and he aims to be a regular on the XC1 podium in the upcoming season.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Maddox Moretz]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Maddox MoretzFebruary 26, 2019Eight-year old Maddox Moretz was the Micro Bike 50cc Sr. GNCC Champion in 2018. Recently, he added another accomplishment to an impressive resume for such a young kid – he won the San Diego KTM Supercross Challenge! The muddy conditions must have felt like home for Maddox. Both he and his five-year old brother, Mason, come from a long line of racers. While last year was the first year chasing GNCCs for the pair from Morganton, NC, we expect to see them doing great things for years to come.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Brewer Cawley]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Brewer CawleyFebruary 19, 2019This year’s winner of the Bike Amateur Rider of the Year award is Brewer Cawley. This 18 year-old from Lexington, SC raced the 250 A class last year and will be making his pro debut in the XC2 class this weekend at Big Buck. Brewer graduated from his local high school last season, and was accepted to USC Upstate for college, before his championship and before he realized he would be starting a pro racing career this season. So, he is currently balancing racing and school. We look forward to seeing what he accomplishes both on and off the bike over the next several years!
![Tuesday Toolbox: Max Fernandez]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Max FernandezFebruary 12, 2019Max Fernandez not only won the Bike Youth Rider of the Year award for 2018, he also did it in his first full year of GNCC racing. The 15-year old from Ottsville, PA, has been dabbling in GNCCs since about 2013, but this was the first year he committed to the full-series. In addition to being a promising young racer, he also still attends regular high school, where he is an A+ student.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Jeff Pickens]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Jeff PickensFebruary 5, 2019The ATV Amateur Rider of the Year for 2018 is Jeff Pickens. He is 35 years old and from Uniontown, PA. He and his wife, Traci, both raced pro for a number of years before taking a break from GNCC racing to start a family and a business. Both of them returned to racing a couple of years ago. Jeff now races in the Vet A class. He won his first GNCC title in 2017 after 16 years of racing. He won the Vet A title for the second year in a row last season and also took his first-ever Top Amateur Award!
![Tuesday Toolbox: Alicia & Layne McCormick]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Alicia & Layne McCormickJanuary 29, 2019The mother-son duo of Alicia and Layne McCormick from Pennsylvania are frequent sights on the GNCC podiums. Alicia is 33 years old and races in the ATV WXC (women’s pro) class, while her 13-year-old son Layne raced in the youth ATV YXC1 Super Mini Sr this year. The two of them both won special awards from GNCC this year. Layne won the ATV Youth Rider of the Year for securing the youth overall championship; Alicia was given the badass award after suffering severe injuries at the Steele Creek GNCC, yet still managing to make her comeback after the summer break and even earning a couple podiums to finish out the season.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Drew Blackley]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Drew BlackleyJanuary 23, 2019Drew Blackley handles Powersport Sales/Events/Sponsorship for Cometic Gasket. For those of you unfamiliar with Cometic, they make gaskets for all sorts of powersports applications, and sponsor everything from the GNCC series to Loretta’s to NASCAR. On the weekends, not only does he run the Cometic pit setup and make sure all of their sponsored riders are taken care of, he is also a racer as well, placing second in the 24+ C ATV class last year. His busy weekends are just a cross-section of his regular life though: Not only does he race and work full-time for Cometic, he is also attending school to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Business administration.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Steve Brunton]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Steve BruntonJanuary 15, 2019As many of you know, the GNCC series recently added a new and exciting class of racing to the weekend program in the form of the Specialized Turbo eMTB GNCC National Championship. The eMTBs first became popular with the GNCC Nation when they were made legal for course inspection several seasons ago. Given how many racers and how many eMTBs there are on a given weekend, it comes as no surprise that people would want to start racing them too! While there were some one-off races in 2018, this year there will be a full 8-round eMTB series held on GNCC race weekends (plus one event at Loretta’s). With all the excitement in the air surrounding the eBiking scene, now seemed like a good time to talk to some people who will be heavily involved in the GNCC eMTB racing in 2019.
This week I talked with Steve Brunton, who ran the Gear Bicycle Sales pits at the GNCCs last year. He will be heavily involved with Gear in 2019 as well.
![Tuesday Toolbox: Charlie Mullins]()
Tuesday Toolbox: Charlie MullinsJanuary 8, 2019As many of you know, the GNCC series recently added a new and exciting class of racing to the weekend program in the form of the Specialized Turbo eMTB GNCC National Championship. The eMTBs first became popular with the GNCC Nation when they were made legal for course inspection several seasons ago. Given how many racers and how many eMTBs there are on a given weekend, it comes as no surprise that people would want to start racing them too! While there were some one-off races in 2018, this year there will be a full 8-round eMTB series held on GNCC race weekends (plus one event at Loretta’s). With all the excitement in the air surrounding the eMTB scene, now seemed like a good time to talk to some people who will be heavily involved in the Specialized Turbo eMTB GNCC National Championship for 2019. This week I spoke with Charlie Mullins. Most remember him as a talented pro racer who won the GNCC National Championship in 2011 and a pair of National Enduro titles in 2010 and 2013, before an unfortunate wrist injury ended his pro career. However, he has found another passion in bicycle racing. His most recent racing exploits were at USA Cycling’s Cyclocross Nationals, where he placed second in the Masters 30-34 class. He is the top rider for Gear Bicycle Sales, a bicycle shop with many ties to GNCC racing. He, along with the rest of the team, will be competing in the new eBike series in 2019.
