#GrandNationalCrossCountrySeries

The Snowshoe GNCC is the most scenic (and toughest) race of the year. (Photo by Ken Hill)

Round 9 of the 2013 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series heads to Snowshoe Mountain Resort this weekend for the toughest, most spectacular and most unique race on the whole circuit, the AMSOIL Snowshoe GNCC. Four-time ATV champion Chris Borich leads the field into the final race before the summer break, but Saturday’s two-hour battle through the grueling woods of Snowshoe Mountain has the potential to shake things up in the XC1 class.

Set in the upscale ski village of West Virginia’s largest ski resort, this weekend’s Snowshoe GNCC promises to resurrect pieces of XC history with its live engine starts across the paved road located in the heart of Snowshoe’s village. The in town starts pay homage to the Blackwater 100-the original GNCC-where groups of five racers take off in five-second increments, making for a spectacular scene.

(Photo by Ken Hill)

The XC1 Pro ATV class has produced only two different winners in the first seven rounds of the 2013 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country season, despite some of the most highly contested lead battles in recent history.

Reigning champion Chris Borich and runner-up Walker Fowler have dominated the center of the podium up to this point, but there’s a stacked field of pro riders waiting to secure a win in the remaining six rounds.

This weekend, June 15 and 16, the series heads to Masontown, W. Va. for the second running of the Parts Unlimited Mountaineer Run GNCC. Lonestar/Precision/ITP’s Adam McGill matched his best finish of the season with second place last round, giving the West Virginia native momentum heading into his home state this weekend. McGill experienced mechanical issues at the last year’s Mountaineer Run GNCC, so there’s no doubt that McGill is looking for redemption this time around.

Kenny Rich Sr. won the Masters (50+) class at Mammoth GNCC.

Team ITP racers fought through the rain and mud to earn four class victories and seven podium finishes at round five of the 2013 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series in Park City, Ky. Meanwhile, at the Best In The Desert Silver State 300 in Nevada, Team Murray Motorsports / Del Amo Motorsports piloted its ITP-clad side-by-side to third overall on the 1900 class podium.

“GNCC courses are tough enough without mud, but when you factor in heavy rain, slippery, power-robbing mud and everything that comes with it, the 2013 Mammoth GNCC was a very challenging event. Considering the conditions and the fact that 15 percent of racers DNF’d, I’m very pleased that we won four classes, had two racers finish in the overall top 10 in the morning and grabbed a total of seven podiums,” says Pat McGuire, public relations / race support for ITP. “The Murray brothers had a another good showing in the Nevada desert, earning third using the new ITP UltraCross R-Spec 30-inch tires in the BITD SxS Pro ranks.”

Chris Borich looks for his fifth straight GNCC win this weekend. (Photo by Ken Hill)

Maxxis-backed Chris Borich has opened the 2013 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series with four straight wins. He’ll try to make it five in a row this weekend when the series heads to Park City, Ky. for the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Mammoth GNCC.

With 63 career wins to date, Borich is attempting to dethrone nine-time champion Bill Ballance – who has 67 wins – to become the winningest ATV racer in GNCC history. Seven-time ATV champ and 2003 bike champ Barry Hawk currently holds the all-time win record with a combined 68 wins between both disciplines, an achievement that could be reached and exceeded by Borich in 2013.

In just its second year hosting a GNCC, the Park Mammoth Resort offers some of the freshest trail on the circuit with plenty of single-track sections and technical terrain. Borich took the win at the inaugural event in 2012 but it wasn’t without a fight from AmPro Yamaha’s Walker Fowler as the duo ran side by side through the final turns of the race.

Walker Fowler (right) is looking for his first win of the season. (Photo by Ken Hill)

William Yokley jumped out to an early lead before damaging his machine.

Polaris / Coastal / CST / National Guard / Yoshimura / Yokley Racing Team driver William Yokley finished 33rd Overall and 13th in the XC1 Modified Class. Team driver Scott Kiger finished fourth Overall and third in the same class. There were 49 total entries including 21 XC1 Modified teams. William’s guest passenger was his wife Tina, and Scott’s passenger was Tyler King.

Yokley Racing Summary

The Racer Production promoters always lay out a good, challenging course for the competitors. This year, the four-mile course featured a combination of technical woods sections and faster open areas with multiple racing lines. Track conditions were very good and the temp was in the 70s.

Despite rolling his machine, Scott Kiger managed to recover and finish fourth overall and third in the XC1 Modified Class.

At the drop of the flag for the dead-engine start, the Polaris Team RZR XP 900s fired right up and were at the head of the pack heading into the woods. After some initial dicing, Yokley settled into the lead with Kiger close behind. Midway through lap 1, Kiger clipped a tree and flipped over on his top. He and his passenger got out, righted the machine, and took off in hot pursuit of the lead pack. On lap 3 of 6, Yokley experienced some bad luck when his front wheel came in contact with another machine’s rear wheel resulting in breaking a steering component. Unable to steer, his day was over.

Chris Borich begins his quest for his fifth straight AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series championship this weekend at the season-opening Moose Racing Westgate River Ranch GNCC.

Borich’s closest pursuer in 2012, Ohio’s Walker Fowler, returns to the front line this year aboard an all-new AmPro Yamaha team. As a rising star in the GNCC ranks, Fowler has chalked several wins throughout his career-including one win over Borich last season-but the young gun has found that beating the champ isn’t an easy feat. It’s also not one that Fowler plans to back away from any time soon.

West Virginia’s Adam McGill switched to a privateer-backed effort in 2012, causing a little bit of stress on his final results due to mechanical failures along the way. However, McGill managed to grab a race-win late in the season to give him fourth place overall in XC1 and a high level of confidence leading into the new season. McGill returns aboard his Lonestar/Precision/ITP Honda with high hopes of contesting for the championship.

Pennsylvania’s Chris Bithell will make his debut aboard a Bithell Racing Suzuki machine in 2013, a pretty drastic change from the last couple of seasons with the Factory Can-Am squad. However, a change in pace may be just what Bithell needs to put him over the edge for race wins this season.

Taylor Kiser reports that he will not be lining up for the season opener in his home state this weekend, and as of right now he does not have plans to contest the XC1 championship in 2013.

Chris Borich takes the checkers ahead of Taylor Kiser at the 2012 GNCC finale at the Loretta Lynn Ranch.

In a surprising bit of news, Racer Products has announced that the 2013 Grand National Cross Country Series will not make a stop at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. – the oldest race on the GNCC circuit.

“Due to a scheduling conflict, the Loretta Lynn’s venue will not be on the GNCC schedule for 2013,” says GNCC Event Director, Dean VanLeeuwen. “Loretta’s has given us nearly 30 years of good racing and we’re looking forward to possibly returning to the ranch in the future.”

According to the Racer Productions, the Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series saw almost 18,000 racer entries in 2012, the second most in its 35-year history. The 2012 GNCC season added 1,700 riders from 2011.

Highlighting the healthy 2012 season was the Unadilla GNCC, bringing 1,880 racers to New York’s well-known motocross venue and rewriting the GNCC history books with the highest-ever rider turnout. Also, the Ironman GNCC brought in the largest number of racers the venue has seen in its 18 years on the GNCC schedule.

“We are thankful for the many racers and families that have put their trust in the GNCC Racing team, making this series the most competitive and entertaining off-road motorcycle and ATV series in the world,” says Tim Cotter, GNCC director of events.

National Guard / Coastal / Bowers Motorcycle Supplies / Yokley Racing Team rider Jarrod McClure finished third Overall and third in the XC1 Pro Class at the 10th round of the 2012 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series in New Berlin, NY. There were 214 total entries including 13 XC1 Pro racers.

Yokley Racing Summary

The GNCC annual two month summer break is over and everyone was ready to get back to racing. Jarrod McClure has been riding and training regularly with his Pennsylvania neighbor, Chris Borich, so he was ready to go! The historic Unadilla has been the home to Pro Motocross events for more than forty years, and the racers are able race on the famed Professional and Amateur motocross courses as well as eight miles of adjoining woods sections. The conditions were almost perfect.

GBC Motorsports riders are coming off another successful weekend of racing, earning class wins in both the GNCC and WORCS series.

Limestone 100 GNCC

Hopes were high rolling into the second consecutive brand new facility for the Limestone 100 in Springville, Ind., and both the track and the team of GBC Motorsports riders delivered.

Leading the way this weekend was sophomore XC1 rider Kevin Yoho, who led early and kept himself within the lead pack through the race, even setting the fastest lap on Lap 3. Yoho finished the race in a season best sixth place and has been steadily improving with each round. Johnny Gallagher put in another consistent run for eighth place and remains in the sixth position in the XC1 season standings.

Braden Henthorn’s rough start landed him in 13th at the completion of Lap 1, but he overcame these early difficulties and climbed all the way to a podium spot. Henthorn finished second in the XC2 Pro-Am class, helping him maintain a slim points lead in the class standings. Randy Hamilton earned his first ever Pro-Am Top 5 finish and continues to improve rapidly in only his second year of GNCC competition.

Can-Am X-Team racers had a very busy weekend in three different racing series, picking up wins on two of them. Competing at the inaugural Limestone 100 GNCC, Can-Am X-Team racers earned four 4×4 class overall wins. As well, Can-Am pilots won both the Pro and Pro-Am classes at round five of the Texhoma Quad Racing Association (TQRA) series. Can-Am ATV and Commander side-by-side racers also went to work in the World Off-Road Championship Series in Southern California.

“Can-Am racers had a busy weekend with mixed results. We competed in three different racing series in three different states. Chris Bithell put in a good effort to finish fourth after he started the Pro class race at the back of the pack at the Limestone GNCC,” says Jimmie O’Dell, race manager, Can-Am. “Our Can-Am 4×4 racers tamed the new course, as Bryan Buckhannon, Cliff Beasley and Forrest Whorton each posted convincing wins their classes. In the WORCS series, Dillon Zimmerman put in another top-five performance on his Can-Am DS 450 while Josh Frederick salvaged a top-10 finish and still sits second in the points chase. And in Texas, Hunter Miller had a great weekend in the TQRA series winning two classes and finishing third on the UTV Pro class podium.”

The sixth stop of 13 on the 2012 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series schedule this year found the ATV competitors and their supporters in Springville, in the south-central part of Indiana, for the first Limestone 100. And while many of this large crowd had never plied the woodsy, hilly trails of this venue — centered around the Lawrence County Recreation Facility — they found the conditions to be similar to what’s found at The Ironman GNCC which takes place not far from here every October.

That’s a race that Team ITP’s Adam McGill knows very well, and he put his extensive experience to good use by nearly winning at Limestone. McGill ( Honda) worked his way up from a mid-pack start to hold fifth place at the end of the first 10-mile lap, then kept the pressure on to jam into first place on lap two. The West Virginia native led the majority of the race from that point (three laps) but on the last lap he physically ran out of gas — “I started to hit a wall,” as he described it — and had to settle for a safe second overall.

It was McGill’s fourth runner-up finish of the season, and kept him in second place in the premier XC1 Pro division point standings.

National Guard / Coastal / Bowers Motorcycle Supplies / Yokley Racing Team rider Jarrod McClure finished 87th Overall and 12th in the XC1 Pro Class after breaking a suspension component. There were 154 total entries including 12 XC1 Pro racers.

Summary

The Limestone 100 is another new venue this year on the GNCC schedule. The track featured some unique obstacles including rough creek beds and lots of hills. The warm weather was great for racing. McClure was coming off of a good run at the last GNCC in KY, and was looking forward to battling for a podium finish today.

McClure got a great start at the drop of the green flag, and grabbed the $250 Holeshot Award. He led for part of the way around the 10-mile course until he clipped a tree, and fell back to seventh place. He spent the next 3 laps charging his way up to fourth place. McClure was turning fast lap times, and was in position for a good finish.

BCS Performance / Can-Am X-Team racer Josh Creamer won the Pro and Pro-Am classes at round two of the 2012 New England ATV Motocross (NEATV-MX) series. In Can-Am / Grand National Cross Country racing action, five Can-Am racers won their classes this past weekend at the inaugural Can-Am Mammoth GNCC event held in Kentucky.

“Josh Creamer continued his Pro and Pro-Am class dominance by winning in the sandy Southwick soil aboard his DS 450. I was thrilled to see Richard Pelchat have such a great showing, challenge Josh and give us two riders on both the Pro and Pro-Am class podiums,” says Jimmie O’Dell, Race Manager, Can-Am. “In GNCC action, our morning Can-Am 4×4 racers keep impressing us with their convincing wins. To have Bryan Buckhannon, Cliff Beasley, Kevin Trantham and Forrest Whorton post victories, and to do it on the brand new Mammoth course, shows a lot of dedication, drive and focus. Unfortunately a badly bent sprocket literally derailed Chris Bithell’s chance to shine in Kentucky, but he’ll be back at round six ready to challenge for the XC1 Pro class overall.”

National Guard / Coastal / Bowers Motorcycle Supplies / Yokley Racing Team rider Jarrod McClure finished fourth overall and fourth in the XC1 Pro Class. There were 189 total entries including 14 XC1 Pro racers.

Yokley Racing Summary

The Mammoth is a new location on the GNCC schedule this year, and everyone was excited to experience a track that had never been ridden on. The facility is a beautiful property located right next to Park Mammoth Resort Golf Course, and is a combination of fast, rolling field sections as well as lots of tight, freshly cut, and technical woods trails. It was a hot day in the 80’s and the woods sections featured an abundance of rocks.

At the drop of the flag, McClure got a good start and was battling for position in turn 1 when he ran over another machine’s wheel. The impact launched his ATV in the air with the rear end about four feet higher in the air than the front. McClure managed to hang on and actually ran with the leaders in third place going into lap 2. Lapped riders were difficult to get around in the tight sections since there was usually only one racing line.