#MountainRidgeGNCC

Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Chris Borich made the best of a bad-luck situation on his Yoshimura-equipped Suzuki QuadRacer R450 at round 10 of the 2011 ATV Grand National Cross Country series in Somerset, Pa., this weekend at the Mountain Ridge GNCC.

Although reigning ATV XC1 Champion Borich was battling up front for most of the race, he suffered a spot of bad luck on the final lap. While maneuvering through the rockiest section of the course, he wound up with a punctured tire. Once he realized his predicament, Borich tried to salvage as many points as possible and finished fifth.

“We were running good,” says Borich. “Top three all day on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki QuadRacer. But at the start of the last lap, I looked down and one of the rear tires was flat and all the tire balls were gone. So after that, I was basically trying to hang on… I ran third for a while, but it was hard to go fast with the flat and I ended up dropping back to fifth.”

Despite the fifth-place finish, Borich still holds sway in the class. With just three rounds to go before the next event in Ohio, the Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider has a 22-point lead over second place in the overall championship points.

National Guard Coastal Yokley Racing Team rider Jarrod McClure finished 11th overall and ninth in the XC1 Pro class at the Mountain Ridge GNCC. There were 131 total entries including 12 XC1 Pro racers.

Summary

The Mountain Ridge GNCC is a scenic, high elevation ATV park near the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset, Pa. The course consists of wide open high speed sections, mud holes and rocks of all sizes throughout. Rain earlier in the week made track conditions challenging, but near perfect.

Jarrod McClure had a great start and picked up the holeshot award. The first several miles were open trails and fields allowing the machine to bounce off the rev-limiter in top gear. McClure was fourth going into a long, extremely rough rock section at the seven-mile marker. Picking a good line and keeping your momentum was necessary in order to make it through safely. Unfortunately, his machine bottomed out on a big rock, and knocked his chain off. He jumped off and put it back on as quickly as possible. By now, all the pro riders had passed him while he worked to get back in the race.