GNCC
Racing Series QuickFill Release
Racer Productions Releases
Chris Borich Video & Responds to Controversy
St. Clairsville, OH
(10/17/2007) - Ever have one of
those weeks where everything is going along smoothly,
a big project you’ve put a great deal of work
in is winding down, you’re about to see how
it all ends and then—bam!—you get run
over by with a pack of angry quadcycles? That’s
what’s everyone at Racer Productions probably
feels like. I know I do.
Racer Productions has been producing events since
1972. In fact, we’re one race away from
wrapping our 35 th year of racing. Integrity is
at the core of what this company does. The basic
plan that Dave Coombs Sr. set forth way back when
is this: put on fun, fair and safe races. He did
it throughout his life, and that’s what
we carry forward for him. In fact, Racer Productions
does a lot more than just put on GNCC races; we’ve
put on many, many other huge events, hosted many
high-stakes championship battles, dealt with many
big-time sponsors and watched many make a career
out of participating in these races, working with
riders and teams in these races, and even covering
these races.
That includes 26 straight years of hosting the
largest amateur motocross race in the world—the
AMA Amateur National MX Championships at Loretta
Lynn’s—more than 30 years of AMA Pro
Motocross Nationals, and 20-plus years of the
biggest ATV motocross race in the world at Loretta
Lynn’s. You name a star in this industry,
and they have raced Racer Productions’ events.
From Bob Hannah to Ricky Carmichael; from Gary
Denton to Barry Hawk; Scott Summers to Juha Salminen.
In all of these races over all of these years,
all of these championship fights over all of this
prestige, pride, money and glory, never once,
ever, has Racer Productions been accused of trying
to rig a race or cheating a rider because we wanted
someone else to win. Never. How can we be sure?
Go ahead and ask these riders who have been in
these battles, or the factories, anyone else involved.
Yes, this 2007 ATV GNCC Championship is historic
and big to a lot of people, but it’s not
the first time our company has dealt with a title
fight, and you can go back and look at our track
record every single time and never find evidence
of altering the outcome of a race for anyone’s
gain. Not through 99 motos, between 33 classes,
every year at Loretta Lynn’s, the highest-pressure
environment that exists in this sport. That’s
through moto after moto with millions of dollars
on the line at the High Point MX National and
Steel City as names like Carmichael, Stewart,
McGrath, Emig, Johnson, Bailey and ever other
motocross rider you’ve ever heard of have
spent their careers. The AMA Toyota Motocross
Championship is the most prestigious motocross
title in the world, and Racer Productions is the
only company that has two rounds of that series.
Or ask the parents of the kids who ride on the
little pee-wee track off to the side that we set
up for them. They are racing for trophies and
smiles—nothing more, nothing less—and
they always have a fair, fun race.
Integrity is at the heart of what we do. Our
track record over the last 35 years speaks for
itself.
And that brings us to back to this year’s
GNCC ATV battle between Chris Borich and Bill
Ballance. It started with “frame gate”
at the beginning of the season and now extends
to this weekend’s Power Line Park GNCC in
St. Clairsville, Ohio. By now anyone interested
surely knows what went on this past weekend: Chris
Borich crossed the finish first, but not before
a cameraman for the Versus TV crew witnessed (and
videotaped) him chasing the leader Ballance down
the trail at the end, then Borich suddenly making
a hard right hand turn off of the track, which
allowed him to miss a significant portion of the
track, get back on the track well in front of
Ballance and get to the finish first.
It’s been discussed ad nauseam for days
now. We were okay with that, though, because we
know people are always going to fall on different
sides of an argument. Incredibly though, Borich
fans feel that Chris is innocent, and the Ballance
fans think Chris is guilty, yet Racer Productions
are the ones accused of being biased?
Apparently, our spotless history of being an
objective and professional race promoter hasn’t
helped us this time, as people are taking shots
at us right now all over the wild, wild web. It’s
getting downright slanderous, and even threatening,
and simply going much further than it should.
But before I go into that anymore, here is the
raw Versus TV footage of exactly what happened
on the last lap at Power Line Park:
The first rider going down the trail is Bill
Ballance. The rider following directly behind
is Chris Borich. The amount of distance that Borich
missed by making that turn off the course and
up through the woods before re-entering the course
well ahead of Ballance is approximately 200 yards
(not 300 yards, as originally described by an
official, but still the length of two football
fields, as measured on Tuesday afternoon).
After viewing the tape, Racer Productions felt
that it was obvious that Borich’s excursion
off the track directly affected the outcome of
this race: He was behind Ballance when he left
the track; he was ahead of him when he returned,
and he stayed ahead of him right across the finish
line, which was just four miles further down the
trail. As a result, Racer Productions docked Chris
Borich two positions, and Ballance was declared
the winner, and Chris Bithell second. An appeal
has been filed, and the AMA will decide it from
here.
Racer Productions has also been accused of not
having any consistency with our rules. However,
the Borich two-position penalty was actually taken
straight from a previous incident and penalty
against Bill Ballance. Back in June of 2004, Ballance
also crossed the finish at the Patriot GNCC in
Virginia first. But we penalized him and pushed
him to third-place. Read the press release from
the conclusion of that race three years ago right
here:
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For Immediate Release
June 15, 2004
Cook Captures First GNCC Win
Pro rookie grabs first podium, benefits
from post-race ruling
Petersburg, VA – The rugged Patriot
AMA Grand National Cross Country round put
the nation’s best ATV woods riders
to the test, and the action wasn’t
done even after the race was over. GNCC
points leader Bill Ballance once again rode
an amazing race and pulled away to victory
on the final lap. But after the race, it
was discovered that Ballance had gotten
off track while avoiding traffic, and he
was assessed a two-position penalty…
This handed the win to Four-Stroke
Tech rookie Bryan Cook, who was already
thrilled by taking the first podium of his
career when he crossed the line in second….
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… According to GNCC rules,
a rider can leave the course and create a new
line to get around a bottleneck. A rider must
jump back onto the course as soon as possible,
but Ballance was unable to find an opening and
circulated outside the course markings in a field.
It was not an intentional course-cut on Ballance’s
part, but he was captured by TV cameras riding
outside the course, and a two-position penalty
was assessed.
The bottom line is this: The winner of any race
means less to Racer Productions than a level-playing
field and a fair outcome. In any contest, be it
professional motocross, GNCC racing, national
championship-caliber amateur racing, or just an
on-any-Sunday local event, the rules must be upheld,
and the racing must be above the board. That is
why the results of the Power Line Park GNCC were
corrected: it was the right thing to do.
Continue to question our integrity if you want,
but we believe our decision and our history stands
for itself. We also believe in our racers, both
Bill Ballance and Chris Borich, and hope that
you can spare both of them from the same slanderous
remarks we are asking you to spare us from as
well.
We look forward to the final round of racing
next weekend at the Ironman. That’s it for
now—look for the rest of Quick Fill in its
regular spot tomorrow afternoon.
About
GNCC Racing:
The
AMA/ATVA-sanctioned Grand National Cross Country
series is America’s premier off-road racing
series. The 13-round series is produced exclusively
by Racer Productions. Cross-country racing is
one of the most physically demanding sports in
the world. The nearly three-hour long GNCC races
lead as many as 1800 riders through tracks ranging
from eight to twelve miles in length. With varied
terrain including hills, woods, mud, dirt, rocks
and motocross sections, GNCC events are tests
of both survival and speed. GNCC Racing airs weekly
television shows on Versus (formerly Outdoor Life
Network) every Saturday at 3 p.m. and Thursday
at 4 p.m. beginning on April 14. GNCC featured
sponsors include Parts Unlimited, Moose, Maxxis,
Pirelli, Wiseco, Acerbis, Elka, Geico, Klotz,
FMF, ITP and Tire Balls, and riders compete for
over $3 million in series prizes and contingency
money. Associate sponsors include Alpinestars,
Cometic, EK Chain, HiPer Technology, Laegers,
Motion Pro, Moose Utility Division, Powersport
Grafx, Pro Clean, Race Tools, REM, Scott, Thor,
Twin Air, Weekend Warrior, and MotoTee’s.
Media Sponsors include Racer X Illustrated, ATV
Rider, ATV Sport, www.ATVRiders.com,
Dirt Rider and ATV Insider. For more information
log on to www.GNCCRacing.com.
www.gnccracing.com
122 Vista Del Rio Drive,
Morgantown, WV 26508
304-284-0084
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