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GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 2 - "The
General" |
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Washington, GA - Chris Borich
made it two wins in a row in the 2011 Can-Am Grand
National Cross Series with an exciting victory
at the Maxxis General GNCC - round two of the
series in Washington, Georgia.
Racing was close all day, with four riders
freight-training nose-to-trail for much of the
two-hour race. Warnert Racing Can-Am's Chris
Bithell moved into the lead on the opening lap
and held it for most of the day with Borich,
Adam McGill and Brian Wolf following closely
behind. However, on the final lap, Bithell and
Borich broke away into their own personal battle
for the lead.
With half a lap to go Borich made his move,
cutting under Bithell in a sweeping turn on
one of the fastest portions of the track. The
Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider made the pass stick
and held on to take the win by just three seconds
over Bithell.
"That last lap I knew it was going to
be pretty much a free for all," Borich
said of his battle with Bithell. "I pulled
up along side him a couple of times but he had
a wheel on me so I let him go. Then when we
got to the motocross track I went under him
in one of the turns and took the lead."
Bithell was in position to win this race last
year, as well, but ran out of gas on the final
lap. This year, he was at least able to come
away with second place points after turning
in a hard-fought and impressive performance.
"It was a good race," said Bithell.
"We fought back and forth all day, trying
different lines, and he got the better of me.
But I'll be back to win one for sure."
Third went to Bithell's Can-Am teammate, Adam
McGill, who was in contention for the win up
until he lost touch with the leaders on the
next to last lap when a lapper got between him
and the Bithell/Borich battle.
"I didn't start real good, but I put my
head down and caught up with those guys and
waited for a mistake," said McGill.
Ballance Racing Yamaha's Taylor Kiser finished
fourth, a position he worked into after getting
squeezed out in the second turn and starting
the race near the back of the pack.
Honda rider Jarrod McClure ran near the front
early on and finished just under 30 seconds
behind Kiser for fifth, his best finish in over
a year.
Johnny Gallagher was sixth ahead of fellow
Yamaha rider and XC1 rookie Kevin Yoho, while
Bryan Cook put his FRE KTM into eighth after
grabbing the $250 Motosport.com Holeshot Award
to start the race.
Honda riders Donnie Ockerman and Craig Bowman
rounded out the top 10.
Wolf was credited with 14th after blowing an
engine with a lap-and-a-half to go in the race.
At the time the Honda rider was running with
the lead pack.
