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GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 6 - "Rock
Run" |
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Patton, PA (5/28/2011)
- Walker Fowler scored a rare feat at the Rock
Run GNCC, round seven of the 2011 Can-Am Grand
National Cross Series in Patton, Pennsylvania.
The Ballance Racing Yamaha rider is one of only
a few XC2 Am Pro riders to score the overall victory
at a GNCC against the XC1-class Pros.
Chris Borich was the first to cross the finish
line in the inaugural running of the Pennsylvania
race and the Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider finished
first the XC1 division, but Fowler claimed the
overall victory based on adjusted time. Although
he started from the second wave with the rest
of the XC2 class, Fowler completed the fast
and rocky four-lap race just over 20 seconds
faster than Borich, giving Fowler the overall
win.
"This is more than awesome, I don't even
know how to feel right now," said Fowler.
"Dustin Canipe was ahead of me after the
start and he set a real good pace and we actually
caught a lot of the Pros on the first lap. Canipe
made a little bobble at the end of the first
lap and I got around him and then I just put
the hammer down."
Once Fowler latched on to the front-runners,
he needed only to stay close the leaders to
have a chance at the overall.
"There was a freight train of Pros up
there and nobody was able to pass and I guess
the pace up there wasn't as fast as the guys
in the back wanted to go and I just got up to
them and paced off of them and made it happen."
Borich extended his lead in the XC1 division
with his class win, which came after a last
lap battle with round-six winner Brian Wolf.
Borich moved into the physical lead in the race
at the midway point and held off Wolf and Ballance
Racing Yamaha's Taylor Kiser to get to the checkers
first.
"It was a pretty good battle behind me,
Wolf got into second and we started rolling
pretty good together," said Borich. "It's
always good to add to a points lead and I was
happy to accomplish that today."
"Hat's off to Walker, he rode well and
deserved to win," added Borich. "The
way that track was it was easier to catch up
than to pull away."
Wolf wound up with the runner-up position in
the XC1 division, which reinforced his win at
the Indy 100, while Kiser rounded out the podium.
"I didn't think there would be much passing
going on today, but there was more than I thought
there would be," said Wolf. "We got
a bad start but worked up to second and then
going into the white flag Borich was going to
let me by in that field and I thought, 'no way,
it's your turn to lead.' I was close and then
we hit a dust section and I had to take my goggles
off. I had nothing for him after that."
Kiser's podium was his third of the year, and
it solidifies his third-place status in the
series points.
"I got a pit board on the first lap saying
Walker was coming and I thought, 'oh, man, here
we go.' But the kid rode good and really happy
for him," said Kiser. "We got off
to a better start than we have been and the
bike was working really good, we finally got
it figured out, and we've finally got things
going in the right direction."
