2005 GNCC - Round 6 - Hurricane Mills,
TN - Loretta Lynn's
Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch was
the destination for the 6th round of the series, which
historically has the largest racer turnout of the
year and this year was no different with a season
high of 572 riders signing up for the event despite
the miserable weather forecasted for the weekend.
The first wave of heavy rain moved in
Thursday night, which forced the Racer Production
crew to move the Pro Pits and make several track changes,
but everything changed once again, when another line
of storms rolled in Friday night catching everyone
off guard as several more inches of rain fell, which
was enough for the river to escapes its banks and
flash flood the low lying areas where many had parked
and were camping for the night. Several vehicles and
trailers were left submerged in the water before they
could react and move to higher ground, and several
miles of the track was underwater.
Once again, the racer production crew
quickly reacted and moved the entire track to the
other side of the road and shifted the starting area
down the road around a mile away from parking area,
and the Pro Pits were once again moved and the teams
were forced to carry their canopies and supplies to
the other side of the road, which amazingly only delayed
the racing action by one hour, and it was determined
that both the Morning and Afternoon races would only
go three laps regardless of the lap times.
The Morning race went off without a
hitch as over 300 riders headed into the hills to
conquer the mud and the water. Alba Actions,Traci
Cecco, grabbed the Holeshot in the Women’s Class,
but by the end of the 1st lap, Stephanie Parton had
taken over the lead and would cruise her way to her
third win of the season and tie Traci Cecco with three
wins each as the women’s championship remains
an intense battle.
Billy Good made his Stock class debut
last season at Loretta Lynn’s race and went
on to win the championship, and he continued his domination
this year by winning the overall once again by over
five minutes over 2nd place finisher Jarrod McClure
with TJ Lenig working his way up from the back to
put his ATK back on the podium for the 3rd straight
race as the Stock Class once again sweeps the podiums
for the 6th time this year.
Thomas Wright put in an incredible race
and capture his fourth win of the season in the 35+
C Class, and more impressively, he finished a career
best 7th overall as he worked his East Coast Honda
450R past the Stock Class riders. John Gallagher was
also back on top as he won his fifth race of the season
and continues to lead the Super Senior class for the
second year in a row. Other notable finish was Neil
Belcher winning another one aboard his Polaris in
the Kawasaki dominated Utility Unlimited class.
By the afternoon race, the track had
deteriorated and only half of the racers would complete
the entire three lap race. The battle in the Pro Class
was intense with Greg Trew grabbing the Holeshot with
William Yokley right behind him. Early into the lap,
Yokley would pass Trew and take over the lead with
Bill Ballance and Chris Borich moving in behind Yokley.
By the 2nd lap, the top three remained the same with
Bill Ballance taking over the lead as they would swap
positions back and forth every couple of miles. By
the end of the race, William Yokley was able to take
back over the lead and claim his first win of the
season with Jeremy Rice working his way up from 6th
to finish only a few seconds back in 2nd place with
Bill Ballance taking the checkered flag in third.
Chris Borich would go on to finish in 4th after catching
a rut with his front tire which tossed him over the
bars and became pinned underneath his Honda with only
a few miles to go. The banged up and goggle less,
Chris Borich, remounted his Honda and was able to
track down pass Chris Jenks within a half mile of
the finish line and is once again tied with Bill Ballance
for the Championship.
The biggest surprise of the race was
to see Pro Am Rider, Scott Barron, taking the checkered
flag right behind Jenks, which created some controversy
over who actually finished 3rd overall because of
a delay in scoring the top 6 riders after William
Yokley wrecked after taking the checkered flag from
all the excitement of winning the race, which prevented
anyone from getting scored right away and created
some confusion about whether Scott Barron had finished
in less than a minute behind Bill Ballance. Over the
next two hours, the 3rd overall position was swapped
back and forth between Ballance and Barron as they
would both take to the Podium, but in the end, Bill
Ballance was awarded the 3rd Overall position.
Other notable finishes, Johnny Gallagher
put in his best ride of the season with an 8th Overall
finish and Brad Page made his GNCC return with an
impressive 14th Overall finish. Several Pro Am Riders
(Scott Barron, Adam McGill, Duane Johnson, Brian Schmid,
and Bryan Hulsey) all crested the top 20 Overall.
Florida resident, Taylor Kiser lead the charge in
the 4 Stroke A Class and finished in 23rd Overall,
and Tyler Lenig finally got off to a descent start
and was able to take his first win of the season and
bring Brandon Sommers five race winning streak to
an end in the 4 Stroke B Class.
By the time all the racing action wrapped
up Saturday evening, the river receded back to within
its banks, which was a relief to many of those stranded
on small islands that formed during the flooding.
Check out the ATVriders.com Forums Race
Coverage for a complete and indepth reports from the
Loretta Lynn’s GNCC
