GNCC Amateur ATV Racing
Yadkin Valley Stomp - Round #10
Yadkinville, NC
September 9, 2006
Morning ATV Race Report
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| GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 10 "The Stomp" |
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Jeff
Stoess, ATVriders.com Test Rider along with several
other magazine editors were htting the track on
Kymco Mongoose ATVs this weekend in the Sportsman
Class |
With the fog lifting and the track looking a bit better
since the Juniors took off the top of mud, the 06 Stomp
was looking far better than the dusty conditions riders
faced in 2005.
With 237 riders lined up on the grid, it was time to
see who took the summer off, and who trained for the
last four races of the year. There was also a strong
Sportsman class presence on this weekend as Kymco brought
out a few trailers full of quads for a handful of different
industry folks to test out and race against the top
manufacturers. I had spoken with Jeff Stoess on Friday
while he was getting used to the Kymco in and around
the pits. He had some good stuff to say about the quad,
with some questions that would be answered after he
had a chance to race the quad under the harsh conditions
of GNCC racing. You will be able to read more about
the Kymco Quads in the post race review by Jeff and
Harlen Foley. Since we are talking about quads by brand.
There was one manufacturer that took the podium 18 out
of the possible 42 spots at the end of the 2 hour race.
The next closest manufacturer to hit the podiums was
a distant 9 out of the 42 spots by Yamaha, then 7 spots
by Kawasaki. 2 spots each were taken from Suzuki, Can-AM,
Polaris and even Kymco. OK you guessed it, that left
Honda being the clear cut winner getting almost half
of the possible podiums positions for the Yadkin Valley
GNCC.
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| Kyrie
Bradford(right) poses with 5 Time Women’s
Champion, Traci Cecco and just one year ago Kyrie
made her racing debut when she turned 16, and
she is on the way to becoming the face of a future
champion |
Stefanie
Verkade started racing in the Women's Class fulltime
in 2004 and has finished out every year in 4th
place and is once again holding down the 4th spot
for the third consecutive year |
On a downside for the event, a report came in that
quite a few riders suffered yellow jacket stings. Stefanie
Verkade in the womens class got seven stings to the
head and had to pull out of the race. Ok enough of this
stuff, lets talk about the race.
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Angel Atwell Grabbed the Holeshot followed by
Traci Cecco and Stephanie Parton, and the three
remained in a tight pack for the majority of the
race |
The popular womens class took the field and everyone had
a bit of a surprise when Stepahanie Parton and Angel Atwell
had started the second lap about thirty seconds ahead
of Traci Cecco. The women stayed like this for the first
two laps, until Traci had enough and slipped by both riders
to take the lead and keep it for the rest of the race.
Stephanie and Angel stayed in the same order finishing
second and third. Traci has mentioned that since she already
secured the number one plate for the 2006 season that
we may see her in the afternoon race a few times this
season. Super Seniors had a pretty good race behind the
leader of the class John Gallagher, SR. John Lead wire
to wire. However Richard Rudloff was running a great race
in second until the third lap. He was over taken by Bill
Cole and his Honda who had worked his way up from 7th
into the number position on the last lap. Jim Houston
took the third podium spot aboard his Honda since Rudloff
never completed his fourth lap.
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Can Am's Scott Kilby lead the charge early in
the Utility Mod Class, but Maxxis's Brock Parker
passed Kilby to win his 6th race of the year and
is on his way to the Championship |
Now its time to cover the big boys of the GNCC Racing
classes, the Utility Quads. In the Unlimited Utility
class Kevin Johnson was the early class leader and fighting
for the lead for the first three laps. Kevin did not
finish the fourth lap leaving the door open for Mike
Shelley on his Kawasaki to take the win. Jesse Jenkins
finished second and Johnathon Bowers ending the race
in the third position both of which were also riding
the popular Kawasaki Utility Quad. In the heavily stacked
Utility Modified class Can-AM is trying hard to take
a victory in this class. Scott Kilby is the current
class points leader with 10 races in the books. Scott
finished the Yadkin Valley Stomp in third position behind
second place Kawasaki rider Bryan Buckhannon. Brock
Parker aboard his Kawasaki ran a start to finish race
in the lead and won the class by a little over three
minutes. Brock has six first place finishes as of now
which makes him the class leader with the throw aways
instead of the fourth place he sits in points with all
of the races counted. With Jim Stack at the race we
all thought that he may try to run up front. Especially
with his aggressive start pin-balling off a few of the
riders after turn two. It was a surprise to see him
pull out after two laps, finishing in 10th position.
The Utility Stock division is another heavily stacked
class with the Can-AM quad. Mike Swift placed his Can-AM
aboard the number one position on the podium by just
over thirty seconds. There was a battle brewing with
the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers. Kevin Trantham
piloted his Kawasaki into the second place position
with Chad Hill a mere three seconds behind him on his
Honda for the third position finish. Sam Williams tried
hard for the third place finish but was edged off the
podium by three seconds. Mike Penland ran into some
troubles on the second lap and had no chance top recover
from a 59 minute lap finishing in the 10th position.
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| Jeff
Stoess lead the charge around turn one on Kymco
with Jeff finishing out the day in third behind
Rowlings and Franklin on Honda TRX450R machines |
ATVrider
test rider, Michael Newsom, was able to pull away
from ATV Action's Adam Sick to finish out the
day in 4th place with Adam finishing in 7th place |
The Sportsman class was also known as the Kymco class
this week. With industry folks, critics, and pro riders
running on the Kymcos it was interesting to see how
the new comers could rate against the industry giants.
Unfortunately they were not able to hang with the big
boys. John R Rowling put his Honda across the line in
the number one spot with Shon Franklin close behind
on his Honda. Past Spartan GNCC winner Jeff Stoess came
in third aboard his Kymco with a 26th overall finish
in the morning race. A Yamaha mounted machine by Michael
Newsome finished fourth and then the 8 remaining Kymcos
finished. The Sport class had Joey Marguera and his
Yamaha winning and Scott Sleppy finishing second aboard
his Honda. The third place was taken Dan McConnaughey
aboard the only other Kymco racing in the AM race.
Novice C 16-21 was won by Brian Parker followed by
Kenny Samson and third was earned by Jordan Gilkerson
who was trying his best to get on the podium. Gilkerson
worked his way from 14th position all the way up to
3 seconds behind third. Novice C 22+ had Glenn Pritchard
aboard his Suzuki taking the win from second place finisher
Nathan Beyers on a Honda. Beyers was running in the
lead the entire race but gave up three minutes on the
last lap which cost him the lead. 3rd place was taken
by Jeramiah Williams who worked his way up through the
field from ninth position over the four laps.
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| Bill
Balance's YFZ450 carried Brian Parker to the win
in the Novice C 16-21 Class and finish a career
best 5th Overall to take over 2nd place in points |
Jordan
Gilkerson finished out the day in 3rd place, which
was his best finish since the season opener in
Florida where he finished out the day in 4th place |
Novice C 29+ had Michael Galbreath winning on a Honda
ahead of the two Yamahas that were chasing him by James
Barron in second, and Stephen Bobie in third. Novice
C 35+ was won by only one of the two Suzuki first place
class finishers Piloted by chuck Dunn. There were three
Yamaha riders right behind him trying to take away the
top spot on the podiums as the next three riders finished
a mere thirty seconds behind Dunn. Dave Oplinger, Gary
Whitacre and William Graham were the riders on the move.
This could have been one of the best races with in a
race as these riders had to work their way into their
positions from as far back as 11th position. With the
last of the novice classes to report on the Novice C
Stock class had another pretty good little battle. Shawn
Collins in first, John Ross taking second and Ian McPhail
finishing in third all rode their Hondas to the podium
with Shawn and Josh moving into podium positions from
as far back as 5th.
First Year Racer (16-24) was another great race within
the big race today. Matt Dalton fell into the win on
his Honda followed by Joshua Biland on his Honda. Ken
Kelly rode his Kawasaki to the third place finish. Early
and Middle race leader Ryan Withered had a nice lead
entering the final lap and ran into troubles dropping
7 minutes and sliding from first to fourth. First Year
Racer (25+) was a close race with Chris Jones taking
his Honda to the checkers first with Mike Ulery in second
on a Yamaha. Jason Randall was only a few seconds behind
bringing his Honda in for the final podium position.
All in all Yadkinville put on a really nice race and
the community showed some really nice support with the
mayor making some pre race speeches, and local wineries
out showing their goods. To top it all off even local
celebrity Heather Cox from American Idol season 2006
came out and sang the National Anthem and signed autographs
for her fans. I think she made a few hundred new race
fans. See you in New York
The
AMA-sanctioned Suzuki 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, trees, mud, dirt, rocks and motocross
sections, GNCC events are tests of both survival and
speed. GNCC featured sponsors include Parts Unlimited,
Moose, Maxxis, Pirelli, Wiseco, Klotz, FMF and ITP,
and riders compete for over $2.8 million in series prizes
and contingency money. Associate sponsors include Moose
Utility Division, Scott, Acerbis, Alpinestars, Cometic,
Outerwears, Twin Air, Polisport Plastics, Thor, Motion
Pro, Hyper Wheels, Elka Suspension, MotoTee's, Weekend
Warrior, Owens Motorsports, Tom's Marina Polaris, EK
Chain and Laeger's. Media Sponsors include Dirt Rider
Magazine, ATV Sport Magazine, www.ATVRiders.com
and Racer X Illustrated. For more information log on
to www.GNCCRacing.com.
www.gnccracing.com
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