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Chris Borich
Takes Third in a Row with GNCC Win at Loretta Lynn's
Bill Ballance, Matt Smiley
join him on the podium
| GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 5 "Loretta Lynn's" |
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| #2
Chris Borich |
Union, SC (4/29/2007) –
East Coast ATV's Chris Borich has showed the skills of
a champion during the last few seasons of Can-Am Grand
National Cross Country Series racing. Each season his
championship bid ends at the hands of Bill Ballance, but
Borich has learned his lessons well, and me be peaking
this season. By capturing the Acerbis Loretta Lynn's GNCC
over the weekend, the 24-year-old now has three-straight
GNCC wins and the series points lead.
Borich has always been fast, but now he's learned how
to go fast without trying too hard. At Loretta's he
calmly took the early lead and controlled the race from
the front, never riding over his head and never letting
the competition get close enough to challenge him.
"Over the years I've learned that if I pound on
the quad too hard I usually wind up breaking something,"
said Borich, who topped a slow-starting Ballance and
veteran favorite Matt Smiley for the win. "So I'm
just learning to baby it a bit. For the last three races
I've had a new Curtis Sparks motor, and it's awesome,
I can just run it a gear high. With my stock motor,
I used to have to just rev the crap out of it. I got
the lead by the time we got to the woods and just tried
to cruise all day."
Ballance got a terrible start on his factory Yamaha
and would have to work his way through the pack. Borich,
meanwhile got around ITP Holeshot Winner Taylor Kiser
and West Virginia's Brent Sturdivant to take the early
lead. He rode in control of that duo for the first half
of the race, and built up just enough of a lead so that
Ballance was unable to threaten him once he got to the
front of the pack.
While Ballance did lose the series' lead with his runner
up finish, his string of two wins and three seconds
on the season leaves him well in the hunt for a record-braking
eighth-straight GNCC championship. Smiley, who rides
with Borich on the East Coast ATV squad, collected his
first GNCC podium since 2005, silencing critics who
believed Mighty Matt was done. With Ballance and Smiley
coming through the pack, there was a hint of old-school
with the two veterans working their way to front.
Sturdivant and Kiser held tough against the veterans
to notch fourth and sixth overall, respectively, while
LTERacing.com's Chris Bithell earned fourth. Houser/GT
Thunder Honda's Chris Jenks made a run at Borich mid-way
through the race when he passed Sturdivant in the pits
and made a run at Borich, but ultimately crashed back
into the pack and finished 12th, continuing his season-long
run of bad luck.
Borich, meanwhile, may have finally figured out how
to avoid such fate. "I looked back on the first
lap and saw Sturdivant behind me, and we've done some
training together at my house, so I just put it on cruise
and rode with him," said Borich. "I was just
having a good time out there. Then after the pit, I
saw Ballance and Smiley coming on the motocross track.
I just hammered down a bit, but I knew as long as I
kept at least five seconds on them I would be fine.
Two hours is a lot of time on a quad, so I just wanted
to make sure we made it to the finish."
GT Thunder/Yamaha's Brandon Sommers continued his dominance
of the XC2 Pro Am class with his fifth-straight win.
Don Ockerman took the ATVRiders.com Holeshot award but
ultimately ran into mechanical troubles. After fighting
through the rough, whooped out Loretta Lynn's track
for two hours, Kyle Martin and Ryan Lane crossed the
line in second and third in the class.
The morning race has witnessed similar dominance from
Yamaha's Traci Cecco, who won her fifth morning overall
in five races. It was close again, though, as several
riders from different classes came within seconds of
bumping Cecco out of the top overall spot. Angel Atwell
came up just two seconds short for second overall and
second in the Women's class, while U2 class rider Mike
Benson was just another second back on his Four Stroke
Tech Kawasaki KFX700. And then only two more seconds
separated the fourth place rider, Yamaha Blaster mounted
Joey "Bam" Margaria, who won the Sport class.
Rick Cecco finally broke through to win the Open 4x4
class on his Can-Am Outlander 800, Cliff Beasley took
his Can-Am Outlander 500 to the 4x4 Lites win, and Michael
Swift won the 4x4 Limited class, giving Can-Am a clean
sweep of the 4x4 classes.
Walker Fowler captured the Youth Production (13-15)
0-300cc class, giving him wins in all four rounds he
has competed in this year.
Canton, Ohio's Dylan Bradford won the Youth ATV overall
on a Cobra.
The 2007 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series
continues in two weeks with the Wiseco John Penton GNCC
in Athens, OH on May 12 and 13.
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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