| GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 10 - "Unadilla" |
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Chris Borich Wins 2nd Straight |
New Berlin, NY - The threat is
real now. East Coast ATV’s Chris Borich
notched another Grand National Cross Country win
after a big battle at the Can-Am GNCC at Unadilla,
extending his lead to eight in the GNCC point
standings with three rounds to go. After a crazed
race that saw five riders with a shot at the win
on the last lap, Bill Ballance—the seven-time
and defending GNCC Champion working on a record
breaking eighth title—was second, with Duane
Johnson third.
Borich had to work his way back from early
trouble. He started the final lap in fourth
and even suffered from some clutch problems,
but then put on a charge that got him into the
lead. “I just had a bad beginning there,”
said Borich. “A rock got stuck in the
wheel and I went pretty far back and just started
pushing hard,” said Borich who started
the last lap in fourth. “I got by Bill
and all those guys that got bottled up on the
last lap. I tried to set sail and he (Bill)
caught back up and passed me right at the end.
I got back by him and just tried to hold him
off.”
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| #2
Chris Borich extends his points lead to
8 Points over 7 Time GNCC Champion, Bill
Ballance |
Ballance came oh-so-close to grabbing the win.
“There were a lot of guys riding good
out there today,” said Ballance. “It
was passing all over the place. Actually going
into the last lap, it was McGill and me, Duane
Johnson and Borich was behind him. I felt pretty
confident that I might be able to make a pass
on McGill and maybe get a win and have Chris
finish third or fourth, but it didn’t
work out quite like that. Adam locked wheels
with another rider, and I just had nowhere to
go. I slid up under him and we were trying to
get the bikes apart, and Chris and Duane went
around there. I charged up and caught Chris,
made a pass with not even a half-lap to go.
I went up on the top of the ridge, which was
the fastest line through the day, but there
was a lapper there, and I think he kind of freaked
out when he heard Chris down there revving so
hard, so he kind of eased off and Chris jumped
right back in front of me.”
The duo raced hard all the way through the
final turns, with Borich winning by just a few
bike lengths after two hours of racing.
“You have to get worried when it’s
this close, getting down to championship crunch
time,” said Ballance. “I’ve
been in some real pressure points before where
I had to make things happen.”
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Duane Johnson secures first Holeshot
Award & Podium finish of the season |
As for Johnson, his podium was a long time
coming. “I got the holeshot and I still
didn’t have the confidence to run that
speed the first lap,” said Johnson, who
collected $100 from ITP for nailing the start.
“I finally tried to stay with the top
leaders and see what they’re doing. We
got into lappers and it was just crazy out there.
Everybody would get hung up; you’d get
in the lead and then you’d drop back to
forth or so. I caught McGill and Bill in another
jam up with lappers and got back into second.
Bill got around me and I just hung on for third.”
Borich answered any doubts about how hard
he worked over the summer, fighting hard for
the win in an early battle with Ballance and
Adam McGill, and then surviving an unbelievable
charge down the stretch from LTERacing.com’s
Chris Bithell. Ballance struggled with some
equipment issues and persevered for third, McGill
had a big crash that knocked him to fourth,
and Bithell simply ran out of steam after charging
so hard all day.
