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GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 12 - "Powerline
Park" |
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St. Clairsville, OH - Yamaha’s
Bill Ballance looks to his record-breaking eighth
Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Championship
in a row after winning Saturday’s ITP Power
Line Park GNCC in St. Clairsville, Ohio. Ballance
grabbed the $100 ITP Holeshot award and then held
on to win after a heated battle with East Coast
ATV’s Chris Borich, who actually crossed
the finish first but was later penalized two positions
when video tape proof showed he had ventured off
of the course. This moved LTERacing.com’s
Chris Bithell into second place.
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Bill
Ballance grabbed the Holeshot followed
by Kawasaki's William Yokley |
Ballance was leading the race until four miles
from finish, when Borich was directed by spectators
to make a sudden 90-degree turn off of the race
track. He missed 300 yards of the course and
ended up in front of Ballance at the finish.
Borich’s move was captured on tape by
a GNCC official shooting video shooting for
the Racer TV broadcast, who then alerted the
rest of the track crew. Borich was taken back
to the track to see the section he missed and
was also shown the video tape. The video showed
Borich was not riding through a bottle-necked
or traffic jammed section of course, thus he
was required to stay on the race track through
that section, and course arrows clearly showed
the track continued straight. The two-position
penalty is consistent with the same penalty
used by GNCC officials in similar situations
in the past. After being told of the penalty,
Borich didn’t attend the post-race podium
and interview ceremony.
Ballance’s win puts him in prime position
to win the GNCC title at the series finale Klotz
Ironman GNCC in Indiana in two weeks. Although
he didn’t see Borich on the last lap,
he was pretty sure what had happened. “About
as quick as I asked those questions, I figured
them out pretty quick in my head what was going
on,” Ballance said on the podium. “The
Yamaha worked great, and we got a win here today
and we’re that much closer to getting
an eighth championship, so that feels pretty
darn good.”
“I didn’t have a terrible start,”
second-place Bithell said. “But I was
about tenth or thirteenth. Through this dust—it
was bad today. It was just powder dust. You
just had to slowly pick people off and slowly
take your lines around them.”
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LTE Racing Chris Bithell secures his 6th
Podium finish of the year and has the
#3 Plate wrapped up for the 2008 race
season |
Brandon
Sommers moved up to the Pro Class and
just misses the Podium with a 4th Overall
and has moved past Taylor Kiser up to
the 6th Overall for the year |
Fourth overall went to Brandon Sommers, the
XC2 Champion made the switch to the XC1 Pro
Class. Fifth went to the ever-consistent Matt
Smiley, with motocross champion John Natalie
in sixth in the XC1 class.
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| William
Yokley had his best run of the year chasing
after Ballance for several laps before
a failure ended his day |
Monster Energy/National Guard/Kawasaki’s
William Yokley was off to his best start of the
2007 season , after pulling second place off the
line behind Ballance. Yokley held second behind
the leader for two laps, until a mechanical failure
forced him to pull off. “The start went
really well,” Yokley said. “We’ve
been suffering on starts all year. We almost got
the holeshot. I’ve been practicing at home
and I knew I was getting better. I used to get
good starts, and I knew I was getting it back
to normal because I was there. My start actually
made it to where you could get out there and ride,
otherwise I’d be sitting there cruising
around and running into ponds like other people.
That’s where I’ve been suffering.
We’re getting it worked out. It’s
a lot of work to develop a new bike.”
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Johnny Gallagher surprised everyone with
a 6th Overall finish, which was his best
finish since the Penton in 2006 when he
finished in 5th place |
John
Natalie Jr put in a great ride and finished
in the top 5, but a missed turn early
in the race, resulted in a penalty, which
dropped him back to 14th place |
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| Texan,
Shawn Hess, finished a career best 10th
Overall |
Baldwin Motorsports/Wrath Racing Honda rider
Adam McGill ran into trouble during the race.
“I thought it was a little hot today,
so I figured I’d say heck with the race—take
a swim,” McGill joked after taking a dunk
in a huge mud hole. “When I come out of
the woods, I seen the helmets going through
in the dust, it opened up. I pinned it straight
and the next thing I knew, the bike fell out
from under me, flipped over and I was pinned
in the water underneath of it. When I came up
out of the water, I looked around, and I saw
there was probably ten of us stuck in that swamp.
It was horrible—chest deep, it stunk.”
The 20-year-old McGill just signed with KTM
for 2008, but don’t look for him to be
riding orange just yet. “I want to be,
but I really cant right now,” McGill said.
“I got a lot on the line. I want to finish
out on the Honda, and start knocking off some
wins on the orange. I’m very excited.”
CanAm GNCC Series ATV
Racing Results
Round #12 - "ITP Powerline Park GNCC"
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Top Twenty Overall |
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1. Bill Ballance Smith Grove, KY YAM
2. Chris Bithell Irwin, PA HON
3. Chris Borich Sunbury, PA HON
4. Brandon Sommers Millersburg, OH YAM
5. Matt Smiley Kunkletown, PA HON
6. Johnny Gallagher Aurora, OH SUZ
7. Brent Sturdivant Montrose, WV HON
8. Duane Johnson Trenton, MO HON
9. Brandon Ballance Oakland, KY YAM
10. Shawn Hess Muenster, TX HON
11. Jarrod McClure Kaska, PA HON
12. Michael Houston Hickory, NC YAM
13. Craig Reed Crawford, TN HON
14. John Natalie Moutzdale, PA HON
15. Taylor Kiser Alva, FL YAM
16. Anthony Hill Culter, OH HON
17. Mark Notman Hubbard, OH HON
18. Kyle Martin Winona, MO HON
19. Donald Ockerman Marshall, IL HON
20. Ryan Lane Bicknell, IN HON
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| Pro
ATV Points Standings |
1. Bill Ballance 317/5 wins
2. Chris Borich 295/6 wins
3. Chris Bithell 237/1 win
4. Matt Smiley 182
5. Adam McGill 160
6. Brandon Sommers 157
7. Taylor Kiser 154
8. Bryan Cook 119
9. Duane Johnson 117
10. Chris Jenks 110
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