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GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 13 - "Ironman" |
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Crawfordsville, IN - It's all
over for 2007, and the history books must now
be re-written. Bill Ballance is the all-time King
of Quads in the Can-Am Grand National Cross Country
Series. The Yamaha rider went out and won the
season-finale Kloz Ironman GNCC to make sure the
championship was his, and now he has won the GNCC
crown for the eighth-straight time, an all-time
record.
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Bill
Ballance Wins the "Ironman"
& Claims 8th GNCC Pro ATV Championship
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"It hasn't even hardly sunk in yet,"
said Ballance, clearly getting emotional on
the podium. "When I first started this
years ago, I was just hoping to be a top ten
rider. To win eight in a row, I can't even believe
it. I'm just so happy, we weren't even trying
to win this one, we were trying to take it easy
and make sure we didn't have problems with the
bike, and things started happening and we ended
up in the lead."
Ballance's rival Chris Borich looked like
he could win the Ironman, although Ballance
still would have only needed to finish 12th
to win the crown anyway. Borich took the ITP
Holeshot Award and battled with Ballance most
of the day, but he ran into trouble on the rugged
track with two laps to go and dropped to fifth.
“There was a bottle neck and I tried to
climb a hill, and it was all blown out, just
deep ruts everywhere,” said Borich. “So
I got stuck there and lost some time, went to
the back. I came back up and got stuck again
on the last lap, that was about it.”
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Chris
Borich grabs the Holeshot ahead of Chris
Jenks, Adam McGil, & Bill Ballance |
With Borich experiencing those problems, Ballance
was assured of the championship. But the Ironman
race win wouldn’t be as easy to get, because
Adam McGill was charging hard after his first
win. In third at one point and battling with
new XC2 Champion Brandon Sommers and veteran
Matt Smiley, McGill put on a strong charge late
in the race to nearly pass the champ. “I
remember Bill telling me before the day, he
said save everything for the last lap,”
said McGill. “So I did, I just followed
him for a while and we started dicing it up
a little bit and taking a little bit of chances.
Brandon Sommers got in front me and I’ll
tell you one thing—that kid can move.
Hats off to him, he ran me hard today. I guess
I came out on top. I tried to give it everything
I had about the last two miles. Bill and I came
out to this last field section, I took the line
wide and he took it tight, and when we got into
the next turn, he swung it wide and I was right
up under his grab bar. If he would have slowed
down just a little bit more, I would have been
up on his seat saying hey, what’s up to
him. Hats off to him—eight times—I
don’t think anybody’s going to beat
it.”
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In the final lap of the race, Adam Mcgill
charged his way past Brandon Sommers &
Matt Smiley to claim the runners-up spot
right behind Bill Ballance |
East
Coast ATV's Matt Smiley earned his Third
Podium finish of the season and secured
the number 4 plate for 2008 in a great
rebound season |
It may seem odd that Ballance would offer McGill
advice that could lead to his own defeat, but
McGill has faith. “People say to be old
and wise you have to be young and stupid first,”
said McGill. “I look up to Bill and what
all these guys have to say. All these guys are
real good friends to me, and I don’t think
they’d steer me wrong.”
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| Matt
Smiley lost his seat in the final lap
of the race, but managed to hold off Brandon
Sommers and recorded the fastest laptime
of the race with a 21:48 |
Smiley was happy to end the season with another
podium. He started nearly last but worked his
way forward. “I picked my way up through
the field pretty quickly,” said Smiley.
“The next thing you know I was pulling
up to the leaders. They all pitted and I kept
going and took the lead over. I picked a bad
line on one of the hills and dropped back. I
lost my seat so it got a little rough on the
last mile. I’m just real happy with the
way things worked out today.”
Fourth went to Sommers, matching the finish
of his XC1 pro debut at the previous GNCC in
Ohio. After the race, Sommers collected the
first-ever green number-one plate as the 2007
XC2 Pro Am Champion.
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Duane Johnson finished out the year with
a 6th Overall finish and was able to rebound
from a slow season start to earn the no.
9 for 2008 |
Bryan
Cook was back to 19th after lap one, but
charged his way up to 7th place by the
checkered flag to secure the No. 8 for
2008 by one point over Johnson |
Sommers and the rest of the field would surely
like to collect their first GNCC XC1 Overall
title, but Ballance plans on returning to win
number nine in 2008. “We’re coming
back again next year,” said Ballance.
“We have a contract with Yamaha, and just
take it one year at a time. We’re having
fun with it, and things are good, so just ride
the boat while it’s sailing, I guess.”
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XC1
Pro ATV Podium (left to Right)
Adam McGill, Bill Ballance,
Matt Smiley |
