2009 River Ranch Florida

Round 1

My first time riding a GNCC (grand national cross country) race finally happened on Tuesday March 3rd.

I had planned to race this event and had raced every round of the FTR hare scramble series and practiced hard in preperation.

I was involved in an Auto accident a week ago and sustained a wiplash to my neck but I did not want to miss this race.

My buddy Phil Kanarkowski came down from PA just to race so I was pumped it was finally going to happen.

All smiles on the start line.  G2 photo

Flying the flag....God save the Queen

I was the first to get my bike on the line for a good position

 then the other 445 riders in the morning classes joined me.

My buddy Phillip Kanarkowski on the Ben Jacobs Design KTM 300EXC

23 riders lined up on row 2 for the Masters A race

445 riders line up for the morning races to start.

First on the line, last off the gate, I flunked my start badly, 22nd (last-ish) going into the first turn is not what I planned for.

By the end of  lap 1,  I was up to 12th,  The dust was terrible in places

 I kept up a pretty fast pace and picked good lines, it paid off.

I ate this for 5 laps, but it would have been a whole lot worse if it had rained as the tree roots were treacherous

By the way, Florida dust doesn't taste like oranges.

Plenty of passing room in the woods. G2 photo

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Lap 2 completed, 3 left to go. Check out the roost from the other riders YZF450!

Race Report

I really wanted to do well at this race, I put a new clutch in the morning of the race as my 2 racing buddies assured me my old clutch would be fried by the first lap.

So in goes the new clutch, this would be my downfall, it made the bike near impossible to start in gear, which is necessary to get a good start.

I ran a couple of practice starts to see if I could break it in quicker, still no good so I just lined my bike up on the best spot and hoped for the best.

As the starter shouted out "ten seconds" my heart was racing, he waved the green flag signaling the start of my race.

 I tried to kick start my bike, it took 3 kicks to fire up and most riders were long gone round the first turn.

I fought my way through the dust and managed to pick up a couple of places before the wide open palmetto ridded sections that were very fast.

I passed a lot of riders in those fast sections, they obviously weren't from Florida....

They were backing off as the roots were sending some riders off the track and in some cases over the handlebars.

I pinned my CR250 and passed everyone I could, I rode a smart race, I never fell off and I never got stuck in the mud or behind another rider.

There were so many lines through the tree that it was easy to pass 3 or 4 slower riders at one time.

As the race wore on I was catching up and lapping some of the slower riders, it was actually great fun and gave me something to do.

My last 3 laps were very close, I ran within 10 seconds on all 3 laps which is pretty freaking consistent  for such a rough course.

My pit stop on lap 2 was a disaster, my buddy thought I was coming in on lap 3...as I pulled up to my gas can no-one was there,

A big  thanks to the Lady and son who came over and helped me out, must have lost 2-3 minutes there, oh well.

I completed the race in 2hrs 40 minutes 28 seconds I ran 5 laps. I came in 8th place in the Masters A class.

This has to be the hardest earned 8th place award I ever got.

Posted results.

Lap times Masters A class

2 proud Brits!

I met up with David Knight, hard to believe this guy has won so many of the top race.

Here I`m explaining to David Knight why I turned the BMW 450 deal down.

Those Gatorback T-shirts were everywhere......

2009 GNCC winner Charlie Mullins, That guy is FAST.

Right click and save to your desktop :  media/gnccfaststuff.wmv