Going into this event, I was on quite a high as far as my speed is concerned. After competing in the two WEC events and then the Fun Enduro in Mexico where I raced under a format that favored raw speed over all else, I was keen to apply this kind of speed in a GNCC race. With less than favorable conditions forecasted by the weatherman for the two weeks leading up to this round, I along with everyone else was expecting yet another mud race.
Regardless of the forecast, we ended up racing under perhaps the most perfect conditions we have seen all year. Sunny skies and ideal moisture in the ground put a grin on my face and as usual I eagerly looked forward to racing with my competitors again after a hiatus during the summer months. After doing the Enduros where my speed was shown only by the clock, I welcomed the return to head to head competition, especially knowing that this race brings everyone back to full motivation. At the start of the race I was slightly off with my reaction time, but I still got into the first turn in the top-five. Unfortunately, Charlie Mullins crashed in front of me in that turn and by the time I got going I was close to the back of the field. In this race though, I proved to myself how fast I can actually go.
During the first lap, I climbed all the way back up to fifth position and made it up to fourth position shortly into lap two. This was very good, although I knew my work would be cut out for me to catch the lead group of Kearney, Hawk, and Salminen. In this second lap, I lost 21-seconds to Salminen in the lead, but gained a small margin on all but Andrews. On lap three I lost fourth position to Andrews but I made 17-seconds back on Salminen so this was a very good lap. However, it was about this time that I started to lose power. At first I suspected a gas problem because of detonation. In this case I knew it would not last like this so I rode the bike as easy as possible, although I did have a crash in a rough section where I went in very aggressive, but lacked the power to get out.
During the next lap I suspected something other than bad gas must be causing the problem because it would not have gone this far if that was the case. The power was now down very low and gradually getting worse. By this time I had already fallen outside the top-ten and was losing both time and positions very quickly.
Going into the turns was the only place I could save time because I could wait longer and brake harder and the low power didn't affect this. After another crash I considered retiring from the race and not risking an injury for a poor result, although I reconsidered and pushed through to achieve any points possible. By the final lap, the bikes power was so low that there were hills I nearly didn't make it up! Despite all the problems, I eventually crossed the finish line in 16th place. I later found that the power problem came from a damaged silencer, which created a huge amount of back pressure, allowing no place for the exhaust to go. With this result I maintain 14th place in the championship points and look forward to racing the next GNCC at my home track so to speak at Unadilla.
This weekend my usual mechanics and friends David Bradley and Shawn Jackson were unable to attend due to other obligations so I would like to say thank you to Shawn's father Burt, Bob Tucker, and Jack Calkins for helping me with my race. Thanks again to all my sponsors and supporters: RER Motorcity, SHIFT, One, Maxxis, Factory Connection, Zip Ty, Spectro, Dragon, Works Connection, Moto Tassinari, Fastway Pro Moto Billet, Tag, PG, DP, BRP, Yamaha, Fah-Q, Am Pro, Asterisk, Autumn Sky Development, Jilcon Development, Charlotte Homes, Woodys Construction.