Madison, IN (10/30/2017)
- Yokley Racing/Polaris RZR Factory Racing
driver John Barnes finished sixth in the GNCC
season finale at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville,
IN. Driving the Polaris in the XC1 Pro UTV
class, Barnes finished seventh in the points
championship.
Barnes came out of the start second and put
in a hard charge early. As the track began
to rut up, he pushed his STI Tires to the
limit to finish just outside of the top five.
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| STI's
John Barnes scored a 6th place finish
at the Ironman GNCC, which boosted him
to 7th in the XC1 Pro UTV Points Championship |
“The first lap or two it was relatively smooth,
but there seems to be no bottom to this dirt
here in Indiana,” explained Barnes. “As the
race went on, you had to be selective about
your line choices in the woods. In the fields,
we did pretty well and pushed forward. We
had a pretty good day. We just tried to keep
the car together and get a finish.”
Barneds overcome early season mechanical
issues and came on strong in the final four
rounds with four straight top ten overall
finishes, which boosted him to seventh in
the XC1 class points championship.
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| Polaris
RZR Factory Racing's John Barnes finished
the year with four straight top ten
overall finishes |
“We started off the season with some mechanical
difficulties, but we created our own parts
and we began finishing races,” said Barnes.
“Without those two DNFs, we would have definitely
been in the top five in points. Any time you
have a brand new car, you’ll have development
issues, but it’s been a good year.”
GNCC announced recently that it will allow
turbocharged UTVs in the XC1 class next season,
and Barnes will be ready.
“We weren’t sure what direction they were
going to go, but now that we know, we’ll be
ready,” said Barnes. “We plan on making the
switch to the Polaris RZR Turbos next year.”
Barnes will have plenty of time to prepare
for the 2018 GNCC season, which should kick
off in March for GNCC UTV racers.
A big thanks
goes out to the sponsors for the 2017 season:
Polaris RZR Factory Racing, Yokley Racing,
STI Tire & Wheel/Roctane HD tires, America's
Motorsports, Elka Suspension, Super ATV, CP
Carrillo, Millennium Technologies, Hot Cams,
IMS, Ballistic Battery, Dynojet, MTNTK Performance,
OMF, Trinity Racing Exhaust, Team RZR, RZR
Extreme, Shock Therapy, Alba Racing, Alpinestars,
Maxwell Industries, Monster Army, VP Racing
Fuels, Hess Motorsports, Dragon Alliance,
One Stop Design and Machine, and Slick Products.
