Jarrod McClure
Kicks off 2009 GNCC Season in the Top 5
Washington ,GA (3/14/2008) - Immediately
after returning home from Arizona and round 1 of
the WORCS series, I began getting ready for GNCC
racing, which was only a month away. Building the
Yamaha YFZ450 was a whole new experience for me,
so I wanted to get one built fast and get in as
much testing as possible before the River Ranch
GNCC season opener.
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Jarrod McClure
& Scott Samuel dialing in the shocks
while testing in New Jersey
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I finished the build about a week before Florida,
which wasn’t much time to test, but enough
to get theYFZ450 close. The weather in Pennsylvania
had been snowy and cold, so I decided to head
to Southern New Jersey. This part of Jersey is
somewhat similar to Florida, because it is sandy
and gets very rutted and whooped out, which made
it ideal for setting up the suspension. I met
with Scott Samuel from Leumas Enterprises, who
is one of my suspension techs, and a good friend.
After a day of solid testing I had the Exit shocks
feeling pretty good. Scott helped me dial in the
suspension, and he also showed me a few tricks
with the Yamaha YFZ450 I didn’t know about.
With the Yamaha all finished I decided to head
to Florida a few days early to ride a little and
just double check everything. I carpooled with
a few of my friends to save some money on fuel,
and we made it to Florida in about 13 hours.
The opening round of the GNCC series was held
at a new location, The West Gate River Ranch.
The Ranch is a huge resort, with plenty of accommodations,
and facilities, and is unlike any track on the
tour. I arrived at the track on Saturday and was
surprised at how nice the layout of the resort
was. After catching up with a few of my fellow
racers, I headed out to checkout the track. It
looked like it was going to be similar to every
Florida track; sandy, whooped out and full of
palmettos! The track was very dry and without
rain I knew it would be dusty.
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Jarrod McClure
on his new Yamaha YFZ450
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Finally race day arrived, after a long winter
of hard work with Moto Pro Training, and also
building a new race quad, it was time to race!
I got my Shift gear on and headed over to the
start. Finishing 7th in the class last year meant
I had 7th pick for the line. I chose an inside
line, and I hoped for a good start. The all-familiar
call of ten seconds came, and the flag waved!
My Yamaha did not fire the way as I had hoped,
and I ended up having a very bad start. Going
through the first couple turns I knew I would
be eating a lot of dust.
As we made our way around the track, I realized
the track was a lot tighter than I expected. I
tried to scout out some passing lines, and slowly
worked my way through some of the slower riders.
My Exit suspension was working awesome in the
whoops. After the first lap though I began to
feel fatigued, because I had my Precision steering
stabilizer adjusted to loose. At one point I even
clipped a tree and went over the bars! After a
quick stop I adjusted the stabilizer and fueled
up. After that the stabilizer worked awesome,
I was able to set a nice pace and pass some riders
that had passed me earlier.
The race was winding down, and I was nearing
the top ten, so I pushed hard and was able to
pass both Johnny Gallagher and William Yokley
on the last lap. I was still riding strong at
the end of the race, put I could tell the sand
took a toll on my clutch. I ended the day in ninth,
which was a solid top ten finish for Florida.
I was happy, since it was my first race on the
Yamaha!
Immediately after the race, I had to head back
home to Pennsylvania to get some work done during
the week at the shop. I made some changes to the
quad, and I was sure to mount a fresh set of GBC
tires on my Hiper Carbon Fiber wheels, because
I know Georgia can get muddy and rutted out.
I again carpooled to Georgia on Thursday night,
and we arrived Friday afternoon. As soon as I
got to the track, I got my rear shock over to
Jay Gobel to get serviced, because Florida really
laid a beating on it!
Saturday morning arrived and the weather was
awesome, it was in seventies and the sun was shining.
The track was dry, but the dust was very minimal,
and it looked like it would make for a fast race.
I practiced starts during the week and was sure
I would be out front when the flag flew. I was
wrong again. I was dead last off the line!
I was able to make a few passes in the first
couple turns, and went into the woods somewhere
around 18th. The track was fast, and plenty of
lines opened up to allow passing. I gained a few
spots in the woods, but I really made up some
time on the motocross track. I was able to pass
Jeff Pickens, Donald Ockerman, and Lane all on
the track. The first lap I checked in 12th, and
I was feeling pretty good. I had some cramps in
my thumb, due to my throttle placement, but I
fixed the problem, and eventually caught Johnny
G and raced with him for a while until eventually
passing him.
By the 4th lap I had a good pace going, but I
still couldn’t reel in the leaders. By the
end of the race, I settled for 5th place. Again
I was happy with the finish because this is only
my second time racing the Yamaha. I will have
some time to do some more testing during the two-week
break, and will be back at Steele Creek looking
for another consistent finish. I will see ya there!
www.gnccracing.com
122 Vista Del Rio Drive,
Morgantown, WV 26508
304-284-0084
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