Three Podiums for Yamaha in GNCC ATV Openers
Taylor Kiser, Kevin Yoho, Jennifer Albright

Cypress, CA (3/1/2010) - Yamaha YFZ450R ATVs raced to a trio of coveted podium finishes in the 2010 season-opening Grand National Cross Country championship event in River Ranch, Fla. on Sunday, Feb. 28. Defending XC1 Pro class winner Taylor Kiser finished second in the premier class, while Kevin Yoho grabbed third in XC2 Pro Am and Jennifer Albright took second in the ultra-competitive Women’s class. Other Yamaha finishers included multi-time GNCC champions Bill Ballance and Traci Cecco, who finished fifth in their respective XC1 Pro and Women’s divisions.

Typical for Florida cross-country racing, the long woods course threw plenty of challenges at the riders including deep sand, tricky palmetto roots and thousands of pine trees to dodge around. In the morning Women’s race, Cecco finished the first of five laps only in mid-pack, and then worked her YFZ450R into the lead at around the halfway point of the two-hour event. Showing her conditioning and drive, Cecco kept riding even after a punishing high-speed crash late in the race, and ultimately salvaged the valuable top-five finish – remarkably less than a minute behind fellow Yamaha competitor Kristen Atwell in fourth.

As is customary in GNCC, XC1 Pro and XC2 Pro Am fields race together in the afternoon main event. In XC1 Pro, Donnie Ockerman used his YFZ450R’s quick starting and explosive power to bag the holeshot, and led a 1-2-3 Yamaha trio including Kiser and Ballance to the first turn. The frontrunners quickly began mixing it up, however, and the last of four grueling laps eventually became an outright shootout between Kiser and rivals Adam McGill and Chris Borich, with Borich topping Yamaha’s Kiser by just 1.4 sec. at the flag. Meanwhile in XC2 Pro Am, Yoho enjoyed a slightly less hectic race, running third for most of the event and finishing a comfortable 3 ½ minutes ahead of his nearest rival. Congratulations to all!