Somerset, PA - It took four months,
but Rockstar/Yoshimura Suzuki’s Chris Borich
finally charged back into victory lane in the
Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series. On
a wild race day in his home state of Pennsylvania,
Borich found his old mojo and topped GT Thunder
Yamaha rookie Brandon Sommers and XCBob.com’s
Matt Smiley for the GIECO Mountain Ridge GNCC
win.
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This
4th of July weekend's Mountain Ridge
GNCC race attracted a huge crowd of
spectators to catch all the intense
race action
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After winning the season-opening GNCC back
in March, the perennial GNCC Championship contender
has struggled this season. “Nothing has
really been wrong all along,” said Borich.
“We just had a lot of muddy races this
year and I’ve had a lot of bad luck. I
knew I could get this new Suzuki back up here.
It was a fun race today, we were battling the
whole time.”
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Chris Borich
charged his way to the front of the
pack to claim his 2nd Win of the season
and 2nd straight win at the Mountain
Ridge GNCC for a serious boost in the
points chase
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XC Bob's
Matt Smiley joined Borich on the Podium
as they were both right at home on the
rocky track with Smiley once again heading
into summer break with a Podium finish
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The GNCC ATV pack battled fiercely again, with
the top 12 riders separated by just 20 seconds
at the end of the first lap. Borich suffered
a bad start and ended lap one in seventh, but
he worked his way into the lead by lap three.
Defending GNCC Champion Bill Ballance led early
after taking the ITP Tires Holeshot Award, but
steering problems brought him into the pits
for repairs, dropping him to seventh at the
finish. Borich fought with Sommers for the lead
on the last lap, while Smiley won out on a fierce
duel for third, with GT Thunder Yamaha’s
Johnny Gallagher taking fourth after sneaking
by KTM’s Taylor Kiser just a few turns
from the finish.
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#1 Yamaha's
Bill Ballance grabbed yet another Holeshot
and lead the 1st lap until he headed
to the pits for repairs, which sent
him back to a 7th place finish
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Chris Jenks scored his best result of the season
on his Warnert Racing Can-Am with sixth. Ballance
was seventh and Chris Bithell finished eighth
on another Warnert Racing Can-Am. Team Excell
Motorsports Bryan Cook was in the hunt for his
second win in a row. He led the race at the
halfway mark, but a few mistakes dropped him
to ninth. Yamaha’s Brandon Ballance rounded
out the top ten. KTM's Adam McGill, the early
season points leader, ran into a few mechanical
gremlins and ended up 17th overall.
