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GNCC
ATV Racing
Round 6 - "Yadkin
Valley Stomp: |
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Bithell Family had plenty to smile about
with Can-Am's #13 Chris Bithell claiming
the Pro ATV XC 1 Class Win & his brother,
Jamie, claimed the16-21 College A Class
Win on his DS450 |
Yadkinville, NC - Chris Bithell
claimed his first win in almost two years, and
the first of the year for Can-Am, with an impressive
and exciting come-from-behind performance at the
MotorcycleUSA.com Yadkin Valley Stomp GNCC in
Yadkinville, North Carolina round six of the Can-Am
Grand National Cross Country Series.
Despite the fact that most of the GNCC-regulars
consider the Yadkinville course to be one of
the toughest to pass on, Bithell was dead last
at the start of the two-hour race, and still
managed to pass the rest of the XC1 field, and
most of the XC2 riders, en route to the victory.
Ballance Racing/Yamaha's Taylor Kiser appeared
to be heading to his second win of the year
nearing the end of the race, until Bithell came
calling on the final lap, as the two riders
diced back and forth for the lead.
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Maxxis' #7 Donald Ockerman grabbed the
Pro ATV XC 1 Holeshot followed by FRE
/ KTM's Bryan Cook, Yamaha's Taylor Kiser
& Suzuki's Chris Borich. Ockerman
would go on to lead the race for 2 laps
before dropping back to 6th place in lap
three, which is where he stayed till the
finish
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"I was coming up on Kiser and I just started
pushing him and finally I tried a line on him
and it worked," said Bithell. "We
drag raced side-by-side to the next corner –
we both were pinned and we stuffed each other
in the corner and I came out on top. We just
battled from there and I was able to hold him
off."
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#13
Chris Bithell would claim his 1st Win
since 2008 at Unadilla & Bithell
is currently 4th Place inPro points
& 5th Overall
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Bithell admitted that he made up most of his
time in the tight woods sections.
"My bike didn't fire up at the start and
I went into the woods in dead last," said
Bithell. "I was thinking at first that
I was just going to try to stay strong and hope
to finish top 10, but then I started passing
people. It was tough passing out there but I
really started working hard in the tight sections.
When it comes to the woods, if you can just
scoot through there a hair-bit faster you can
make up time on these guys, and that's what
I did."
In the end, Kiser settled for the runner-up
position, his fourth such finish of the year.
He was pleased that he gained some ground on
points leader Chris Borich, but he was disappointed
at letting a win slip away.
"I was kind of pacing myself, trying to
stay out front and be as smooth as I could and
Bithell just came up on me and made a good,
clean pass," said Kiser. "The consistency
is a good thing, but not getting the win hurts.
However, overall I had a good day and gained
some valuable points, but we're looking to get
another before the end of the year."
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Yamaha's Taylor Kiser gained a few points
of Borich with his 2nd place finish, but
for the 3rd time this year, Kiser missed
out on a win by less than 3 seconds, so
for Kiser to challenge Borich for the
Championship, he will need to figure out
how to make up those few seconds at future
races |
Rockstar
/ Makita / Suzuki's Chris Borich claims
his worst finish of year after going over
the bars a few times & dealing with
a tree limb, but a bad day on the Podium
is the best kind as Borich maintains an
18 points lead over Yamaha's Taylor Kiser
in the Chanmpionship points race |
Borich rounded out the podium, also coming
from well back after stopping to remove some
debris from the front of his Yoshimura Suzuki.
"I got a big stick jammed in the A-arm
and I don't know if I bent something –
it was pretty hard to turn all day," said
Borich. "It just wasn't my day. I clipped
a couple of things and went over the bars a
couple of times, but we were able to work up
into third, and I'm pretty happy I was able
to salvage those points."
