CanAm GNCC
ATV Awards Banquet
Four Points Sheraton
Cranberry, PA
November 23, 2007
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2007 Grand National
Cross Country Series ATV Awards Banquet
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Cranberry, PA - Black Friday is usually
a day reserved for holiday shopping, but on this
year’s Black Friday, hundreds of GNCC ATV
racers made the pilgrimage to the Four Point Sheraton
Hotel in Cranberry, PA for the GNCC Awards Banquet.
This year’s awards ceremony had one of the
largest crowds ever in attendance. In fact, so many
people showed up that the 183 room host hotel was
sold out.
The banquet began shortly after 5:00 pm, but
the ceremonies and after party lasted long into
the night. The top 10 racers in every class of
the GNCC were honored with awards and the top
5 in each class were also given contingencies
that consisted of Ogio Bags, Thor riding boots,
Maxxis and ITP tires, embroidered jackets, and
goggles among other prizes. Also, random class
champions were awarded additional prizes. LeeAnn
Kirkland grabbed a full set of Elka Shocks, Walker
Fowler was given a set of Tire Balls, Traci Cecco
received a set of Hiper Wheels, and Scott Sleppy
was awarded a Laeger Steering Stem just to name
a few of the special prizes. Also, Racer Productions
handed out other cool prizes through out the evening
camcorders, cameras, and digital picture frames.
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The
top ten racers received either awards and
their was a room packed full of contigency
prizes given out to the top five class finishers |
In addition to the regular awards, there were
also ten special awards handed out where the recipients
were chosen by votes cast by their peers. Youth
ATV racer, Jesi Stracham took home the “Hard
Luck” award, ATV Insider Magazine won the
award for “Media Excellence” and Jeff
Miller won the “Good Samaritan” award.
Miller’s compassion on and off the track
is what earned him the award. Miller took it upon
himself to help raise money for his number one
competitor, Travis Styles, after he wrecked at
Unadilla, which sidelined him for the rest of
the season.
When it came time for the XC2 Pro-Am award introductions,
Pro-Am champion Brandon Sommers had the crowd
laughing when he was asked to introduce himself.
Brandon spoke up and said, “I’m Bill
Ballance…” Brandon’s plans for
next year include finally being able to quit his
day job and devote himself full time to racing
for Yamaha.
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Pro
XC1 ATV Class (left to right)
Bill Ballance, Chris Bithell, Adam McGill,
Taylor Kiser, William Yokley |
Women
ATV Class (left to right)
Traci Cecco, Angel Atwell, Kristen Atwell,
Stephanie Verkade |
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Rita
Coombs gave William Yokley an ear full when
presenting him with the tabletop |
When it came time for the Pro Class awards, William
Yokley, who had been absent from the awards ceremonies
for the past four years after a table-dancing
incident left Racer Production’s Rita Coombs
with a black eye when the table Yokley was dancing
on suddenly broke. Rita has carried that broken
table with her to every GNCC banquet since that
incident in hopes that Yokley would be there.
This year she got her wish and presented the table
to Yokley as his “Special Award” for
the evening.
Adam McGill was also in good spirits, even when
he was questioned about his DNF during round 12
at Powerline Park. “Well, it was really
hot that day, so I decided to go for a swim!”
He said jokingly. “I felt kind of bad at
first, but when I got out of the water and saw
that everyone else was stuck, then I really didn’t
feel to bad at all.” Adam concluded. Adam
plans on giving it his all next year to hopefully
find himself on the podium more often instead
of in the water.
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Barry
Hawk presented Bill Ballance with his 8th
#1 Plate, which broke Barry Hawk's Record
of Seven. Bill also received a gold ring
with one diamond for each championship |
When it came time for Bill Ballance to accept
his award, it was none other than seven- time
GNCC Champion Barry Hawk that was on hand to do
the honors. Hawk congratulated bill on his accomplishment
and presented Bill with the #1 plate and a bottle
of champagne. Bill also received a gold ring with
eight diamonds to signify his record breaking
eight-time championship. “I’m really
looking forward to next year. Yamaha is already
working on…some new set up stuff.”
Said Bill, giving a little insight into what may
be in store for the ’09 YFZ450. “Yamaha
has been doing their homework. I was actually
thinking about retiring, but when I see all the
new stuff that’s going on, I want to stick
around for a couple more years to see it all.
The ’09 race bike will be on the track before
the year is over.” Said Bill excitedly
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