2004 GNCC Round #14 "Ironman" Afternoon Race

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After a rain filled morning, the rain stopped before the afternoon race, but the damage was already done. The track was in horrible condition, and the starting line was about the worst that I have ever seen.

It was difficult to even walk around with out your shoes getting stuck in the deep mud.

#1 Bill Ballance rode to the starting line with his daughter in his lap.

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ATV Legend, Barry Hawk, wasn't afraid of the mud, and he ventured out to starting line to with some of the riders before the race.

Barry Hawk won 7 National Championships in a row before he switched to racing Motorcycles for Yamaha and also won the Bike Championship for 2003. Barry won't be able to hold onto his #1 plate for next season after a serious wreck put him on the sidelines. Barry has bounced back and won two races in a row and is looking to end the season on a winning note.

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Elka's, Martin, made the trip from Canada to show his support for the racers. He has worked closely with many top riders this season including, William Yokley, Chad Duvall, Andy Lagzdins, Jeff Stoess, and many other top riders.

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#5 Matt Smiley entered the race with tight points race with Chris Borich for 3rd Overall and the 3rd Spot in the Pro Class for the season. With Chris Borich winning the last two races, Matt needed to finish in front of Chris in order to hold onto 3rd.

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#20 Michael Houston has put in an incredible season with several top 10 overall finishes. Michael Houston already earned himself a spot on Pro Row next year.

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#8 Santo Derisi has had an off year, and decided to make the switch to the Honda to try to improve his luck. He ran into some issues at the last round, but hopefully, we will see Santo back in form at the Ironman.

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#16 Jeremy Rice and #13 Chris Jenks both made their move to the Pro Class class after Jeremy clinched the Pro Am Championshiop with Chris finishing 2nd.

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#10 Brandon Ballance trys to cut a line through the thick mud to help him get up some speed as he heads for the 1st Turn.

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Pro Desert Racer, #7 Mike Cafro, didn't show up to race in these horrible conditions, but he did talk with several of the Pro Riders. Temecula Motorsports will be increasing their presence in next years GNCC Series, which is awesome news.

Temecula Motorsports are extremely big on the West Coast, and I look forward to see what they have planned for us East Coast Riders next year.

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With the starting area being in such poor shape after the morning race, many of the riders opted for either the far outside or inside line for better traction were many of the morning riders didn't ride over.

Andy Lagzdins, Greg Trew, Johnny Gallagher, Jeff Stoess, Santo Derisi, and Thomas Barrett all took the outside line.

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Chris Borich, William Yokley, and Bill Ballance lined up on the inside and shortest line to the 1st turn.

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Fans gathered around the entire field section stretch of track to grab a glimpse of the start of each class.

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After the prayer and the National Anthem, it was time for the final race of the 2004 ATV GNCC Series.

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The Pro Riders tentatively watched Rick as he called out "10 Seconds"!!!

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With Mud flying through the air, the start of the Pro race was underway. Chad Duvall held the lead heading for the first turn!

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Chris Borich, Great Trew, Bill Ballance, and Rob Zimmerman rounded the 1st turn first.

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Matt Smiley, Unrecognizable Yamah Rider, and Jeremy Rice weren't fortunate enough to get out front and paid a Heavy, Heavy price getting coated in mud.

The mud filled air looked like a swarm off bees.

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emerged from the madness was Micheal Houston almost completely clean after missing out on the mud slinging fest.

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In last place, Bryan Cook rounded the first turn, but unlike Houston, he was covered in mud.

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Everyone in the Pro Pits were preparing for their riders to head in for goggles and/or gloves after the 1st lap.

William Yokley had both of his parents waiting for him to emerge from the woods.

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The first rider to emerge was #1 Bill Ballance, and he blew right past his pits and decided to go another lap before stopping. Right behind him was William Yokley and Chris Borich, who also didn't stop.

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Chris Jenks raced down Pit row in 4th place with Matt Smiley in hot prosuit.

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Rob Zimmerman came through the pits in 8th place behind Greg Trew and Brandon Ballance.

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Andy Lagzdins heads into his pit in 10th place for some fresh goggles while Todd Knippenberg's father signals to Todd if he needs goggles as he heads through the pits.

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Jeff Stoess and Johnny Gallagher both pass Andy Lagzdins before he finished his pit stop.

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Andy Lagzdins back to 12th with #4 Chad Duvall and #9 Todd Knippenberg waiting in line behind him to get scored for the 1st lap.

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Back in 17th after the 1st lap, Santo Derisi was off to a slow start.

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By the 2nd lap, Bill Ballance remained in the lead, and Chris Borich moved in behind him after passing William Yokley to take over the 2nd spot. William Yokley remained within a few seconds of Chris and Bill early in the lap.

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Matt Smiley moved up into 4th place, but was almost 30 seconds behind the top three.

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#6 Greg Trew remained behind Chris Jenks early in the lap, but was able to pass him before the end of the 2nd lap and move up to 5th place.

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Johnny Gallagher worked his way up to 7th place early in the 2nd lap

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Unfortunately, he found himself stuck on a hill and a spectator rushed over to assist him up the hill, but it costed him over a minute and sent him back to 11th place before the end of the lap.

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#10 Brandon Ballance was the first rider to capitalize on the stuck Johnny C and reclaimed his 7th place spot.

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Andy Lagzdins move up to 9th place behind the fast charging Jared Gruca.

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for the third lap, I headed deep into the woods near the half way mark to see how the riders climb some of the slick hills coming out of the creek.

Bill Ballance and Chris Borich splashed across the creek back to back and they followed each other up the hill climb.

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Spectators gathered around the different lines watching as the riders attempted to climb the hill.

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Matt Smiley remained in 4th place, but was over a minute behind William Yokley in third place.

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Greg Trew emerged in 5th place with Chris Jenks right behind him, and they were directed to climb the steepest section of the hill, but it was extremely dry and easy to climb if the riders stayed on the gas. They followed each other up the hill gaining valuable time on Matt Smiley who went the long way up the hill.

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Brandon Ballance came through in 7th place, but his machine wasn't sounding great, and he couldn't get enough power out of it to climb the hill, so he was forced to back down the hill.

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While Brandon gave the hill one more attempt, Jared Gruca slipped by taking another line.

Unfortunately, Brandon wasn't able to climb the hill and was forced to take another line and dropped him back to 11th place by the end of the lap.

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Jeremy Rice was moving up quickly as he was trying to make up time from a slow first lap.

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Andy Lagzdins would end up dropping back to 15th place after a rock lodged in his wheel near the end of the lap forcing him to ride into the pits with a locked up wheel.

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Bill Ballance's YFZ stalled on him before the end of the lap, which dropped him out of first place and back into third place, but he was hard on the gas trying to make up time.

Meanwhile, Santo Derisi's luck was improving and he moved up into 8th place before the end of the third lap.

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Jeff Stoess returned to get his ATK after it rolled down a hill when he became stuck on the side of the hill behind Chad Duvall who got hung up at the top.

Jeff was uninjuried, but his ATK wouldn't start, so he was forced to quit the race:(

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Jeff and Laura hauling the ATK back to the truck. The problem ended up only being that the throttle cable was dislocated and pulling on the gas when he tried to start it, which flooded it.

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In the 4th lap, Bill Ballance's YFZ overheated from all the heavy mud caked on the Radiator and to avoid destroying the engine, Bill pulled himself out of the race. Chris Borich had taken over the lead, but he ended up flipping his machine in the field, which allowed William Yokley to make the pass and take over the lead.

William quickly began working his way through lapped traffic to put some time between him and Chris Borich.

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William Yokley passes one rider only to find another one in front of him in the 4th lap. Bottlenecks became a huge problem, and many riders began eithe gaining or loosing several positions as a result.

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Over one minute later, Chris Borich emerged in 2nd place.

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#13 Chris Jenks had some luck on his side and was able to pick the right lines and move up to third place after passing Matt Smiley and Greg Trew.

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Greg Trew was still in the hunt for the Podium, and was hard on the gas trying to reel in Chris Jenks before the end of the 5th lap.

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Matt Smiley was in cruise mode after getting stuck several times in the last lap, he was took his time through the creek and hardly produced a splash.

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Santo Derisi on the other hand, stayed hard on the gas throuh the creek as he worked his way from 17th to 6th place by the end of the 4th lap

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Jeremy Rice was still right behind Santo as he too worked his way up from 16th to 7th.

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#4 Chad Duvall was also steadly moving up through the pack after dropping back to 18th after getting stuck in a rut at the top of the hill climb. He worked his way back up to 9th by the end of the 4th lap.

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#10 Brandon Ballance finished the lap in 10th place, but like his brother, he called it a day because his machine was loosing power and didn't want to risk destroying the engine.

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Halfway through the 5th lap, William Yokley remained in the lead

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Chris Borich, turned up the wick, and closed the gap to less than a minute.

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Chris Jenks continued his excellent race in third place and began to seperate himself from Greg Trew in 4th.

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Matt Smiley remained in 5th place dispite having his share of issues during the race.

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Santo Derisi dug deep and pulled two within two minutes of Matt Smiley, but had to settle for a 6th place finish, which was his best finish since the Patriot.

Looks like we will be seeing Santo on the Honda again next year.

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Jeremy Rice finished out the day in 7th place with Jared Gruca, Michael Houston, and Chad Duvall rounding out the top 10.

Michael Houston put in an impressive charge to the front after being back to 20th after the 1st lap and working his way up to finish 9th.

Chad Duvall dropped back to 18th in the 2nd lap, but never gave up and worked his way up to finish the race in 10th.

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Todd Knippenberg ended up finishing back in 12th and finished 31st overall, which was the 1st time since the Patriot he had dropped out of the top 10 overall.

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Kim Kuhnle finished out the day in 15th.

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When the checkered flag came out, William Yokley remained out front of Chris Borich to take the win on his Suzuki. William proved that the Suzuki is definitely a great mud machine after winning the last two mud races by impressive margins.

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A huge crowd gathered around the podium.

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Jeff Russell perched himself on top of the Moose Rig to capture the moment on film for the upcoming television series.

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Chris Borich and Chris Jenks on the Podium

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Chris laughs as William struggles to get his bottle of champagne open for the celebration.

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Once William popped the top, the celebration quickly began with several people in the front row getting soaked.

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It was great to see loyal EXriders.com members sporting their shirts at the track. Thanks Guys!!!

I rewarded them with some EXriders.com stickers:D

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Pro AM

As I mentioned early, the starting area was a huge mud hole, and Jathan Seale actually need a push just to get into his starting position.

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#17 James Wahl made the switch to the 450R after drowing out his 250R for the last time at St. Clairsville.

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#30 Glenn R Coriell remained true to his 250R for the final race of the season, but I wonder how many riders will remain on the 2 Stroke machines next season?

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I don't even want to try to describe what Jason Lewis was doing on the line:huh ????

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Frank Kendall came up with the idea of trying to scare riders out of his way to make passing much easier. I guess we will have to see how effective it was after the race.

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#25 Brian Schmid also joined the 450R bandwagon and left his 250R machine at home for the 1st time.

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Senior Class Champion, Dave Simmons, returned to race the Pro Am Class one more time this season after having a great start at St. Clairsville, but he ended up wrecking which dropped him out of the race.

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#33 Mike Lucas doesn't look pleased to be racing under such sloppy conditions.

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The start of the race had Frank Kendall and Jathan Seale battling on the inside with Joshua Ribley holding it wide open on the outside line heading for the 1st turn.

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#316 Jathan Seale was able to hold the inside corner and take the Holeshot with Frank Kendall and Joshua Ribley swinging wide around the turn.

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Brian Schmid and Glenn Coriell running in the top 6 around the turn.

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Brandon Sturdivant already lost his goggles after the 1st turn.

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A pileup formed in the 2nd turn after many riders weren't able to make the turn.

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By the end of the 1st lap, Joshua Ribley took over the lead with James Shepard and Rick Cecco just under 30 seconds behind.

Dave Simmons was up to 4th place, but forgot to let off the throttle soon enough heading down pit row and had to lock up the brakes to make the turn which sent him into a 360 spins, which caused Mrs. Bishop in the background to panic while Mark Baldwin looks up to see what is going on???

Luckily he saved it, and guickly took off in the right direction without loosing the position.

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By the end of the 2nd lap, Dave Simmons took over the lead:macho

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Joshua Ribley dropped back to 2nd Place

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Frank Kendall's scare tactic seemed to be working as he worked his way up to 3rd place.

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By the third lap, Jathan Seale had taken over the lead after dropping back to 16th after the 1st lap:macho

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James Wahl worked his way up to 6th place behind Dave Simmons who dropped back to 5th Place.

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Jathan Seale went on to extend his lead to over two minutes by the 5th lap and won the race with an 8th Overall Finish.

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Dave Simmons, literally, climbed his way back to finish in 2nd place and 12th Overall at 40+ Years Old:eek: What an Inspiration for other older riders!!!

Congrats Dave for an Incredible Season!!!

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Brandon Sturdivant put in another impressive run and finished 3rd in the Class with his 4th top 22 Overall finish in a row after having a rough start to the season.