2006 GNCC "Orange Crush" Round #1 Preview & Youth Race Coverage

Jarrod McClure took the Morning #1 Plate away from Stephanie Parton for the first time since morning racing started in 2002.

With the Stock Class being split between the Morning and the Afternoon, Jarrod McClure won't be able to defend his #201 plate, so he made the switch to the Pro Am Class for 2006 and Stock Class Champion, Billy Good will remain in the morning by switching to a 250X Hybrid machine in an effort to get back on the Podium once again in the Morning even if he is on an underpowered machine.

Utility Racer, Jim Stack finally walked the talk at the end of the 2005 season with several wins, and he is looking to put the Honda on top with the Championship in 2006, but will it hold up to his abuse, only time will tell.

John Kenney is like the energizer bunny and GNCC racing in his blood. He is back once again to compete in the Senior Class, and I expect we will continue to see him 10 years from now racing the Super Senior Class along with the rest of this family.

#36 Tyler Lenig will be joining Jarrod McClure in the Pro Am Class as more and more extremely fast Stock Class racers are graduating to the Pro Am Class, but Brandon Sommers will only move up to the A Class as he continues to chase after championships in every class rank with a C & B Class championship under his belt, but time is ticking away and he 21 years old now, so it doesn't look like we will see this Pro Caliber racer in the Pro Class for another three years.

Other previous stock class racers joining the Pro Am ranks in 2006 are Craig Reed and Ryan Morphew.

Long time 4 Stroke Stock Racer, Mike Sroka made the switch to 4 Stroke A this year, and he will remain on the Polaris.

Bryan Cook pulled over and took a break and watched some of the amateur riders attack the sand with Scott Norton flying by on his Honda 450R.

For those of you looking to have autograph posters printed, Scott is the man to talk to since he operates a printing company.

Practice was also held for the Youth Racers earlier in the day, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture any photos from their practice, but I did catch Jesi Stracham heading out to do some laps.

Before I knew it, the sun was dropping behind the trees, and I was running out light to take anymore photos, but also sunset can create some of the coolest looking photos, so I took Brandon and Brent Sturdivant for a quick photo shoot.

Brent on his new LTR450, but he wouldn't be racing it in Florida.

Brent had a new HMF exhaust installed on his Suzuki LT-R450, and he narrowed the rear of his Suzuki to GNCC width by replacing the stock hubs with LTZ400 hubs, which were modified.

His Brother Brandon Sturdivant will remain on the Honda 450R this year with orange Fullbore plastic.