For me, it seems like yesterday we were all in Florida about to kick off this season. Many miles have been put down as we traveled from state to state to participate in the series along with countless hours of work just to afford going to each round. Toughing out all 12 rounds is an accomplishment in itself....
For Bill Ballance, this marked another year in his career and at this point, there was no official word on whether he would return for 2010.
For the Can Am team, it would be another round that remained up in the air as the team struggled to keep things pointed in the right direction in the XC1 class.
Chris Bithell has been making progress and having some successes while Brent Sturdivant continues having problems keeping his machine running till the checkered flag comes out. A ton of work has been piled into these programs and failure just seems to hit you double hard.
Mark Warnert chuckled as he told me that "If we could get the DS's running like our morning UTV's...we would have it made".
Its been a long season for everyone and I think a few riders are happy to see it come to an end. The off season for several will be filled with change.
Brandon Sommers gets ready to get settled on the line prior to the start. Sommers has been charging hard all season and you can usually find him arriving at the track with a very muddy quad showing he is putting in the seat time needed to run up front.
Ockermans Yamaha gets the royal treatment as it is carried into position for the start
Chris Borich's mechanic said he wasn't carrying Chris's machine :p
Bill is smiling because deer season is upon us;)
Jarrod McClure gets ready for another rough race. There will be some big news coming out of the McClure camp in the coming days......
Bryan and Bonnie Cook ham it up for Foley. The pair will have a busy off season as well and Bonnie should be giving the world another rugrat here shortly!
Speaking of new kiddo's, Santo Derisi was blessed with another child born roughly six weeks ago. Congrats to teh Derisi family, I know you guys are mighty proud!
Walker Fowler would be giving the XC1 Pro class a go this round as a teaser. From what I hear, Fowler will be running XC2 in 2010...but anything can happen before round 1!
I did not even get to chat with McGill this round, I did take his girl friend cruising though:o Sorry Adam, but when your my age you dont pass up a chance to cruise the pits with a hot chick:blah:
McGill has had a solid season but did not finish where he wanted to be in the points. Hopefully next season will find him back in the hunt as he remains a fan favorite and one of the most interesting XC1 riders the series has!