2006 GNCC Series Round #11 - Unadilla - Preview & Live Race Coverage

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New Berlin, NY - With the only three rounds of racing remaining the 2006 season, the series heads to New York to the famous Unadilla Valley Sport Center for Round 11, and just like when the ATVA Motocross National was held here in July, rain is in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, but racers arriving today were greeted to a beautiful day.

With rain on the way, there were plenty of tractors out in the fields today cutting silage.

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The track this year is only 9 miles long, and it has a little bit of everything including sections of the Unadilla Motocross Track, which is criss-crossed several times each lap, but there isn't any real jumps besides an uphill series of small doubles, which are seriously worn from the motocross races.

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There is a few field sections that racers will twist and turn their way through, and the fall colors are really beginning to come out in New York for the first weekend of Fall.

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The majority of the track is in the woods, but unlike Yadkinville, there are plenty of multiple lane sections in the woods, which will provide plenty of passing opportunities, and I was really impressed with the track layout as it fairly tight and technical with a mixture of wide open high speed sections to keep it exciting.

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Last year at this time, Bill Ballance made his return to racing after fracturing his leg in August, and even though he could barely walk, he still was able to secure a Podium finish and go on to win his sixth Championship.

This year Bill is chasing after a Barry Hawk record of seven Championships, and he heads into Unadilla with some momentum after winning Yadkinville two weeks ago, which extended his points lead over Chris Borich to 28 points in the Overall and 6 points in the Pro Class.

Before heading to Unadilla, Bill Ballance spent the past week at Rausch Creek in PA filming a Yamaha sponsored video, which will be released in the near future by Quad Magazine, so stayed tuned for more details as they become available.

Bill was also happy to pickup the all-new 2007 Yamaha Grizzly 700 to use on his farm back home in Kentucky, and next week, I will release a full write-up on my first impression of the Yamaha Grizzly along with Bill’s initial impression of the Grizzly as well.

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Dave Simmons made the switch from the Yamaha YFZ450 to the Yamaha Raptor 700 at Yadkinville, and he plans on sticking with the Raptor 700 for the remainder of the season and was really hoping for some rain with the unlimited amount of torque the Raptor seems to have compared to other sport ATVs.

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Ken Robey made the switch from Kawasaki to Arctic Cat in the WPSA Series, and he plans on finishing out the GNCC season on his bright orange Arctic Cat in the Utility Stock Class.

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Jeffrey Pickens and Angel Atwell must have some good chemistry because they both have been on fire this year with each of them turning heads this year, and Pickens won the Overall this past weekend at the OMA Round 8

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Well, it is just past Midnight and it beginning to sprinkle rain, so it appears that it might be a wet one tomorrow, and with the Kawasaki Dealer Show going on this weekend, and the anticipated release of the KFX450R, I just couldn't help but wonder if we will see a trailer on Pro Row next year that looks real similiar to this one?????

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Well it rained on and off all night and we received about 1/2 inch of rain, but the radar shows that the rain is beginning to move out, so hopefully the rest of the day will remain rain free, but for the morning race, it will be muddy for the first couple of laps. By the third lap, it should start drying out because the Unadilla sandy soil sucks up the moisture fairly well.

With almost no cellphone service at Unadilla, the pay phones at Unadilla received a steady stream of traffic this morning despite the rain.