Race Report: GNCC Round 8
6/8/2010 2:45:52 PM
Thomasville, NC: The Penton GNCC has a reputation of being a dust bowl
or mud fest. This year was no different. A massive downpour on Saturday as the
Quad pro race was in staging delayed their start an hour. On Sunday another
huge downpour just before 10 am completely soaked the place. There was a lot of
talk about combining the morning and afternoon race and run a shortened race.
In the end the morning race guys got their start delayed until 11:30 and ran
for an hour and the afternoon race was to run 2 hours.
Paul Whibley got a good start and rounded turn one in the lead although Cory Buttrick just
pipped Whibley to the hole shot line entering turn two. The first few turns were on
a mx track then they hit the woods where conditions were pretty wet and the mud
was heavy. The trail technique was mostly get into the rut and stay there. Whibley learned the hard way that the main slot was the fastest as he tried to make a
pass on different lines and each time lost a position. Whibley ended up behind Jimmy
Jarrett and racing with him for the first lap until they got close to scoring.
Early in the second lap Whibley got wedged in a rut. It took a long time to get
the WR out. A lot of lifting and heaving to pry out the bike that now looked like
it weighed a tonne. Whibley thought the race was done again since he was so far back
but he kept going hoping to salvage some points.
As the race progressed Whibley picked up positions as the conditions began to take
there toll. At the fuel stop the team told Whibley he was up to 5th and that that
fourth place was not to far in front.
Over the last two laps some sections of the track were removed as they were
getting blocked by bottlenecks and some deep ruts. On the last lap Whibley came to a
blockage with some deep ruts. Paul could see what looked like Josh Strang, stuck
in the rut. He decided to try go around as many others had tried too but unsure
if it was possible. Whibley pinned it up a little bank through the bushes, over a
couple of logs and pushed through some vines and he dropped back down to the
track, just behind Josh Strang as he emerged from the mud hole. The track was
single track and passing was near impossible so Whibley had to just follow. They came
to another rider stuck in the main line, Josh went high Whibley went low, but he stalled his bike and lost some time restarting. Whibley closed the gap back up by the
finish but had to settle for the position he was in. Crossing the line Whibley was
surprised to see he was up to third (Josh was running 2nd).
Pretty happy with the result considering Whibley was so far back early in the race. A big congrats to Cory Buttrick for taking his first overall win. We are sure the
first of many.
1st: Cory Buttrick
2nd: Josh Strang
3rd: Paul Whibley
Paul Whibley is supported by:
AmPro Yamaha, Monster Energy, Shoei, Sidi, Smith, Ohlins, G2, CTi, Moto SR, Vortex
Ignitions.
The AmPro Yamaha Team is supported by:
FMF Kenda Yamalube, Asterisk, Cannondale, CV4, Cycle Gear, E-Batt, EBC, Brakes Factory, Connection, Fastway, Gaerne Boots ,GYTR, IMS, Jonny Signs, Leatt Brace, Matrix Racing
Products, Motion Pro, MSR, Pro-Clean, Rekluse, Scott, Shoei, Slavens, TM, Designworks, Twin Air, Wiseco, ZipTy Racing
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