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JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Race Report -
Loretta Lynn's
April 19, 2009 – Acerbis Loretta Lynn’s GNCC
– Hurricane Mills, TN - The JG Off Road / GEICO
Powersports / Monster Energy Kawasaki team was
paid a visit to Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch for
Round #5 of the Can Am GNCC Series. The weather
was perfect for racing on Saturday, with cool
temperatures and overcast skies. The area
had seen some rain prior in the week, keeping
the dust down for the ATV’s. Sunday
brought a whole new story as the skies opened up
and drenched the area, leading to soupy, slimy
mud for the bikes.
Jennifer was off to a good start coming
through in 3rd place at the end of lap one and
with one great battle ahead of her.
Throughout the course of the next 3 laps, 2nd
through 5th freight trained around the course.
Midway through lap 4 Jennifer had found herself
in a turn by turn, position swapping contention
with Angel Atwell for 2nd place.
Unfortunately for Albright, she had a slight run
in with a lapped rider, which cost her a few
positions. Jennifer finished 5th (7th O/A)
for the day. This finish keeps Jennifer in
the 5th place position in the points standings,
just 3 points out of the Top 3.
Jennifer would like to thank of her sponsors:
GEICO, MSR, Lojak Yamaha, MAXXIS, HMF, HiPer
Technology, Rekluse, GT Thunder, Spider Grips,
Precision, XFR, Cycle Gear, Scott, Flexx, CV4,
IMS, ProGraph-X, Triple X Motorsports, PowerMadd,
Moto Pro Training, and DP Brakes.
Sunday morning brought with it heavy rain in
the morning… could it be because mud rider JT
Bennett was up all night doing his rain dance?
It must have been because low and behold, the
beloved #33 showed up on the starting line of
the morning race. When rumors of rain
started on Saturday, JT said that if it rained,
he would be racing and he kept his word.
Bennett raced the Sportsmans class and by the
end of lap one had settled in to a 2nd place
spot. JT had to take goggles every lap,
which was his only complaint, as he smiled his
way around the track all 5 laps to take a 2nd
place overall finish at the checkers.
By the start of the afternoon race the rain
had ended, but the damage was already done.
The mud was soupy, slimy, and everywhere.
All three of the GEICO riders got off the line
without a hitch and the race was on. The
end of lap one had Jimmy and Paul up in the Top
5 and who was that was just announced as the
OVERALL leader… none other than the #15 of
Scotty Watkins. Watkins, Whibley, and
Jarrett are all strong mud riders and had the
chance to prove it. As the day wore on,
the guys all seemed to get stronger, however
during lap 4 Whibley found a bit of bad luck
when his master link broke and he lost his
chain. He had to push his bike back a
little over a half mile to get back to the pits.
Luckily the crew caught wind of Whibley’s
misfortune and had a chain ready to go.
Although he lost some time between going back to
the pits, getting fixed up, and going back to
the point of the track he left, he was able to
battle his way back up through the ranks and
pull out a 7th place (11th O/A) finish. In
the midst of all of the happenings in the GEICO
pits, Jimmy Jarrett stepped up his pace.
Jarrett who was down to 5th place at one point
in the race, kicked into high gear in the last
lap chasing down Strang and Mullins.
Before the checkers flew, Jimmy was able to
catch Mullins and take a 2nd place overall
finish. Scotty Watkins had a strong ride
the entire day, enjoying the mud and making no
mistakes, Watkins took a 1st place XC-2 finish
and an astonishing 4th place overall.
With 5 rounds under their belts, the points
standing are: Whibley – 2nd (XC1), Jarrett
– 6th (XC1), and Watkins – 4th (XC2).
The team would like to extend a special
thanks to all of their sponsors: GEICO, Monster
Energy Kawasaki, Moose, Pirelli, Tsubaki, IMS,
Works Connection, EBC Brakes, Silkolene, Renthal,
Pro Moto Billet, Enduro Engineer,
PowersportGrafx, and Acerbis.
In addition, the guys would like to thank the
following sponsors:
Paul Whibley – Leo Vince, Shoei, Smith, G-2,
Vortex Ignitions, WER, and CTI Jimmy Jarrett –
FMF, Arai, Motion Pro, Cytomax, Applied, UFO,
Twin Air, and BRP Scotty Watkins - FMF and
Shoei
And of course a huge thank you to our fans.
The GNCC series will continue on May 2nd &
3rd for the Weekend Warrior GNCC in Lafayette,
TN. The Acerbis Loretta Lynn’s GNCC will air on
the VS network June 13th at 2:30PM (ATV) and
June 20th at 2:30PM (Bikes). For a full
listing of the TV schedule, visit:
http://www.gnccracing.com/pages/gncc-television.
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