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JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Race Report -
Titan
May 3, 2009 – Weekend Warrior Titan GNCC –
Lafayette, TN - Round 6 of the Can Am GNCC
Series took the JG Off Road / GEICO / Monster
Energy Kawasaki team back down to the hills of
Tennessee for the Weekend Warrior Titan (later
re-named the Titanic) in Lafayette.
Unrelenting rain drenched the area the entire
weekend, leading to an underwater, muddy track.
Jennifer had a good jump off the start,
heading into the woods in the top five and by
the end of the first lap had moved into the 2nd
place position. On the 2nd lap Albright
came in for a splash of gas and to get new
gloves and goggles and was quickly back out on
the track to charge for the lead.
Throughout the course of the day, Albright,
Cecco, and Atwell swapped positions, but midway
through the last lap, Atwell ran into some
mechanical issues, leaving the battle between
Jennifer and Traci. At one point, Jennifer
was able to take the lead, but got hung up with
only a few miles to go. Albright took the
checkers in 2nd place for the day (4th O/A).
This finish moves Jennifer up to 4th in the
point’s standings, just a mere 2 points out of
3rd.
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 came around and so did rumors
of squeezing 2 races into one. As the rain
continued to pour down in buckets, Racer
Productions considered combining the morning 2
hour race and the afternoon 3 hour race into
one, 2 hour race; instead they kept the normal
schedule but shortened both races by one hour in
fear that the track just would not hold up.
JT Bennett was smiling from ear to ear again
when he saw the mud and was back out on the
track for what we were calling Mudfest Round 2.
Bennett aboard his trusty Lojak Yamaha YZ250,
grabbed the hole shot and settled into a good
pace for the remainder of the race. As he
came around each lap he would just shake off the
goggles that Gretchen was offering and laugh as
he went past. On the podium he was asked
why he fell off pace a bit on the last lap – JT
laughed and said that Cory (McDonald) was riding
well and didn’t think he could catch him, so
when he saw trail boss Jeff Russell out on the
trail looking lonely he stopped and chatted with
him for a minute. He also took a moment to
thank his sponsors: GEICO, MSR, Lojaks,
EBC Brakes, Rekluse, his wife Gretchen, and
everyone else in the pits. Bennett ended
up 2nd overall for the day.
The flag flew for the afternoon race and so
did the GEICO boys. Jimmy Jarrett grabbed
the $250 motorcyceUSA.com hole shot with Paul
Whibley and Josh Strang right on his rear wheel.
The three swapped positions back and forth for
the first couple of laps, but during lap 3,
Whibley regained the lead and wasn’t letting go
of it and Jimmy Jarrett wasn’t about to let Paul
out of his sights. The GEICO pit crew was
ready for the guys on lap 3 as they pulled them
in for clean goggles and gloves, a shot of gas
and a quick spray from the pressure washer to
keep the radiators clean. The GEICO teammates
put on a hard charge for the last two laps and
took the top 2 spots on the podium.
Whibley taking the top spot on the box also
regains the points lead with 7 races left.
Jarrett hold on to a 5th place spot in the
point’s standings.
Scotty Watkins got off the line in and into
the woods in the 3rd spot, but by the end of the
first lap was in the overall lead, giving a
thumbs up as he rode past the pits.
Watkins battled with Kailub Russell for a good
portion of the day and ended up taking a 2nd
place finish in the XC2 class, and 5th overall.
Scotty currently stands in 3rd place in the
class and 11th overall in the point’s race.
Team manager JT Bennett couldn’t be more
proud of the team commenting, “I cannot thank
the guys enough for their hard work on and off
the track. They’ve been working really
hard and it’s paying off.” Gretchen added
“Although we’re all working hard and putting
a lot of time in, we’re all still having a lot
of fun, which is what the races are all about.”
JT also wanted to thank the Racer Productions
crew for the outstanding job they did
maintaining all the races throughout the day and
getting them started on time. For anyone
who wasn’t there, it’s hard to describe how bad
the conditions were.
The team would like to extend a special
thanks to all of their sponsors: GEICO, Monster
Energy Kawasaki, Moose, Pirelli, Rekluse,
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 16th &
17th for the GEICO Mountain Ridge GNCC in
Somerset, PA. The Weekend Warrior Titan GNCC
will air on the VS network June 27th at 2:30PM
(ATV) and July 4th at 2:00PM (Bikes). For
a full listing of the TV schedule, visit:
http://www.gnccracing.com/pages/gncc-television
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