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JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Race Report -
Mountain Ridge
Mountain Ridge GNCC – (May 17, 2009)
Somerset, PA – Round 7 of the Can Am GNCC Series
took the JG Off Road / GEICO / Monster Energy
Kawasaki team to the rocky trails of Somerset,
PA. The ATV’s faced a dry, dusty track,
but rain rolled in Saturday evening, giving way
to beautiful conditions for the bikes on Sunday.
The race weekend for the team turned out to be
just as rocky as the track.
Jennifer was the first to hit the Somerset PA
course Saturday morning. As the green flag went
up her quad misfired which placed her in the
back of the pack early. As the girls left the
starting area and headed back to the pits we
knew she would make up the lost ground she
received from the start. As Jen came by us after
lap one she had moved her way into the top four.
She was able to make the needed passes early
which placed her in a good spot for a top 3
finish. Jennifer pitted for a splash of gas in
lap two but declined goggles as she headed back
out onto the course. As she tried to make a pass
on a line of lap traffic she took a muddy line
and ruined her goggles, losing visibility. She
got them off and continued to push forward but
due to the extremely dusty conditions it would
be a long last lap as she took the white flag in
third place. During the last lap Jen fought hard
to maintain a top three finish but would fall to
fourth for the day. This finish keeps
Jennifer in 4th place in the points race.
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.
JT Bennett jumped onto the track Sunday
morning in the Sportsman class, ready to have
some fun on what would be considered his home
track. Unfortunately for JT, his day ended
early when just a few miles into the first lap
he completely lost his rear brakes. He
pulled into the pits looking for a quick fix,
when it was found that the master cylinder was
completely shot. Bennett said the track
was beautiful and a ton of fun and was bummed
out to not be able to head back out for the
remainder of the race.
Whibs, Jarrett, and Watkins were ready to
roll and were hungry for some more podiums when
the green flag flew. Off to a great start,
Paul and Jimmy went around the first turn side
by side. As the guys entered the woods and
the fabled Mountain Ridge rocks came out to
greet them and Whibley came around on the first
lap with a comfortable 30+ second lead on the
rest of the field. Then on the second lap
the problems started… Whibley went down hard on
his shoulder, but was able to quickly recover.
Once he was back in the chase he ran into some
more issues with 2 laps to go - disaster struck
again when a small slip in the rock garden
resulted in a massive hole smashed into the
water pump cover. Paul said he saw all the
coolant pour out and could see his chances of a
good result evaporating. He nursed the bike back
to the pits and after some frantic swapping of
parts the crew had him back in the race but down
a lot of positions. He didn’t make it far before
steam was pouring out of his bike, so he quickly
spun the bike around and came back into the pits
– It seemed like there was a hole in the
radiator somewhere, and what better way to fix
that then to pour pepper – yes pepper into the
radiator to block the hole. Although
disappointed, with a 7th place (10th O/A)
finish, Paul was happy to gain some valuable
points that allow him to keep a hold of the
points lead.
Jarrett battling an illness for the past week
was able to stay strong and battle throughout
the race. Jimmy took an 8th place – 13th
O/A finish for the day. Jimmy is looking
forward to feeling better and redeeming himself
in Millfield, OH for Round 8. This
finish keeps Jimmy in 5th place in the points
standings with 6 races to go.
Scotty Watkins got off to a mid-pack start
and settled in for the day. With a few rough
laps that dropped him down to 6th place at one
point, Watkins was able to rally back to a 4th
place finish (11th O/A) for the day.
Scotty remains in 11th place in the points
standings.
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, HR Motorsports, Ohlins
USA and BRP
Scotty Watkins - FMF and Shoei
And of course a huge thank you to our fans.
The GNCC series will continue on June 6th and
7th for the Wiseco John Penton GNCC in
Millfield, OH. The Somerset GNCC will air on the
VS network July 11th at 2:00PM (ATV) and July
18th at 2:00PM (Bikes). For a full listing
of the TV schedule, visit:
http://www.gnccracing.com/pages/gncc-television.
To learn more about JG Off Road Racing,
please visit
www.GEICOgarage.com.
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