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Borich Takes Eighth-Straight Win In 2009 Can-Am
Grand National Cross Country Series
Ballance and
Indiana Native Ryan Lane Join Him On Podium
Borich played his typical race, waiting
until the final lap to make his move.
Ballance took the $250
Motorcycle-USA.com holeshot award.
Lane, Borich and Ballance douse the
crowd with champagne.
Jones, Kirkland and Yoho take their turn
on the XC2 podium.
Kirkland took home the XC2 Championship.
Cecco, Buckhannon and Swift celebrate
their wins. Buckhannon took home the 4X4
Open Championship and Swift the 4X4
Limited.
Indiana native Ryan Lane made his first
podium appearance at Ironman.
Ballance said he would be back in 2010
for the entire season.
Photos By: Krista Shaw |
Crawfordsville, Indiana (October 24, 2009) -
In the final round of the 2009 Can-Am Grand
National Cross Country series, the Klotz Ironman
in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Rockstar Makita
Suzuki's Chris Borich took his eighth-straight
XC1 victory and his 10th of the season after
taking the lead after his typical last minute
campaign for the win. Yamaha's Bill Ballance
finished in second with Indiana native Ryan Lane
in third.
Borich battled in third for most of the race
while FRE KTM's Adam McGill and Yamaha's Taylor
Kiser led him through one of the toughest tracks
of the 13-stop GNCC tour. The track has some of
the steepest hills on the circuit and rain the
day prior had made it one of the muddiest, too.
"I like the last lap," Borich said. "It was
pretty tough out there but it was an awesome
day. The hillclimbs were gnarly. This is one of
the best tracks on the circuit and there were
fans everywhere."
Ballance fired first to take the $250
Motorcycle-USA.com holeshot award and led until
he got stuck in a hole. McGill and Kiser were in
hot pursuit and passed Ballance and ran 1st and
2nd through the famous Ironman track. Both were
battling for second place in the series. When
the white flag went out, McGill, Kiser and
Borich were banging against each other. In the
fourth and final lap, Borich made his way into
the lead, and than Ballance got into second when
McGill and Kiser both got stuck in a bottleneck.
Then Ballance got stuck on a steep hillclimb,
and Kiser ran into Ballance and tumbled down the
hill while fans held onto his machine. A few
feet away, McGill got stuck on the hill, also.
Borich pulled away to finished first in front of
Ballance in second and Lane in third.
"I didn't know where I was at the top of the
hillclimb so I just put the hammer down," Borich
said. "The bike is great. It's going to be hard
to knock the number one plate off."
And one rider has confirmed that he will be
back for the 2010 season to take back the
Championship. This year's defending champion
Ballance, who has won the GNCC championship nine
times, said on the podium that he will be back
for the entirety of the 2010 season.
"It's been a tough year but things have
progressed to where they should be," Ballance
said to huge cheers from the fans. "I will be
back for the whole season."
Lane made his first podium appearance at the
Ironman and the Indiana native said he was happy
to overcome a rough year.
"I've had bad luck all year," Lane said.
"Nothing's really come together but today it all
worked. Going into the year I thought I could
get on the podium but I had bike problems, and
then I just wasn't riding well."
Warnert Can-Am's Chris Bithell finished
fourth, followed by Yamaha's Donnie Ockerman in
fifth. McGill finished in sixth followed by
Houser Racing's Bryan Cook in seventh. Kiser
recovered to finish in eighth and Yamaha's
Johnny Gallagher, who had a strong start,
finished in ninth followed by Duane Johnson in
tenth. Walker Fowler, in his XC1 Pro debut,
finished 11th.
A year-long battle in the XC2 Pro-Am class
ended today when Josh Kirkland was able to take
home a seventh place finish to secure the
championship by one point over Brian Wolf, who
took home the Ironman win.
"Today was unbelievable," Wolf said. "I made
more mistakes on the first lap than I probably
did all season. Everybody really stepped it up
today. I'm really happy I could win one for this
crowd."
Parker Jones took home another second place
finish today and Big Nutz Racing's Kevin Yoho
took home third.
Kirkland was awarded the number one plate
after the XC2 Podium celebration. Kirkland had
to finish in the top seven to win the
championship and had no room to spare.
"I definitely had the worst race of the
season," Kirkland said. "I got stuck a lot but I
ended up in seventh where I needed to be."
Josh Beavers led most of the race after
nabbing the $100 Rekluse holeshot award but was
unable to finish on the podium.
In the morning ATV race, Warnert Can-Am's
Bryan Buckhannon took home the overall win,
during a race that he had to win to take the
championship. Buckhannon took home the $100 GT
Thunder ATV Amateur Overall Award, the overall
win and the 4X4 Open Championship. The 4X4 Open
title race came down to the last round between
Buckhannon and Can-Am's Scott Kilby, and whoever
won the Ironman race would have taken the
championship. Making it even more impressive was
that Buckhannon broke his leg at the
Pennsylvania race and was out for 16 weeks.
"It means a lot to take home the
championship," Buckhannon said. "I was scared to
death of getting sick this week. I haven't slept
since the last race. After tonight though, we
will all sleep good."
Yamaha's Traci Cecco finished second overall,
and Warnert Can-Am's Michael Swift finished a
perfect season in the 4X4 Limited class with a
third place overall. Swift has won all 13 of his
races this season, something that hadn't been
done before in that class.
Cecco took first in the Women's class,
followed by FRE KTM's Angel Atwell in second and
Kristen Atwell in third.
In the Youth Race, Jay Shadron took first
overall, followed by 9-year-old Hunter Hart in
second and Emily wise, a second-generation
GNCC'er in third.
XC1 Finish
1.
Chris Borich (SUZ)
2. Bill Ballance (YAM)
3. Ryan Lane (HON)
4. Chris Bithell (CAN)
5. Don Ockerman (YAM)
6. Adam McGill (KTM)
7. Bryan Cook (HON)
8. Duane Johnson (HON)
9. Jarrod McClure (YAM)
10. Johnny Gallagher (YAM)
XC1 Point Standings
1.
Chris Borich (342/8 wins) 2.Taylor Kiser (245/1)
3. Adam McGill (241) 4. Bill Ballance (237/1) 5.
Brandon Sommers (206) 6.Bryan Cook (205/1 win)
7.Don Ockerman (179) 8. Duane Johnson (152)
9.Jarrod McClure (149) 10.Johnny Gallagher (134)
XC2 Finish
1.
Brian Wolf (YAM)
2. Parker Jones (HON)
3. Kevin Yoho (YAM)
4. Josh Beavers (KTM)
5. Gabe Phillips (YAM)
6. Blake Kramer (SUZ)
7. Josh Kirkland (KTM)
8. Joey Margueria (POL)
9. Eric Wilezek (SUZ)
10. Nathan Thomas (HON)
XC2 Point Standings
1.Josh Kirkland (332/5 wins)
2.Brian Wolf(331/8 wins) 3.Parker Jones (213)
4.Eric Hoyland (196) 5.Kevin Yoho (160) 6. Gabe
Phillips (144) 7. Josh Beavers (137) 8.Blake
Kramer (132) 9.Rob Hertz (126) 10.Scottie Rich
(117)
About GNCC Racing
The Can-Am Grand National Cross Country series
is America's premier off-road racing series.
Founded in 1973, the 13-round championship is
produced exclusively by Racer Productions.
Cross-country racing is one of the most
physically demanding sports in the world. The
grueling three-hour GNCC races lead as many as
1,800 riders through tracks ranging in length
from eight to 12 miles. With varied terrain,
including hills, woods, mud, dirt, rocks and
motocross sections, GNCC events are tests of
both survival and speed. Riders compete for more
than $3 million in prize money, which draws
talent from all over the U.S., Europe, Australia
and New Zealand. GNCC Racing is televised and
airs every Saturday and Thursday on the Versus
Network. For more information, please visit
www.gnccracing.com.
About Racer Productions
A West Virginia-based motorcycle and ATV event
production company, Racer Productions has been a
leader in the off-road racing industry for more
than 30 years. It's repertoire of events
includes the 13-round Can-Am Grand National
Cross Country Series, held since 1973; The
Kawasaki/Monster Energy High Point National in
Mount Morris, Pa., held since 1977; The ATV Dirt
Days at Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills,
Tenn., held since 1985; The U.S. World Motocross
Gran Prix at Steel City Raceway in Delmont, Pa.
in 1987; The Monster Energy/Kawasaki Steel City
National, held since 1988; The ATV Stampede
National Motocross at High Point Raceway, held
since 1994; The AMA Pro ATV Open at Steel City
in 2007; as well as numerous other amateur
motocross events. In addition, Racer Productions
staffs the prestigious Air Nautiques/AMA
Amateur National Motocross Championship at
Loretta Lynn's Ranch, held since 1982. For more
information, please visit
www.racerproductions.com.
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