By Jeff Pillon
The last GNCC of the year was Oct 24th in Crawfordsville Indiana and it was perfect weather for what is always a fun event seems like this race is wet every year even if the sun is out on the of the race and this made for some really tough hill climbs myself Macker, Frank Cantin, Wayne Carroll, Yansee and Todd Coolly at the end of the race everybody had a great story to tell, I had a struggled with my grips as I was riding my new KTM 450xc and I had not had time to test the bike too much and forgot to wire my grips it did not take long to get water under them and the throttle grip was spinning so much I would have to keep turning it or it would let off on its own. Macker was off to a great start he had got off the line ahead of me and we ended up riding with each other for a bit and he was ahead of me when he made a wrong turn at the top of a hill a lot of riders took this line and it ended up put you back about a ½ a lap, Frank Cantin was riding well until a bad line thru one of the water crossing drowned his bike out and had to be towed out of the bush by a 4 wheeler I guess those things are not useless after all, Yansee also managed to find some deep water, Wayne had a good ride but the line he was on was back a ways and this meant he had to deal with a lot of bottle necks at each tough section and there was lots of both, I am not sure what happened to Todd Coolly as they had not found him when we left I think they were looking for him and I have not read anything about a missing person in the local news so they most have found him. I found a few photo’s online from the race I also included a couple photo’s of the Great Lakes GP, The Great Lakes Grand Prix was a really fun event held in Gaylord MI at a Ski resort I recommend this event to all mx and off road riders it is just plain fun, myself (Jeff Pillon) Brad Dixon, Bill Amlin and Renee and Greg Freeman all raced and everyone had a great time, Bill crashed hard and hurt his knee but will be back riding in a couple months, Brad managed to win the 30+A class and 5th in the 25+A, I won the endure class and got 3rd in the 35+A class. As I mentioned this was my first race with my new KTM450xc and I loved the new bike and it preformed perfectly I have to thank Mark at STS Powersports our local KTM dealer for all there help and support this year it makes a huge difference have good support like this he was able to get parts quickly when needed and great pricing. I also have to thank Rekluse for their help this year I just put in my order for the Rekluse pro for my new 450, I ran the Rekluse pro all season in my 250xc and did not have any clutch issues same clutch plates all season. I also want to thank Savageracingproducts.com this site is not up yet but will be very soon, they are local racers that enjoy coming to ERMC for TVR races and are make some products of their own they make over flow bottles and other products to help with cooling as well as really cool looking custom clutch covers you can get your name and # on them, I used the overflow bottle as well as an additional inline cooling fins at the Ironman and they helped as we had some steep hills that were very muddy and there was some allot steam coming from my bike so it was hot but if my 450 overheated at all I did not notice as the coolant went into the overflow as planned and then returned back to the rad once we got moving again. Brad Dixon and Dylan Langlois also have these clutch covers on their bikes check them out they look great and I believe STS Powersports will be caring these products.
We’ve actually known it for quite some time, but now it’s official. It looks like Chad Reed’s has finalized his contract with factory Kawasaki and will be running out of the Monster Energy rig alongside Ryan Villopoto in 2010. Reed, who is currently in Australia racing his Super X series, is slated to contest the AMA Supercross Championship and also defend his number one plate in the outdoors, as well.
As expected, Harley-Davidson announced dire third quarter financial results this morning — sales are down 21.3 percent year-on-year, but net income is down 84.1 percent — but the fallout from the company’s irresponsible business practices is shocking; Buell is being “discontinued” and MV Agusta, only acquired last year, will be sold.
It wasn’t the Dream Team of Maggiora 1986 – the last time the Motocross of Nations was entertained and watched first hand by rabid Italian fans – and to some it was rather cruelly the B-Team after high profile declinations of participation, but the line-up of Ryan Dungey, Jake Weimer and Ivan Tedesco successfully defended Team USA’s honor in the biggest and most prestigious motocross event in the world. The trio, two of whom were racing motocross outside and of the States for the first time, survived three different motos under hot sunshine at Franciacorta to give their country a 20th victory in the competition and a fifth consecutive title.