GNCC Round 11
Bryan Cook earns win in GNCC action at Unadilla
By Jason
Weigandt
Photos by Harlan Foley/ATVRIDERS.com
October
4, 2005 – It's been a tough season for Four-Stroke Tech's Bryan Cook
(right), last year's Suzuki Grand National Cross Country Series Rookie of the
Year, but he salvaged quite a bit with a historic win at the first-ever Unadilla GNCC in New York September 24.
Unadilla may be the most well-known motocross track in the country, and that's why 1,700 riders came out to make this the biggest GNCC of all time.
Cook came out on top in a wild fight, with Suzuki GNCC Series Champion Bill Ballance gutting out one of the toughest rides of his career by finishing second on his still-broken leg. Veteran Bryan Baker took third.
"It feels so good," said Cook. "At the beginning of the year we had such problems with the bike, just straightening the little things out. Then it just brings you down. Finally at the Wisp we had it figured out, and I trained real hard over the summer. I just wanted it real bad."
Ballance wanted it, too. The factory Yamaha rider saved his season with an amazing second-place finish, complete with 11 screws and two plates in his broken leg. Combined with a DNF from title-rival Chris Borich, who broke a tie-rod, and Ballance is suddenly back in control of the series.
"I don't know how I did it," said Ballance. "It was pretty rough out there. It started hurting before we even started, just putting the boot on and everything. When we would hit the rough stuff I had to back off of the throttle, but in the smooth open stuff, I could run my normal race pace. I'm glad it's over!"
Soon after spraying champagne on the podium, Ballance was off to put his leg in a bucket of ice. He was in considerable pain, but he was tough enough to put major points on his rival. Going into the race he had ridden all of 15 minutes since the injury, and he said the pain after just that 15 minutes of riding set him back a few days. But this time, miraculously, Ballance grabbed the holeshot and led early while a battle ensured behind him.
"Going into the second lap I had the lead and we went though the first mud section," said Ballance. "I crossed some ruts and I actually spit myself off the bike. The only thing I could think of was to wrap my body around my leg. Some spectators got the bike all straightened out, and by the time I got my crippled butt over to it the guy even had it started up for me! For me, I was just counting it down and looking at the lap times, saying c'mon just three more laps, two more laps, one more lap."
It was a wild, wild race at Unadilla. With more than two miles of motocross track combined with the tight, twisting New York woods, riders had to be both fast and smart to win. The crash cost Ballance the lead and handed it to Chris Jenks, the winner of the previous GNCC in North Carolina. Riding a wave of confidence, Jenks had the lead and kept pulling it, with teammates Cook and Michael Houston behind him.
Then it came unraveled in a big mud bog near a section of railroad tracks, when he got stuck. Cook took the lead from there and was never headed.
Ballance would have to fight his way back up, but other favorites were struggling. Borich bent a tie rod on the first lap and took nearly a lap to get it fixed. Matt Smiley crashed on his factory Polaris and injured his shoulder, and Yoshimura Suzuki's William Yokley had transmission problems.
All
of the attrition worked in the favor of Baker (right), who stayed in the hunt
all day on his K&K Honda. Baker, the 2002 GNCC Pro Production Champion, hasn't
been on the podium in years. "It's probably been seven or eight years since I've
been up here. The whole day went pretty good, I got a half-decent start, and
every time I would see people stuck, like on the railroad tracks, I would just
click them off."
Just two races remain in the chase for the 2005 Suzuki GNCC ATV title, and Ballance looks to wrap up his sixth-straight title. "Out of all the things I've had to deal with this year, all the injuries and coming back, I think this title would be the sweetest of them all," explained Ballance.