Borich Wins GEICO Mountain Ridge GNCC, Takes Points Lead

East Coast ATV's Chris Borich nailed a big overall win at the GEICO Mountain Ridge round of the Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series, and his emotions on the podium made it clear that this title means the world to him.

"What a race," said Borich. "Some people think I haven't been training over the break; but guess what? I have been. I got the points lead now, and I'm just going to come out here and do the best I can and hopefully win the rest of them and grab me a championship. I need one."

Borich answered any doubts about how hard he worked over the summer, fighting hard for the win in an early battle with Yamaha's Bill Ballance and Honda rider Adam McGill, and then surviving an unbelievable charge down the stretch from LTERacing.com's Chris Bithell. Ballance struggled with some equipment issues and persevered for third. McGill had a big crash that knocked him to fourth, and Bithell simply ran out of steam after charging so hard all day.

Bithell, 19, came from last place to lead the race, before finishing second.

"Off the start, someone just got up underneath me from behind and I went off the bike, just like usual," said Bithell. "I rode my butt off the first couple laps, being stupid through the dust, passing four guys at a time through dust sections. I really wanted to win and I knew I had to catch these guys."

Ballance was struggling to keep pace.

"I don't know how I ended up in third," said Ballance. "I just had a bad, bad day. I caught a big rock on the first lap, I think it bent a shaft in the shock and I think all the oil's out of it now. One of the front shocks is messed up pretty bad. We were having some problems out there in the water, that's the first time that's ever happened.

"Hey, I got third. I don't know how. It seems like we were just barely going around the track."

Fun-loving West Virginia native McGill was in the hunt, too, following Borich after the start and making moves for the lead midway through.

"I followed him and watched his lines, the second lap is where I started making my passes," said McGill. "I know I have the speed now. I just want to win one so bad, so bad you just wouldn't believe it."

McGill took the lead from Borich but tagged a lapper, sending him flying over the bars. He landed on the trail in front of Borich.

"I just about ran him over," said Borich. "So I had to back up and take off and that's when Chris got the lead, and Bill went by and I was right behind him. I just pushed and pushed and caught back up to Chris and we pretty much checked out. We had an awesome battle out there."

Bithell may have been able to hold on for the win, but fatigue finally caught up to him after two hours of chasing the pack after his first-turn crash.

"I took the lead there and just tried to hold it," said Bithell. "We battled, and I really didn't have enough endurance there at the end. I was really working the whole race, and my arms were getting weak.

"I did the best I could to hold them off. I wanted this win in front of all these fans. Everybody was yelling. I want to thank everybody out there, a lot of hometown guys out here, a lot of family, friends, everybody's here for me and I could hear them yelling the whole race."

In the two-hour ATV morning race, Team Warnert Racing Can-Am swept the top three overall positions with three different machines. Limited 4x4 Winner Michael Swift took his first overall win over Open 4x4 Winner Scott Kilby and Lites 4x4 Winner Cliff Beasley, who actually tied for the second-place position. Jeremy Rice won the Sportsman class on the all-new KTM 450XC.

LTERacing.com's Angel Atwell won the Women's class for the second straight race, with Yamaha's Traci Cecco struggling with some bad luck to finish fifth, with Kristen Atwell, Jennifer Albright and Stephanie Parton in front of her.

Seth Mumford topped Dylan Bradford and Kyle Riley for a Cobra sweep of the top overall positions in the ATV Youth Race.

For more information, check out www.gnccracing.com.

GEICO Mountain Ridge GNCC
Pos.	Racer	Make	Time
1	Chris Borich	HON	1:56:25
2	Chris Bithell	HON	1:56:30
3	Bill Ballance	YAM	1:57:35
4	Adam McGill	HON	1:58:26
5	Matt Smiley	HON	2:01:19
6	Bryan Cook	HON	2:01:21
7	Brandon Summers	YAM	2:01:28
8	Duane Johnson	HON	2:01:49
9	Brent Sturdivant	HON	2:01:58
10	Taylor Kiser	YAM	2:02:14

Can-Am GNCC Standings (after 9 of 13 rounds)
Pos.	Racer	Points	Wins
1	Chris Borich	240	5
2	Bill Ballance	237	4
3	Chris Bithell	166
4	Matt Smiley	133
5	Taylor Kiser	132
6	Adam McGill	127
7	Bryan Cook	110
8	Chris Jenks	100
9	Brandon Sommers	97
10	William Yokley	90

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Borich Wins GEICO Mountain Ridge GNCC, Takes Points Lead