Racing
2004 ATVA/AMA
Grand National Cross-Country Series
Bill Ballance clinches fifth GNCC title
By Jason Weigandt
Oct.
15, 2004 – It took 12 races and almost seven months, but East Coast ATV's
Chris Borich finally figured out the four-strokes and railed to an ATVA Grand
National Cross Country win over Yamaha's Bill Ballance in Summersville, West
Virginia, September 25-26.
But as sweet as taking a victory at the first-ever Mountaineer GNCC in West Virginia was, it was too little and too late, because Ballance (above) locked up his fifth-straight GNCC ATV Championship.
"Finally!"
said Borich, the GNCC young gun from Pennsylvania. "I did a lot of riding over
the summer, and we rode some motocross a lot. Then we built a new Honda 450
and I raced it in Kentucky and liked it. Today, me and Bill got away, and on
the last lap I passed him. He went one way and I went another and I snuck by.
"It feels real good. Bill was riding on the top of his game there," Borich said.
"That
was the hardest battle I've had all year long," said Ballance (right). "Chris
snuck by me in the lappers. I may have won the title, but this digs into my
guts, and I'm ready to get after it and win next week."
Yoshimura Suzuki's William Yokley battled past Team Safari's Matt Smiley to take third.
"Matt's
a good rider," said the popular Kentucky rider (right). "We were coming down
this logging road, and I got behind him and ducked in between two trees going
down a hill. I got inside of him and he had no choice but to shut down, because
I would have stuffed him. It was all fair game, I try to keep it clean, but
sometimes you have to do it. Today I just wasn't comfortable running the pace
that Bill and Chris were."
Team Am Pro Yamaha's Chad DuVall hung on for fifth despite blowing a rear shock.
As just the second rider to collect as many as five GNCC titles, Ballance has already earned himself a spot in the all-time ATV racing hall of fame. But this championship was especially significant, since he did it on a production machine, the Yamaha YFZ450.
"I really didn't expect it to be this easy," said Ballance. "Every year the competition gets tougher and tougher, and I really thought after two or three years of this I would maybe lose some motivation. But I'm lucky because I'm just as fired up now as ever. I just signed a two-year deal to race with Yamaha as a full factory effort, so this is what we all dreamed about, being able to make a living racing. I can't believe how far it has all come."