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Macon GNCC The second round of the GNCC series was held at Paradise Park in Macon, Georgia. It rained after the quad race on Saturday for about 15 minutes extremely hard which would make the conditions perfect for the next day. Brian drove up on Friday and hung out at the track for the night. After getting released from the hospital my dad and I drove up to Macon. We woke up early as Al was thinking of racing my bike but decided not to because he was still freaked out with my injury. When we got there Illinois Troy was there who we haven't seen since he moved back home about a month ago. He was going to race and said that pinky was in great shape. I wanted to watch the start of the race so over an hour before the start of the race I started over to the track and said "Hi" to some friends on the way over. Brain had the 7th pick on the gate and had a good spot right to the inside of Jason Raines who had the first pick. When the flag dropped Russ Pearson grabbed a big holeshot getting over a bike length lead on everyone going into the first corner. Barry Hawk was right up front and battled with Russ on the moto track. Brian had about a tenth place start. Leaving the moto track Jason Raines went down on a tricky off camber corner taking Fred Andrews and a couple other riders down in the pile up. I got a ride back to the pits in a golf cart and saw Destry Abott riding back and later found out that he was running up front until having multiple runins with those tight trees. When the racers came in the first lap Rodney Smith was leading Mike Lafferty. The first nine riders were in a close twenty second pack with Brian following up the rear of the lead pack. On the second lap Rodney Smith had some motor problems dropping the consistent defending champ out of the race. In a muddy rut section all of the riders mechanics were there pointing everyone to the right line. Brian didn't have anyone there so he took the left line and moved all the way up to second in that one section. Coming into the pit Lafferty had a small lead over Brian and then Steve Hatch, Barry Hawk, Mike Kiedrowski, Jason Raines, Fred Andrews, Robbie Jenks, and Chuck Woodford were all right together swapping positions on every lap. It was hard to pass on the course because it was tight and the lappers were a big problem with no place to pass. Brian held his spot for a couple more laps until with two laps left he reeled in Lafferty and made a pass right in front of our Dad who was checking out the course. Brian had never been in the lead in a GNCC before and knew it was time to make a break for it. He put about twenty seconds on Lafferty but crashed trying to hit a inside line between a couple of tight trees. He got back up in fourth behind Lafferty, Hatch, and Raines and tried to get back in the flow of things. On the last lap Steve Hatch made a pass on Lafferty and Kiedrowski also passed Lafferty soon after. Jason Raines had his seat fall off on the last lap forcing him to ride the last eight miles with no seat. The top three riders were within a bike length of each other and Brian caught up to within sight of the leaders. Hatch held onto the lead taking the win, followed by Kiedrowski, who had his best GNCC finish ever, then Lafferty. Brian finished fourth just twenty seconds behind Steve. Jason Raines finished fifth, but was docked a position when Fred Andrews protested him for taking a hot line, moving Fred to fifth . He wanted Brian docked too along with everyone else in front of him but only Jason was penalized since he was the one who walked the line and took it first. Seventh was Robbie Jenks, followed by Ty Davis, Randy Hawkins, and Josh McLevy rounded out the top ten. |