GNCC (ATV): Borich ends season with tenth win

Chris Borich rounded out the 2009 GNCC season in the same way he started it, with a victory.

The Suzuki rider, who already had the title in the bag heading into the final event at Crawfordsville, took his win count into double figures, registering his eighth victory in a row in the process.

Borich didn’t have things all his own way though, and was battling in third position for much of the near two-hour race.

KTM’s Adam McGill and Yamaha’s Taylor Kiser made the early running at one of the toughest events of the GNCC’s 13-round season, before Borich made his move on the last lap to take the win.

Outgoing champion Bill Ballance finished second for Yamaha after capitalising when both McGill and Kiser were caught in a bottleneck. Things got worse for Kiser when he tried to fight his way back past and ran into the back of Ballance, falling down a steep hill and out of the running.

McGill also hit problems on the same hill, allowing Ryan Lane to take third for Honda, while Can-Am’s Chris Bithell and Yamaha’s Don Ockerman also made it through for fourth and fifth places.

In the XC2 category Brian Wolf made a valiant attempt to regain the championship lead he lost at the last round.

The Yamaha rider scored a comfortable race win ahead of Peter Jones and Kevin Yoho, but seventh place for KTM’s Josh Kirkland meant he hung on to win the title by just one point.

GNCC results – Round 13, Crawfordsville

XC1

1 Chris Borich (SUZ)
2 Bill Ballance (YAM)
3 Ryan Lane (HON)
4 Chris Bithell (CAN)
5 Don Ockerman (YAM)
6 Adam McGill (KTM)
7 Bryan Cook (HON)
8 Duane Johnson (HON)
9 Jarrod McClure (YAM)
10 Johnny Gallagher (YAM)

XC2

1 Brian Wolf (YAM)
2 Parker Jones (HON)
3 Kevin Yoho (YAM)
4 Josh Beavers (KTM)
5 Gabe Phillips (YAM)
6 Blake Kramer (SUZ)
7 Josh Kirkland (KTM)
8 Joey Margueria (POL)
9 Eric Wilezek (SUZ)
10 Nathan Thomas (HON)

Final Championship Standings

XC1

1 Chris Borich – 342pts
2 Taylor Kiser – 245
3 Adam McGill – 241
4 Bill Ballance – 237
5 Brandon Sommers – 206
6 Bryan Cook – 205
7 Donald Ockerman – 179
8 Duane Johnson – 152
9 Jarrod McClure – 149
10 Johnny Gallagher – 134

XC2

1 Joshua Kirkland – 332
2 Brian Wolf – 331
3 Parker Jones -213
4 Eric Hoyland – 196
5 Kevin Yoho - 160

Watch GNCC highlights as part of Motors TV’s Winter Programming.


Andy Wilkinson