Texas GNCC Spoiler

[Fred T]

1. Juha Salminen
2. Kearney (SP?) from Austrailia
3. Lafferty

 

[woodsguy2000]

Couple of questions, was it as wet as it looked like it would be and did this play a role in the winners?
What kind of bikes were the Europeans on?

 

[fatherandson]

Salminen is on a KTM. I am no sure about second place.

Looks like Lafferty is all healed up. A podium finish is solid for him in the GNCCs.

 

[woodsguy2000]

What about Raines and Hawk?

 

[sprocket74]

I think more like GNCC sure thing. The Juha is a world champion.

 

[Tiger]

Awesome...gotta love someone coming in and messing with the current cream of the crop! :) Hopefully we'll get to see some of this on OLN this year! ;)

 

[jsned]

Hawk broke his throttle cable, DNF

Raines has not been riding because of recent shoulder surgery.

Andrews radiator was busted by a rock, DNF

 

[John Harris]

How did you out of staters like our sandy level East Texas riding area? The weather gods sure smiled on us. In 2004 this weekend had 6" of snow! Glad you came.--John

 

[D Lafleur]

John, I wasnt there this weekend, but I have been there, I seem to recall a little level sandy area at the bottom of all the rock hills. I really hope none of youre participants came out thinking they were going to be running on a beach. :eek:

 

[Bandit9]

I was there. The track ended up being perfect for traction. That dirt was primo. It was rocky and whooped out with a few good tough hill climbs. Juha is on another level. He was impressive. Kearney was pretty impressive too. Lafferty left if all on the track as he was visually tired on the podium, as was Kearney. Juha looked like he could run the whole race again if he needed to. Andrews on his new RMZ450. Blackwell got the holeshot, for whatever that is worth. Kearney is on a RM250 2 stroke. Juha was a 250EXC 2 stroke. Woodford was 4th, Hatch 5th. Shane Watts was there and he rode pretty good, although I don't know if he finished or not, but he was in the battle for 6th for a good while.

 

[Wurx]

That Juha is pretty damn impressive, coming over here and taking on the GNCCs like he has. But then again, he does have the best equipment...

-->> Juha's Secret Weapon <<--

:cool:

I sure wish they'd televise these races... it's going to be an exciting season for KTM...

 

[fatherandson]

Must be the hand guards!!! EE rules!!

 

[Wurx]

:)

I like the cut down brush guards.... reduces wind drag for the fast guys...

 

[gn83tm]

It turned out to be a great weekend for the race. Didn't look good going in with the rain predictions and the sprinkles Saturday night but race day was nice. Better than last year and that wasn't too bad either.

That's quite the terrain you've got there Mr Harris - a little sand, nice stretches of fresh single track with blacker dirt, rocks galore, and the surface of the moon on top of the hills.

It seemed like the hills were a little easier this year - at least for the morning race. Last year it seemed like the rocks were just laying loose in the dry dirt and they moved around a lot. Maybe it was the rain tacking things up, but Sunday morning it seemed like the rocks were a little more planted and the traction was more consistant.

It was a fun weekend and a good way for us northerners to break the cabin fever. If I had to predict, I'd say that the championship this year very well might go to a visitor to this country. Juha seemed to be in his own class and Kearney certainly did well. It was also fun to see the Mexican teams there and the way they cheared their riders on.