JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Race Report
Acerbis Loretta Lynn’s GNCC – Hurricane Mills, TN
The JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports / Monster Energy Kawasaki team was paid a visit to Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch for Round #5 of the Can Am GNCC Series. The weather was perfect for racing on Saturday, with cool temperatures and overcast skies. The area had seen some rain prior in the week, keeping the dust down for the ATV’s. Sunday brought a whole new story as the skies opened up and drenched the area, leading to soupy, slimy mud for the bikes.
Jennifer was off to a good start coming through in 3rd place at the end of lap one and with one great battle ahead of her. Throughout the course of the next 3 laps, 2nd through 5th freight trained around the course. Midway through lap 4 Jennifer had found herself in a turn by turn, position swapping contention with Angel Atwell for 2nd place. Unfortunately for Albright, she had a slight run in with a lapped rider, which cost her a few positions. Jennifer finished 5th (7th O/A) for the day. This finish keeps Jennifer in the 5th place position in the points standings, just 3 points out of the Top 3.
Jennifer would like to thank of her sponsors: GEICO, MSR, Lojak Yamaha, MAXXIS, HMF, HiPer Technology, Rekluse, GT Thunder, Spider Grips, Precision, XFR, Cycle Gear, Scott, Flexx, CV4, IMS, ProGraph-X, Triple X Motorsports, PowerMadd, Moto Pro Training, and DP Brakes.
Sunday morning brought with it heavy rain in the morning… could it be because mud rider JT Bennett was up all night doing his rain dance? It must have been because low and behold, the beloved #33 showed up on the starting line of the morning race. When rumors of rain started on Saturday, JT said that if it rained, he would be racing and he kept his word. Bennett raced the Sportsmans class and by the end of lap one had settled in to a 2nd place spot. JT had to take goggles every lap, which was his only complaint, as he smiled his way around the track all 5 laps to take a 2nd place overall finish at the checkers.
By the start of the afternoon race the rain had ended, but the damage was already done. The mud was soupy, slimy, and everywhere. All three of the GEICO riders got off the line without a hitch and the race was on. The end of lap one had Jimmy and Paul up in the Top 5 and who was that was just announced as the OVERALL leader… none other than the #15 of Scotty Watkins. Watkins, Whibley, and Jarrett are all strong mud riders and had the chance to prove it. As the day wore on, the guys all seemed to get stronger, however during lap 4 Whibley found a bit of bad luck when his master link broke and he lost his chain. He had to push his bike back a little over a half mile to get back to the pits. Luckily the crew caught wind of Whibley’s misfortune and had a chain ready to go. Although he lost some time between going back to the pits, getting fixed up, and going back to the point of the track he left, he was able to battle his way back up through the ranks and pull out a 7th place (11th O/A) finish. In the midst of all of the happenings in the GEICO pits, Jimmy Jarrett stepped up his pace. Jarrett who was down to 5th place at one point in the race, kicked into high gear in the last lap chasing down Strang and Mullins. Before the checkers flew, Jimmy was able to catch Mullins and take a 2nd place overall finish. Scotty Watkins had a strong ride the entire day, enjoying the mud and making no mistakes, Watkins took a 1st place XC-2 finish and an astonishing 4th place overall.
With 5 rounds under their belts, the points standing are: Whibley – 2nd (XC1), Jarrett – 6th (XC1), and Watkins – 4th (XC2).
The team would like to extend a special thanks to all of their sponsors: GEICO, Monster Energy Kawasaki, Moose, Pirelli, Tsubaki, IMS, Works Connection, EBC Brakes, Silkolene, Renthal, Pro Moto Billet, Enduro Engineer, PowersportGrafx, and Acerbis.
In addition, the guys would like to thank the following sponsors:
Paul Whibley – Leo Vince, Shoei, Smith, G-2, Vortex Ignitions, WER, and CTI
Jimmy Jarrett – FMF, Arai, Motion Pro, Cytomax, Applied, UFO, Twin Air, and BRP
Scotty Watkins - FMF and Shoei
And of course a huge thank you to our fans.
The GNCC series will continue on May 2nd & 3rd for the Weekend Warrior GNCC in Lafayette, TN. The Acerbis Loretta Lynn’s GNCC will air on the VS network June 13th at 2:30PM (ATV) and June 20th at 2:30PM (Bikes). For a full listing of the TV schedule, visit: https://gnccracing.com/pages/gncc-television.
For photos from the event, visit the JG Off Road Gallery
