With Kelley out of the picture, the door was open Jordan Ashburn. This championship opportunity was further strengthened when his closest competition, Trevor Bollinger was also sidelined with a leg injury suffered in a practice crash. Mathematically at this point, Craig Delong who sat fourth place, still had an opportunity to claim a championship if Ashburn were to suffer from any misfortune. So, even while it looked like Ashburn was set for smooth sailing to a title, this season has proven it’s not over until it’s over!

When the green flag flew, Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ricky Russell jumped out to the early lead. The Washington state native grew up riding in technical rocky, rooted terrain so he felt right at home. Russell would control a majority of the race while guys like Josh Toth, Ashburn, Thad Duvall, and Steward Baylor would all battle for podium positions. With two laps remaining, Baylor would not only work his way into the lead but put his head down and start to run away from the field.

Baylor suffered a big injury at round one of the series and had mounted a return prior to summer break. He just wasn’t quite up to his old self as he would end up third place in XC1 and fourth place overall at Snowshoe, another tough and rugged race that Baylor typically enjoys. However, with the summer to further heal and prepare, Baylor would return to race-winning form, grabbing The Mountaineer win by just over 18 seconds. Most critically, Ashburn took second to further his grip on the title. Thad Duvall, rounded out the podium in third.

Meanwhile, in a similar story, defending XC2 class champion Johnny Girroir collected a dominating XC2 class win by more than four minutes over second place rider, Lyndon Snodgrass while Ruy Barbosa would land his fourth XC2 podium of the season in third. Girroir also suffered an injury in the opening round of the season, missing rounds two through eight before making a return just before summer break, which also resulted in a race win.

At the Mountaineer GNCC, Racer X Online's Mitch Kendra had the opportunity to test ride Josh Strang's Monster Energy/Babbitt's Kawasaki KX450X in the amateur morning race (Strang was sidelined for the later half of the season with an arm injury). Look for Kendra's upcoming feature in the February 2023 issue of Racer X Illustrated for more on his maiden experience at the Summit Bechtel Reserve.

Round 11: Burr Oak GNCC

For round 11, the series returned to Sunday Creek Raceway for the Burr Oak GNCC. This venue previously hosted The John Penton GNCC earlier in the season, but the Burr Oak event was vastly different. While overall conditions were a bit drier than The John Penton, a late morning shower cut down the dust and made for near-perfect conditions at a facility that usually becomes the slickest place on the face of the planet when it rains.

This venue also has an additional piece of property known as The John Penton Section, which is always reserved for the 1 PM Pro Bike race only. The Penton Section is tight, technical, and challenging. The Burr Oak event’s version of The Penton Section was likely one of the toughest of all-time! With this 4.5-mile section added in, the Burr Oak course would be 16-miles long creating some long lap times and spreading a lot of riders out.

With an opportunity to wrap up the title early, Jordan Ashburn would put his head down and lead the majority of the race. However, when the white flag flew it would actually be Craig Delong leading the way into the closing portions of the race, but Ashburn would once again find his way back into the lead to end the day with the race win just 11-seconds ahead of Delong after a whopping three hours and 15 minutes of racing. Thad Duvall would yet again land another solid podium finish in third.

For Ashburn, the race win would be more than good enough to secure the 2022 GNCC National Championship. Coming into the season, many expected another title battle down to the wire between Ben Kelley and Steward Baylor.  When Baylor was sidelined it looked as if Kelley would run away with his second title. However, to finish first you must first finish and with Kelley’s injury Jordan Ashburn did exactly what he’s done for many years: stay consistent and injury-free riders in the series. 

Interestingly enough, the last time Ashburn missed a GNCC event was the season finale Ironman in 2007. So, from round one in 2008 through the current event, Ashburn has not missed a single GNCC event which is a total of 193 consecutive races! He made his XC1 debut in 2012 and landed numerous podiums and ran in contention for races wins but never quite put it all together until Snowshoe 2022 for his first win, then a second win with the Burr Oak. So, with just two career wins to his credit, both in the same season, Jordan wrapped up the championship with sheer consistency. Congrats out to Jordan, his family and his Magna 1 Motorsports Husqvarna team.

You can read more about his consistent approach here. 

Round 12: Buckwheat 100 GNCC

For the 12th round of the 2022 season, the series would head just south of its Morgantown, West Virginia, headquarters for the Buckwheat 100 GNCC. Held in Newberg, West Virginia, this venue sees a mix of tighter, twisty trails with some large grass track sections mixed in as well. Additionally, dirt conditions would prove to be some of the best of the season and with a fun track to boot, the Buckwheat would produce some great races and crown additional champions.

With the GNCC National Championship wrapped up, the XC1 guys were simply racing for race win honors, but with some close racing, it still seemed like these guys were battling all-out for a championship. Once again, Jordan Ashburn would jump out to lead the race early by holding down the top spot for the opening laps. It would then be Thad Duvall taking over the lead for a lap, before Ricky Russell led the next lap! However, while all of this was going on, Steward Baylor was the man on the move coming from sixth place on lap one, up to fourth, then second, and then take over the lead with two laps remaining. Baylor would hold that lead all the way to the checkered flag to get the win ahead of Ashburn and Delong.

While these guys battled back and forth throughout the race, the XC2 class had quite the battle of their own. Lyndon Snodgrass led lap one before Johnny Girroir took over the lead on lap two. Then Snodgrass would take that lead back on lap three before Girroir would take over the lead yet again on lap four! Then Snodgrass would retake the lead on the final lap to take the XC2 class win!

Girroir would finish the day second while Liam Draper controlled the third-place spot for his fourth podium of the season. For Snodgrass, the race win would be good enough to wrap up the 2022 XC2 250 Pro National Championship. The Australian rider made his way to the GNCC series for two rounds in mid-2019 before planning a full-time effort in 2020. He would be hindered by visa and COVID-19 issues that left him missing a majority of the season.

Finally, Snodgrass would make a total full-time effort in 2021 landing six podiums and two race wins. Coming into 2022 season, Snodgrass was in the championship picture but would have his work cut out for himself against defending champion Girroir. When Girroir was sidelined after round one, eyes turned to a potential battle between Snodgrass and regular XC2 contender, Mike Witkowski. Unfortunately, while Witkowski won the first three races he would end up with a serious streak of bad luck and actually hasn’t landed on the XC2 podium since the Camp Coker Bullet round in April.