The season finale of the 2023 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing season would see its traditional visit to Ironman Raceway for the massively popular Ironman GNCC. Since its inception in 1995, the Yamaha Racing Ironman GNCC has become one of the largest off-road events in the world with a huge crowd of racers and spectators alike. This year would be no different with a record crowd of more than 2,800 racers taking on some of the best conditions Ironman has ever seen. Here are a few things of note from Ironman.
THE TRACK WAS JUST ABOUT PERFECT
There’s a reason racers come out in droves to try their hand at the Ironman. It’s not like some of those huge hard enduro events where people show up just to see how far they can make it; the Ironman is simply a lot of fun. It tends to be a little bit on the faster side because the trees grow sort of far apart around most of the property. This allows lots of passing opportunities and that’s especially helpful when these large crowds show up and there are tons of bikes on the track. However, there are also tighter sections of the course as well and the course flows really, really well.
To make this already tempting racecourse event better, the dirt at Ironman is second to none. There are very few rocks on the entire property, and generally the ones you do find are only down in the low-lying creek bed areas. This creates a perfect storm of excellent dirt with very little of those “extras” you don’t want. On top of that, rain fell Wednesday into Thursday but the wind came throughout Thursday evening and Friday, so the conditions by the end of the weekend were as close to perfect as you could ask for. This is good because while Ironman went decades with great weather and dirt, the luck ran out and some of the more recent years have been dotted by thick mud, heavy rain or big dust. This year the event got back to classic Ironman conditions. The soil held just the right amount of moisture and with very little dust, it resulted in a really, really fun racecourse that helped to produce some of the best racing of the season… and in quite a few seasons, actually!
WHAT A BATTLE!
On a 13-mile long GNCC course, it’s not uncommon to see racers get really spread out. You never know in these races. There have been several occasions where the margin of victory has been up to ten minutes, and also many occasions where racers have crossed the finish line wheel to wheel. Even so, this typically happens with a two-way battle for the lead, then maybe a two-way battle for the rest of the podium while the rest of the pack trickles in later.
However, this year’s Ironman event really created one of the most intense races we’ve seen in a really long time. A lot of GNCC events will start out this way, then eventually end with just a few racers battling. Ironman kicked off with yet another holeshot by Craig Delong, but it would be Jordan Ashburn leading the opening laps of the race. However, this wasn’t just a runaway lead for Jordan as Delong was hot on his heels ending the first lap in second place, less than one second behind Ashburn. From there came Josh Strang, Ricky Russell, Ben Kelley, Steward Baylor, Mike Witkowski (in his XC1 debut), Johnny Girroir, Ryder Lafferty, Grant Baylor, Thad Duvall, and Lyndon Snodgrass. The entire top 12 stayed wheel to wheel, within 15 seconds of each other!
As the laps continued to tick away, this pack didn’t really spread out very much. By the halfway point, Ashburn continued to lead with Strang and Girroir both within two seconds,, while Kelley, both Baylor Brothers, Russell and Delong all remained less than seconds behind that! By the time the white flag flew, Strang had found his way into the lead but Stu Baylor was less than two seconds behind, with Girroir in third just one more second down. It didn’t end there as Ashburn and Grant Baylor rounded out the top five, less than ten seconds out of the lead!
When the checkered flag flew, Strang held on for his first overall win of the season, making a total of eight different overall winners in the 12 round 2023 season. Stu Baylor would end the day in second, just one second out of the lead with Girroir on the podium, less than two seconds out of the number one spot. Grant Baylor and Ricky Russell rounded out the top five, also just around five seconds down from race winner Strang. That’s close!
Ironman - Overall Race
October 20, 2023Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 02:41:00.439 | Inverell, Australia ![]() | Kawasaki | ||
2 | ![]() | 02:41:01.570 | Belton, SC ![]() | KTM | ||
3 | ![]() | 02:41:02.139 | Southwick, MA ![]() | KTM | ||
4 | ![]() | 02:41:04.468 | Belton, SC ![]() | Kawasaki | ||
5 | ![]() | 02:41:05.930 | Duvall, WA ![]() | Yamaha |
A NEW CHAMP IS CROWNED!
After grabbing the holeshot and holding the second-place spot on lap one, Craig Delong did just exactly what he needed to do to wrap up the 2023 GNCC National Championship, on his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna. While he would keep that lead battle in sight for nearly the entire race, Delong would ride a very conservative race to end the day in the eighth-place spot. While this was actually one of Delong’s worst finishes of the season, he only needed to finish inside the top 15 overall to secure the 2023 GNCC National Championship.
And that’s exactly what he did; Delong played it smart and claimed his first-ever GNCC National Championship. Delong is yet another rider to work through the GNCC ranks, coming from Youth competition, to earning a class championship in both the B and A class ranks. He was a successful XC2 class career for several seasons, establishing himself as a very consistent racer. First as a consistent top five XC2 finisher, then a consistent podium finisher, then a consistent XC2 championship threat.
In 2020, Delong used this consistency to claim the XC2 class championship, only finishing off the podium one time in 13 races.. And that one off-podium finish? It was a fourth place! While Delong would be unsuccessful in his XC2 title defense in 2021, the consistency was still there as he never finished worse than sixth place, which happened twice. In 2022, Delong began his rookie XC1 season exactly how he had finished each and every one of these other seasons: Very consistently! In the first six rounds of the 2022 season, Delong’s worst finish would be a sixth place and even landed on the podium at round three. He kept it going, collecting three podiums along the way and ended the year in second place in the overall point standings. This would put a lot of eyes on Delong coming into the 2023 season, but with a healthy Steward Baylor and Ben Kelley to deal with, and Jordan Ashburn holding the number-one plate, Delong would be viewed by some as more of a podium contender than a championship contender.
Delong kicked off the 2023 season with a solid fifth place in the opening round before landing on the podium at round two, then breaking through for his first-ever GNCC overall win at a very muddy round three. Through these first seven rounds of the 2023 season, there would be seven different winners but Delong would prove to be one of the most consistent guys, establishing himself as a true title contender, especially when he became the first repeat winner of the season at a dusty Mason-Dixon GNCC; the polar opposite conditions of his first win.
Delong would struggle through the next round at Snowshoe, only able to end the day in 11th overall; his worst finish of the season… Which is still really respectable by the way. This set up a battle between him and Steward Baylor through the final rounds of the season. Unfortunately, Baylor would suffer the mechanical issue at the penultimate round and while the championship wasn’t completely over, Delong’s only mission for Ironman was to ensure he finished inside the top 15 overall. No sweat!
Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Morgantown, PA ![]() | 246 |
2 | ![]() | Belton, SC ![]() | 235 |
3 | ![]() | Harwinton, CT ![]() | 215 |
4 | ![]() | Cookeville, TN ![]() | 201 |
5 | ![]() | Duvall, WA ![]() | 175 |
A NEW XC2 CHAMP IS ALSO CROWNED!
The XC2 class saw quite the championship battle of its own throughout the 2023 season. The XC2 class has become a hotbed for up and coming foreign talent and the championship finale would come down to New Zealander Liam Draper and Aussie Angus Riordan. Chilean racer Ruy Barbosa had a very strong season going early, but a leg injury during the summer break sidelined him for the final three rounds of the season and opened up the opportunity for Draper and Riordan to battle for the championship.
For the final round, Draper only needed to ensure he finished inside the top 10 of the XC2 class, and all Riordan could do is take the win and hope for the best. Riordan did exactly what he needed to do and would claim the Ironman race win, his second XC2 win of the season. Draper would end the day in the second place spot while Grant Davis rode to a solid third place position, gaining a little extra confidence as he will represent USA on the Junior Trophy Team at the International Six Days Enduro, coming up soon.
Draper’s second place finish would be good enough to claim the 2023 GNCC XC2 National Championship, on his Am-Pro Yamaha. Draper has a pretty cool success story, coming from New Zealand to compete in GNCC full-time beginning in 2018. That first season, Draper’s best finish would be a fourth place in the XC2 class in the South Carolina sand at Camp Coker, and he took ninth in XC2 points. In 2019, Draper would land his first XC2 podium at Snowshoe, then later claim his first XC2 class win in a very dusty Mason-Dixon GNCC later that fall. This would propel him to end the 2019 season in fifth place in the XC2 class.
He was fifth again in 2020, but 2021 wouldn’t be as kind as he finished out the season eighth in the XC2 class and couldn’t quite find his way onto the podium but had several top five finishes. In 2022, Draper would rebound by landing five XC2 podiums throughout the season, managing to end the season fifth place in the XC2 points again after a tough start with mechanical issues in the first two rounds.
The 2023 season was not perfectly smooth for Draper as a few issues here and there saw him outside the top five at a couple of events, but when your worst finish is still a top ten, you’re still having a pretty darn good season! Draper came on really strong later in the season to score back-to-back wins in rounds eight and nine prior to summer break, then another win at the penultimate round. Draper will have the opportunity to defend his XC2 championship in 2024, but will be headed into the XC1 class in 2025, creating one more challenger to keep an eye on. We already saw eight winners in 12 rounds this year. What is 2024 going to be like?