A FIRST TIME WINNER

This event is a little bit of an anomaly. It seems as if it depends on who you ask, but some people will tell you the Camp Coker racecourse is a slow and tight course, and others will tell you it’s fast and open. Truthfully, both responses are a bit correct as Camp Coker features a bit of both with different areas of the property having their own unique feel. In the direction the course was ran this year, things start off on the fast side for about a mile, and then tightens up for about five miles including a motorcycle-only single-track section, then enters a mix of wide open and tight trail for another two miles. This next section did include a very tight single-track section for about a half mile, and then gets faster in the final four miles of the course. 

West Coast KTM standout Dante Oliveira tried his hand at a few GNCC events back in 2020, and then has be returned for a few events in 2024 as he fills in for the injured Ben Kelley. Oliveira rides incredibly well out west and logged some decent GNCC finishes in his early attempts. The Camp Coker course turned out to be one that fit Oliveira’s style very well as he would log his first-ever GNCC podium finish... by grabbing the overall win!

It didn’t come with ease as his KTM teammate and XC1 winner through the first three rounds, Johnny Girroir, stayed close to Dante’s rear wheel for much of the three-hour race. However, Oliveira was able to fend off Girroir’s challenges and in doing so prove that he’s not just a rising star in the west, but he’s beginning to figure out the East Coast woods as well. Now, many wonder if Oliveira could have a future in GNCC on a more consistent basis. Finding a place is no easy task as the KTM squad is already pretty full of top tier talent, and Dante is on a fill-in basis for GNCC, but there’s no doubt that if Oliveira has the interest, he could become a consistent challenger for race wins.

Girroir held on for the second-place finish while Steward Baylor ended the day physically in third place. However, Stu would be issued a one position penalty for using a line that was 30 feet off the marked course. GNCC rules allow a competitor 25 feet from the marked course, but Stu’s line would be just over five feet outside of these boundaries. While Stu has quite the rep as an outspoken competitor, when he received this penalty, Stu remained calm and fully admitted to utilizing the line and didn’t even request to go look at its location on the racecourse. This would bump his brother, Grant Baylor, into the number three spot and onto the podium. 

GIRROIR LEADS THE TITLE HUNT

With overall finishes of 1-1-2-2, Johnny Girroir leads the GNCC overall standings with a 28-point gap over Steward Baylor. An overall win pays 30 points, so Baylor is still in a reasonable striking distance while Jordan Ashburn holds down the third-place position, just 16 points behind Baylor and a total of 44 points out of the lead.

This is where things get pretty interesting. Grant Davis sits second in the XC2 class points, just two points out of the class lead. However, Davis scored an impressive second place overall finish at round two and has been inside the top ten overall at each round. AnGus Riordan (Gus) leads theXC2 standings in a close battle with his teammate, and he's fifth in overall points (counting all classes together). Meanwhile, defending XC2 champion Liam Draper has been working to dig his way out of a 15th place finish at round two and currently sits third place in the XC2 standings, 33 points out of the lead. Josh Toth made history in Georgia by becoming the first-ever XC2 racer to claim an overall win but ran out of gas (literally, a dry gas tank) at Camp Coker. Toth currently sits fourth place in the XC2 standings but is on a bit of a Ryan Sipes “ride a bunch of different events” style schedule and is not set to contest the entire series.

This leaves the door open for other XC2 challengers to step up to the front of the pack. Jesse Ansley has put together one of the better seasons of his XC2 career, holding the fifth-place position thus far. However, several previous XC2 race winners are lurking outside the top five and looking to break back into the front of the pack. This includes Phoenix Honda teammates Ruy Barbosa and Cody Barnes, who haven’t seemed to start the 2024 season as their normal front-running selves. This could change in the blink of an eye as both have race wins to their credit as well as former XC2 champ, and multi-time overall race winner Thad Duvall, who is back riding the smaller 250cc machine in the XC2 class in 2024. 

UNCHARTED TERRITORY COMES NEXT

When the series rolls to its fifth round of the season on April 13-14, it will enter uncharted territory with an all-new event in Tennessee. Monterey, Tennessee, will play host to The Old Gray GNCC for the first time. The event will be based out of The Old Gray, a concert venue owned by Chris Landers, who also owns the new Landers KTM support team, which is leading those XC2 standings with Riordan and Davis. The Landers KTM team is a rebrand of the Magna1 Motorsports squad that Jordan Ashburn won the 2022 GNCC National Championship with. 

However, don’t expect Landers KTM racers to have any sort of home field advantage as Chris has had to work with some of his neighbors to secure enough property for the race. The Old Gray venue does not have an existing trail system, so the GNCC track crew will be hard at work to develop an entirely new racecourse from scratch for the first time in several years. While it’s common to add some new sections of trail here and there, the last time a completely new course was put together was back in 2016 for the first edition of the Camp Coker Bullet GNCC. 

This means The Old Gray will have a distinct old-school feel to it with a course that will end up being a bit on the tighter side. It should see a good bit of rock and somewhat mountainous terrain. You just never quite know exactly what to expect when visiting a new venue, so this should keep the competition on its toes for round five.