This made for an all-XC2 overall podium; also something that had never happened in the 50-year history of GNCC. Ben Kelley would take fourth place overall ending the day as the XC1 class winner while Snodgrass and Mike Witkowski would round out the XC1 podium… However, get this; Snodgrass and Witkowski would finish seventh and tenth place overall! Not only did other XC2 riders play spoiler to those top ten spots but 250 A class racers Jojo Cunningham and Gavin Simon would break the top ten as well, ending the day an impressive fifth and sixth place overall, respectively.

The opening round can produce some unique finishes, but this was arguably one of the most surprising finishing orders in the history of GNCC Racing. A lot of this can be attributed to the muddy and rutted conditions that really favored the lighter and smaller 250cc machines. Well done to the 250 riders for staying smooth and fast while preserving the bike itself. As for DeFeo specifically, this is his rookie season in XC2. What a way to kick it off!

ROUND TWO: WILD BOAR

With a weekend off to regroup from the opening round, action resumed in Palatka, Florida for the Wild Boar GNCC. The Florida round has a reputation as being one of the toughest and most grueling events of the season. Not because of the terrain or course layout itself, but simply because the deep Florida sand becomes brutally rough, deep and rutted, especially as the three-hour Sunday pro motorcycle race begins to wind down. Three hours of sand whoops. Think about that.

The Wild Boar would be nearly polar opposite conditions from the Big Buck as the Florida sand was dry and a little dusty, and with a faster racecourse the Florida round much more favored the XC1 leaders on the larger machines. Kailub Russell, the eight-time champion who returned to GNCC Racing in 2025, would take the early lead. Then defending series champ Johnny Girroir would take over the lead on lap two. This was the battle many have bench-raced about all off-season. Girroir, the current champ, versus Russell, the legend. They would swap the lead back and forth several times over the coming laps, with Girroir eventually opening up a little bit of a gap over Russell in the mid portion of the race.

Russell would then put on a charge on the final lap to pull within nine seconds of Girroir but couldn’t quite top the number one machine. Girroir would take the overall win ahead of Russell by just over eight seconds after three hours! Ben Kelley worked his way through the field, coming from as far back as eighth place on the opening laps to end the day on the podium in third place, less than 45 seconds behind after more than three hours of racing. Kelley, combined with his solid result at round one, is making a great championship case early.

In the XC2 class, Grant Davis would control the lead the entire way to take the XC2 class win and a solid fourth place overall. His Landers KTM teammate Angus Riordan would stay hot on his heels through the entire race to end the day second place in the XC2 class while Cody Barnes rounded out the XC2 podium in third. As for round-one winner DeFeo, he wrote on Instagram: “Not the ideal race but it will do. Had a mishap with my front brakes first lap came into the pits and swapped the system and was playing catch up from there.” 

This would be a bit more of a traditional GNCC weekend as far as results are concerned when compared to the opening round, but what makes round two in Florida and the following round three so much different is that they are the only back-to-back weekends a GNCC racer will experience throughout the season. After a grueling Florida event, many were excited for an all-new event in Alabama, but it would turn out to be anything but a cruise through the woods.

ROUND THREE: TALLADEGA

For the first time in the 50-year history of GNCC, the series would make a trip to “The Heart of Dixie” for Alabama’s Talladega GNCC. This event would be held on the property of the world-famous Talladega Superspeedway, based out of the speedway’s west lot with the course meandering through 400 acres of tight and twisty woods.

This was a highly anticipated event, as the venue had never hosted an off-road event before and the woods of Talladega were totally brand-new trails that had never been ridden on prior to the event. With a tighter and more twisty course than the typical GNCC, this course would lend its hand to those who excel in the slower east coast enduro-style conditions.

However, once again, rains would fall late Saturday night and into early Sunday morning saturating another racecourse. At first, it held up pretty good but as the day wore on and the rains went away, the mud would tack up and become some of the toughest, slickest and nastiest conditions a GNCC racer could experience. 

This was a perfect storm for difficult conditions. Saturday’s ATV race cut through the topsoil and into the Alabama red clay, but the ATV’s never really dug down and rutted up the course. The bikes would be the first to dig, and this didn’t start happening until part way through the morning amateur race. They would churn up the dirt the youth racers had flipped over early in the morning, then the rain stopped, and the afternoon pro bike event racers were left with some truly brutal mud.

GNCC racers are no strangers to mud, but that Alabama red clay is something else. Ohio mud is thick and slicker than iced over grease on glass, but you can still manage to keep the front end straight. North Carolina red clay is slick but has a little bit of grit mixed into it that provides some traction here and there. But what came out of the Talladega ground left an uncontrollable front end, and very little traction in the rear. It should be noted that I actually handle final sweep duties, clearing the racecourse after each checkered flag flies and I fell more times and made more mistakes at the end of that Talladega afternoon bike race than I did at the first two rounds, and the Talladega ATV race all combined!

So, with these kinds of brutal conditions many were expecting a similar performance from the XC2 class as the opening round at Big Buck. And for the majority of the race, that’s exactly what happened. Grant Davis would lead the XC2 class, and the overall until they came down to the checkered flag. Nick DeFeo would put in a similar ride, holding down the second place spot in XC2 and the second place overall spot early. However, DeFeo’s day would end early as a mechanical issue would leave him sidelined on the final lap. Josh Toth held third place in XC2, and third overall for a while but would also suffer a mechanical issue of his own that took him out of contention.

Eventually, this would leave Davis as the lone XC2 racer trying to play spoiler at the front of the pack. However, Steward Baylor did not want to get beat by the XC2 boys again and was hungry to take the Talladega win because, well, there probably isn’t a more fitting GNCC racer to take the first-time win at Talladega than Stu Baylor.

Baylor finished 88^th overall at round one. He was 15^th overall at round two. At round three he was back to his old ways.  He got around Davis in latter stages of the race and then put on a gap that would be big enough to secure the overall win and hold that all the way to the checkered flag. 

Baylor would become the inaugural winner of the Talladega GNCC while Davis would take the XC2 class win and a solid second place overall. Craig Delong would put in his best ride thus far in 2025 to take second place in the XC2 class and third place overall while Mike Witkowski, donning full Dale Earnhardt Jr style graphics on his number eight Phoenix Racing Honda would round out the XC1 podium in third. Cody Barnes would take home second place in the XC2 class with Angus Riordan ending up third place in the XC2 class.

The 2025 season began with the threat that the XC2 riders, who again race on 250s and start in the second row, could possibly contend for the overall GNCC Championship. It’s key to know that the rider considered the “GNCC Champion” for the year is the overall winner, not the XC1 class champion.  So far, the XC2 riders are holding up well, as Davis now leads both the XC2 standings and the overall GNCC points with 8-4-2 overall finishes in three rounds. Ben Kelley has been a great story in XC1, as the 2021 GNCC Overall Champion, who has endured years of huge injuries, now leads the XC1 class and is second overall in points. XC2 racer Gus Riordan is third in points. As for the 2024 GNCC Overall Champion, Girroir, he has that Florida win but the mud races have not been kind to him, and he’s currently seventh in points. Kailub Russell’s comeback has been good so far, he has that second-place Florida finish and 14-10 finishes in the mudders have him sitting fourth overall in points.

With the first three rounds in the books, many GNCC racers are hoping that this year’s mud racers are out of the way for now. However, you can’t control mother nature, and no one knows exactly what kind of conditions the rest of the season will bring. Regardless, these opening rounds have been nothing short of epic and the rest of the 50^th year of GNCC Racing has some big shoes to fill!