GNCC Racing, born
from the legendary Blackwater 100, is celebrating its first 50 years just as you might expect—with mud, sweat, and tears of laughter.

WORDS: DAVEY COOMBS
PHOTOS: Mack Faint/GNCC Racing

The referee stood in the middle of a wet, grassy field, staring down the line of professional riders anxiously waiting for him to flinch. Engines dead, they had already heard the announcer do that patented “Ten seconds!” shout. Behind them were row after row of amateurs and their support crew—the rank and file of this vast segment of dirt bike racing. And around them were a few thousand spectators. The sun was out, but everyone was wet—the referee, the riders, the crews, the fans—as the rain had already come and gone. It was opening day of the 50th season of the Progressive Grand National Cross Country Series, in the tiny backwater  of Union, South Carolina, and it was going exactly how one might expect GNCC Racing to start a new year. But after the referee waved the green flag up over his head to begin this historic season, the elite XC1 450cc motorcycles fired up and splashed off the line, nothing else went according to plan.