Bill Ballance is proving he is perhaps the world’s best ATV cross country racer. Ballance now has seven victories this season. He chases Barry Hawk’s nine season victories in route to his fourth professional GNCC national championship
The Patriot GNCC
Petersburg, VA
June 14, 2003
By Bonnie Hamrick
PM
The event T-shirts hosted Bill Ballance and William Yokley side by side racing around the first turn at one of the races earlier in the 2003 season. While Yokley was in the trailer signing autographs for all the hard-core Yokley fans; he discussed his slow progress so far in the season. “I have been trying to get things dialed in on the new Suzuki. I am still working, and it will probably take just a little bit more.” Yokley confesses to devoting all his time to racing, preparing his quad, and getting himself ready for his next racing event. Yokley is racing in the Pro Production Class this year against dignified racers such as Brad Page and Chad Duvall. Yokley states, “I am really not trying any harder in this class, because it is no different than the regular Pro Class. The competition is just as strong and we are making ourselves known for it.”
Bill was taking advice from Maxxis Tires teammate, Mike Penland on the starting line. “JUST DON’T GET STUCK, cause man I did.”
William Yokley has figured out his new Suzuki Z400 pretty well. Yokley led the race and was in route to victory but got stuck in the mud. He finished second respectively.
Matt Smiley was in deep concentration on the starting line. He knew the day’s battle wouldn’t be easy in the high Virginia humidity.
A little after one, the afternoon riders were sitting in the baking sun with only a small breeze blowing while Jeff Russell explained the track. When the green flag went into the air, Bill Ballance pulled another great holeshot. Rounding turn two, Ballance looked over his shoulder to see Matt Smiley and brother Brandon Ballance nipping at his rear tires. By the end of the first lap, William Yokley was waving to cheering fans while he raced across the grassy fields in first place just seconds ahead of the two Ballance brothers, Smiley, and Chris Borich.
Just a few miles before the finish was a quad-eating mud hole that was getting more difficult as the race progressed. Santo DeRisi and Greg Trew were able to pass Matt Smiley while he was stuck in a bottle neck of piled up racers as well as William Yokley in a deep rut, moving them up to second and third overall respectively. With DeRisi eager for his second podium finish for the 2003 season and Trew ready for third overall, they raced to the finish line, only to get hung up in the mud hole. Smiley and Yokley were both able to return to their podium positions, leaving DeRisi and Trew to fight their way back to fourth and fifth overall respectfully.
“I just rode smart and never made mistakes,” Santo DeRisi commented after the race. DeRisi was dead last off the starting line and had to fight his way through the first row riders to get his way into the top. Slowly advancing from eighth overall all the way to second, DeRisi was able to come around on lap three with the fastest lap time of the day. DeRisi was still able to finish an impressive fourth overall, and is looking forward to the crowd cheering him and his Duncan/DeRici Racing quad on to the podium in two weeks.
London, KY’s Jason Lewis rode to an impressive ninth place overall, (5th in the pro class).
When the checkered flag went out, Bill Ballance took the overall win by a whopping three minutes over a battling pack of racers, all hungry for his spot up front. On the podium, Ballance and Smiley were all smiles as Yokley laughed about his luck of being up front and getting stuck. “I passed everyone on the straight stretches, one by one. Then I got hung up in a rut, and after picking my quad out of the muck, I guess I got winded. It took me a while to get it all back together.” Yokley laughed with fellow pro riders after the race, but in his eyes, there was no mistaking of the hunger of revenge he is ready to evoke. With GNCC round nine (the Wisp) only two weeks away, Yokley promises to be ready for another podium position, while Ballance wants to add to his incredible win streak.
John Wright from the Four Stroke Stock Class takes his first overall Finish.
AM
When the racers drove into the parking lot of round eight of GNCC racing at the Patriot in Petersburg, VA, they expected the race to be another mud-fest like two weeks ago in Millfield, OH. Many racers were pulled into their parking spots because the ground was soft from the many rain showers that fell during the week. Saturday morning, Buren Hamrick, one of Jeff Russell’s track workers, also known as dad to yours truly, explained why he was pulling flattened guardrails behind his quad before the morning race took place. “You just wouldn’t believe how bad some of those mud holes are; so we decided to use guardrails to put over the mud, to prevent as many riders as possible from getting stuck.” With that in mind, one could only imagine the nine and a half mile course spotted with rocks, rough terrain, grassy fields, deep mud holes, and narrow woods sections was going to give the racers all the obstacles GNCC racing could provide.
Sinking Spring, PA’s James Wahl took honors in the A class and finished in the top twenty overall.
Once the morning riders took off the starting line, the clock was set to wait for the first quad to make it back onto the large motocross that the racers would have to follow before entering the barrels. Adam Howell, the Four Stroke Stock point’s leader came into the pits before completing a lap with damage done to his quad, leaving him unable to finish the race. Heidi Landon, aboard the V Force 700 Kawasaki, from the Women’s Class experienced quad difficulties on her first lap after a crash, leaving her unable to complete a lap as well.
With the battles narrowing down closer to the checkered flag, Stephanie Parton broke her frame, giving Traci Cecco a bigger lead in the Women’s Class. Brock Parker rejoined the ranks of racing after dislocating his shoulder at round six in Tremont, PA; Parker was once again trying to get into the overall position, but had to battle new competition in the Utility Unlimited Class. John Wright from the Four Stroke Stock Class was able to keep up his pace and stay out front after starting on the first row. Could Cecco gain enough time to catch up to Wright’s minute to take over the overall position from Wright or was Parker going to get up into the Overall place?
John Wright crossed the finish line first on lap four and was able to take his first overall victory. After getting a bad start on lap one, the new track was getting rutted out and more difficult to pass. “The worst part was that the ruts were getting real bad and there were lapped riders everywhere,” Wright admitted on the podium. His face was covered with mud and he could barely see out his mud-crusted eyes, but he was all smiles when he said, “This may have been my first overall win, but it won’t be my last.”
Traci Cecco was able to finish second overall and regain the Women’s Class points lead. No wonder she is smiling so big!
Traci Cecco took the second overall position, but first in the Women’s Class. Angel Atwell was first off the start, leaving Stephanie Parton, Cecco, and Landon close to her tracks. After a few turns on the motocross, Cecco was able to pass for the lead. On the podium Cecco commented about what held up her lap times, “People were just stopped everywhere, not knowing what to do or where to go, so I had to just sit there and wait.” The worst part of Cecco’s race day was battling the mud. She confessed to there being “a lot of jam-ups” that held her progress to Overall up. Being able to take the first place in the Women’s Class put her back in the points lead for the Women’s Class.
