All photos: Glenn Gardner » G2photosmx.com
Welcome to this week’s 411! Let’s dive right into the biggest story of the week involving the 2012 plans of a rider we haven’t heard from much over the winter, Nate Kanney. Nate posted on his Facebook Thursday asking people to head to the Nytro Facebook page and vote on what brand you think he’ll be riding in 2012. The overwhelming response was Honda, and it was made official in an unofficial announcement that Nate will in fact be on Hondas in 2012 (yeah, you read that right!). This isn’t really a huge surprise as the word in the pits at Loretta’s was that Nate had been on a JG Off-Road Honda for a couple of weeks and was doing all of his practicing on the red machine and racing his KTM on the weekends. We had also heard that Kanney would be joining the JG Off-Road squad for 2012, but after they lost their Geico sponsorship we haven’t heard much about that lately. Natedogg will be hitting the Sumter National Hare Scramble this weekend and we’ll try and find out more then.
I mentioned Nytro above, and if you haven’t heard of them yet, they are a new handguard company that is developing what they call the best handguard in the world. The product is still in development and should be available at the end of February. Check them out on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/ridenytro
Mullins is really feeling his new KTM. | Photo: Glenn Gardner » G2photosmx.com
I got to talk to Charlie Mullins for a while yesterday and he really loves the new KTM “Dungey Edition” 450 that he’s been riding for the last week or so. He said that the whole KTM crew as well as the WP Suspension folks went down to Florida and did a sand suspension test with Mullins and Cory Buttrick. Charlie got to race the bike for the first time at last weekend’s FTR, but things were nearly disastrous as he hit a downed Chris Douglas’ bike while going 4th gear wide open and had a pretty big endo. Fortunately he was alright, and went on to finish second to Cory on a tweaked bike. Charlie will be racing the National Hare Scramble this weekend at Sumter and we’ll be sure to get some photos of his new ride, so check the site next week for that.
Charlie told me that he’s been doing a lot of riding with Steven Squire, who will be piloting a WMR KTM in the XC2 Pro Lites Class in 2012. Mullins said that Squire is really hauling, especially on the moto tracks (no surprise there as he was a pro motocrosser!) and that he has some serious scrubbing skills! We all know the ability to scrub means nothing in GNCC, but Charlie said that he feels like Squire could be a legit podium threat this year as he starts to figure out off-road racing more and more.
Out on the West Coast, Taylor Robert took the overall win at the first round of WORCS at Glen Helen, with Mike Brown and Kyle Summers rounding out the podium. The big story of the weekend there was Josh Strang making it back to California on Friday, getting released from his doctor that day and riding his KTM for the first time that afternoon, then actually lining up to race the WORCS on both Saturday and Sunday. Strang told me he just rode around “really slow.” There were only 17 riders in the pro class and Strang went 16-15 for 16th overall which could be very important in the year-end points chase. Check out full results here in our Weekend Wrap-up.
FMF/KTM’s Kailub Russell was out West for the WORCS as well and finished a disappointing 10th overall going 13-9 for the weekend. KR tweeted after Saturday’s race that it was his worst off-road performance ever and he came back for a better result on Sunday. From everything I’ve heard, the Glen Helen WORCS is the fastest race in that series, which is a definite departure from what KR is used to racing. He’s going to head back out for the second round in a few weeks at Primm, NV, we’ll see if he can better his result there.
If you didn’t already see it, check out the review I did on Scott’s 450 Combustion gear. I’ve been rocking the stuff lately and really dig it. I had the opportunity to test out their 350 Helmet and Hustle goggles, so look for reviews on those in the future.
CoryB pulling the holeshot at last weekend's FTR. | Photo: Glenn Gardner » G2photosmx.com
I mentioned this on our Twitter earlier today, but FMF Racing has signed on to sponsor the photo section of the site for a few months and we’re stoked to have them on board. The guys over at Taylor Creative Co. designed some sweet looking banner ads and site skins that we’ll be launching on the site soon. It’s always cool when huge brands that we’ve looked up to for years think enough of you to want to partner with you on stuff, so we’re very pumped to welcome them aboard.
Speaking of site sponsors (sorry for all the plugs!) we signed another deal with Fly Racing to bring you the GNCC Post-Race Shows from all the rounds for 2012. I have a few things up my sleeve for those so be on the lookout once the GNCCs get under way for those.
That’s it for me, I’m going to hand it off to Bolt-on. Oh, and let’s go Ravens!
Thanks Hoop! Hey, I think I forgot something last week. Yeah, all my days kind of ran together between Tuesday Toolbox, Quick Fill, keeping up with the latest moto info and random social media stuff, all while also going to a regular job during the day. Needless to say, it’s not even officially race season yet and I know I’ve already hit that “wide open” status and I’m sure many of you are in the same boat.
Down south there’s already been a pretty good amount of racing going on. By now you’ve probably heard all about the past couple of FTR races where Charlie Mullins and Cory Buttrick swapped wins along with a heard of GNCC regulars scattered throughout the top ten. Also thrown into that mix is pro motocrosser, Kyle Keylon who apparently wants to spend this year in the off-road world. We’ve talked about that a little already but I think it will be interesting to see Keylon jump into the off-road scene. Maybe he’ll produce some competition. Only time will tell.
Last weekend I went to the SETRA Broxton Bridge Enduro. The event was awesome as usual and the battles that shook out throughout the day were pretty good. Since it wasn’t an enduro it wasn’t true head-to-head racing but the finishes were still close. Mike Lafferty took the overall win with a 12-point drop and Brad Bakken was second with a 13. There was a three-way tie for the third place spot between Jesse Robinson, Nick Fahringer and Russell Bobbitt who would end up finishing in that exact order when it came down to the tiebreaker sections. They all dropped 16 points. Hunter Williams and Chris Bach tied for sixth with a 17 and Hunter beat out Bach for the position in the tiebreakers.
The event itself was very well run and the course was a blast. Keith Bennett let me borrow his KTM 400 for the race and I had an absolute blast on it even with losing time due to brake problems. I also used this as an opportunity to test out the 2012 version of the Scott Voltage Pro Air goggles and they were exactly what I expected… Awesome. Stay tuned for a full review on those coming soon.
Cory got his 2012 season off to a good start with an FTR win. Will he be able to shake off a rough 2011? | Photo: Glenn Gardner » G2photosmx.com
We’re now just a little over a week away from the opener of the 2012 National Enduro season and the speculation is flying! Many are thinking that Charlie Mullins will be the man to beat, especially with Bobbitt and Fahringer coming off injuries. The early rounds could very well favor Mullins but you can’t forget how great that Fahringer was riding at the end of 2011, taking three wins in a row. However, Mullins will be switching back to the 450 in the National Enduro series. Could going full-time 450 make Charlie that much faster? We’ll see soon enough.
There’s no doubt that the 2012 season is going to be an interesting to watch unfold on both the GNCC and National Enduro fronts. Charlie Mullins has a chance to be the first rider to ever win both series in the same year but he’s going to have some serious competition on both ends. This could lead to some similar scenarios to what we saw in 2011 with some, dare I say it, epic battles. Regardless of who wins what and what happens, 2012 will definitely be a fun-filled season for all.
Well, I’m going to cut it short this week and get prepared for the National Hare Scramble race in Sumter, South Carolina this weekend. It looks like the race is going to draw a pretty big turnout, so if you’re on the fence about it, come on out and have some fun. Until next time, Bolt-On out!
