The Streak Comes to An End

The first seven rounds of the 2023 GNCC Racing season proved to be historic as they would produce seven different winners. The series had never seen more than five different winners in a single season, and those were never all in a row! Heading into the Mason-Dixon, everyone felt that this event would finally produce that first repeat winner of the season and while it did, at one point in the race it seemed as if there could be yet another winner.

Round three winner, Craig Delong, would jump out to the early lead and hold that lead for the opening laps. However, on lap four it would be Layne Michael taking over the lead. Layne had been sidelined for the previous two rounds but made a big splash on his return to competition, leading lap four of the race and making many wonder if he could hold onto make it eight different winners in the first eight rounds.

Eventually, Delong would work his way back into the lead with two laps to go and hold that lead all the way to the checkered flag. Delong would become the first repeat winner of the 2023 season and in doing so, also take control of the championship points lead. Michael would hold on to take second place, his best finish of the 2023 season. Ricky Russell would work his way from as far back as sixth place on the opening laps to end the day on the podium in third place while Jordan Ashburn and Grant Baylor would round out the top five.

As far as the points are concerned, Delong holds an eight-point lead over Steward Baylor Jr., who had some struggles throughout the day, ultimately finishing ninth overall. Baylor sits 16-points ahead of Ben Kelley in third, who had some struggles of his own finishing sixth overall at the Mason-Dixon. Fourth place is defending champion, Jordan Ashburn who is another 16-points behind Kelley with Grant Baylor rounding out the top five.

XC2 Continues To Excite!

The XC2 class has produced some really good racing over the past few seasons, and this year might be some of the best yet. These guys have diced back and forth through each of the eight rounds so far and now have six different winners of their own. At the Mason-Dixon, it would be Angus Riordan holding the lead on the first lap before Liam Draper would take over the lead the second lap.

By the fourth lap, Riordan was able to make his way back into the lead before Draper would take the lead over once again on the following lap. While these guys were bouncing back and forth in the lead, guys like Cody Barnes, Mike Witkowski, Ryder Lafferty, and Ruy Barbosa would all swap the third-place position throughout the entire race. Draper would hold on to take his first win of the season after coming so close in the previous two rounds. Riordan would end the day in second while Barbosa would hold off the other hard charging XC2 elite to end the day on the podium in third place. Ryder Lafferty would finish in the fourth-place spot with Mason Semmens rounding out the top five of the XC2 class.  

As far as the XC2 championship hunt is concerned, Barbosa still holds the lead, but Draper has been able to chip away at that lead and now sits just two points behind Barbosa in second place. Also within striking distance is Barnes, who holds the third-place spot just four points behind Draper while Riordan is fourth and just four points behind Barnes. Rounding out the top five is Lafferty, just 11 points behind Riordan and only a total of 21 points out of the lead.

The XC2 points are determined the same as the overall point scale with a race win with 30 points going to the race winner. This means the entire top five are separated by less than one race, which sets up a five-rider championship battle through the remaining rounds.