Round nine of the 2024 Progressive GNCC Racing season saw the traditional visit to West Virginia’s Snowshoe Mountain ski resort for one of the roughest and toughest races on the schedule. With much different conditions than Snowshoe has offered in the past few seasons, the racing produced at this event made for an exciting end to the first part of the 2024 season as the series heads into the summer break. Here are a few items of note from West Virginia’s wild and wonderful Snowshoe GNCC.
THE DRIEST SNOWSHOE EVENT, PROBABLY EVER
The last few editions of the Snowshoe GNCC have been inundated with heavy rainfall either during the event, or during the week leading into the event, or both. This year, the rain never came. A few stray showers rolled through on Monday prior to the event, and a short shower cut down a little bit of dust on the ski slopes after Friday’s eMTB race. That was the only real rainfall Snowshoe Mountain would see for this year’s event.
Still, mud will always be a bit of a factor at Snowshoe due to the numerous natural springs all across the mountain but even with that, it still ended up being what veterans are calling the driest race in the 17-year history of the Snowshoe event. By the end of the weekend, the ski slopes and some of the open powerline sections became fairly dusty, but the wooded areas actually saw nearly perfect dirt conditions throughout.
Since the course was overly dry, this allowed the GNCC track crew to utilize a few sections of trail that are not typically used. This lengthened the course by just over a mile and allowed the course to use a powerline section and woods trail following it that have not been used since the very first Snowshoe GNCC back in 2007!
Even without rain, the Snowshoe course was still a tough one as the exposed rocks still became very slick thanks to the moisture that did manage to stay in the ground. Additionally, a new rock garden section was added in for the afternoon bike race to give even more of a challenge to the already tough and rocky racecourse. A lot of GNCC regulars said they enjoyed this year’s Snowshoe course, and when you’re enjoying the course itself it can lead to some great racing when everyone is jiving with the track.
GIRROIR SNEAKS IN ANOTHER WIN!
There’s no doubt that the man to beat this season is FMF KTM’s Johnny Girroir, and he’s been proving that further each event. After snagging the first two wins of the season, and a physical overall win at round three (which would actually result in a second place overall with XC2 racer Josh Toth grabbing the overall win on adjusted time) Girroir would continue to consistently land on the podium through the next four rounds. With a win at Snowshoe he now holds back-to-back wins and the points lead heading into the summer break.
The Snowshoe win was similar to the previous round where Girroir snuck into the lead on the final lap. The difference at Snowshoe would be that Girroir would actually lead the second and third laps of the race before dropping to second place when the white flag flew. Grant Baylor led heading into the final lap, holding just under a ten second lead over Girroir. While ten seconds is a fairly sizable lead under typical conditions, there have been times where the Snowshoe event has been won by multiple minutes including a massive 10-minute win by David Knight at the first Snowshoe event. With a demanding racecourse where anything can go wrong, the ten second interval is not much.
Girroir was able to close up that gap and make the pass on Grant Baylor on the final lap to take the overall win by just six seconds. That’s close for Snowshoe standards! Meanwhile, Grant’s big brother Steward would overcome a bit of adversity to round out the podium in third. Stu has been Girroir’s closest competition throughout the season and has snagged two wins of his own, but a few bouts with some bad luck have allowed Girroir to open up a sizable points gap. At Snowshoe, Stu led the opening lap and continued to run with the lead pack for the majority of the race. Stu ended up losing a footpeg in the massive rocks on the final lap and that cost him a shot at staying in sight of the lead duo.
Jordan Ashburn excels in the rough and nasty conditions and is a past winner of the Snowshoe event, but this year’s dry track proved to be a bit out of the normal. After holding the second-place spot on the opening lap, Ashburn would end up dropping to a very respectable fourth place position on the second lap and stay there for the remainder of the race. Meanwhile, privateer Husqvarna rider Evan Smith would work his way through the XC1 field to tie his best finish with a fifth place in the XC1 class and sixth place overall.
CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE INTO THE BREAK
The GNCC series now heads into its traditional summer break. Since the grueling three-hour GNCC events are just too tough for eastern humidity, and a big chunk of the GNCC staff also handles Loretta Lynn’s and Pro Motocross events, the series always stages a summer break from late June until early September. This year’s summer break is actually shorter than normal as the series is set to return Labor Day Weekend back in West Virginia. Typically, this returning event would be a week or two later, but this year’s International Six Days Enduro takes place earlier and the event was moved to accommodate those competing in the ISDE.
Girroir now holds a 43-point lead over Steward Baylor. With a race paying 30-points for the overall win, this is a pretty solid lead but Girroir must remain on top of his game when the series returns. It’s essentially a two-rider battle for the GNCC National Championship between Girroir and Baylor as they have remained the two most consistent racers throughout the first part of the 2024 season.
Sitting third place overall in points is XC2 points leader, Grant Davis. This is the highest an XC2 racer has ever sat in the overall points this late in a season, but Ashburn is quickly creeping up on that number three spot as he sits just two-points behind. Davis and Ashburn are currently 91 and 93 points out of the lead, respectively. With four rounds remaining following the summer break, technically, both of these riders still have a mathematical shot at the GNCC National Championship as well if both Girroir and Baylor were struck with enough bad luck to leave them scoring no points when the series returns.
Rounding out the top five is defending series champion, Craig Delong, who suffered through some tough luck of his own early in the season and has been left digging himself out of a hole for the majority of the season. Delong also would have a mathematical shot at the championship as well but at this point will most likely be focusing on finishing as high as possible in the final rounds and rebound into the 2025 season. He also sits just three points ahead of sixth place rider, Grant Baylor, who will be looking to improve his standings in the final four rounds as well.
As for the XC2 class, Davis has snagged a total of five wins through the first nine rounds in 2024, including three-straight wins heading into the summer break. Davis holds a 37-point lead over Angus Riordan in second, more than a one race lead but still not enough to lock up a title for a few more rounds. Defending XC2 champ Liam Draper still holds the third-place spot but is currently on the sidelines mending a knee injury and missed the Snowshoe event. Cody Barnes and Thad Duvall round out the top five in the XC2 class, respectively, and sit just eight-points apart while also sitting just 12 and 20 points behind Draper in the number three spot.
With four rounds remaining after the summer break and numerous racers able to make up ground, the return from summer break could be second to none!
