The Hurricane and The Gen

In late 2002 British Enduro Champion Paul Rowlands decided that he wanted a change for his 2003 racing calendar and pencilled in the USA GNCC race series into it. The GNCC series is the closest the Americans have to the British Enduro Championship riding for 2 hours compared to the longer 3 hours in Britain.

The GNCC rounds involve numerous classes with a morning race comprising of beginners, Class B riders etc and then an Afternoon race that sees, 250A, Pro Production and Pro categories all racing together. Rowlands opted to ride a Duncan Racing prepared Suzuki Z400 in the Pro-Production category. In order for a bike to qualify for this category the bike mainly needs to use a stock chassis though other modifications are allowed. This saw the bike housing a full Roll Design front end and swinging arm, Elka Shocks, and a host of other Duncan Racing trick bits, though the engine was kept stock. The bike was identical to top Duncan Racing Pro rider Brad Page however he was running a 450cc engine kit in his bike.

With the bike checked over by the Pit Crew of Richard Cole and ‘Plum’ it was set up to Rowlands specific race set up. It was then back in the Duncan Racing motorhome for the short trip down from the Hotel in St Augustine where the majority of the top riders were staying to the race track in Palatka Florida for practice on Saturday afternoon.

With Florida experiencing unusual weather for this time of year, which saw riders having to deal with not only a new track but also very wet conditions. It was obvious from the conditions on Saturday that the race would be more of a survival race rather than seeing any blistering speeds. Most of the top US riders opted not to go out in practice due to the bad conditions, though the team thought that it would be beneficial for Rowlands to get a feel for the track and ‘run in’ the newly prepared bike. The bike experienced a few problems with water getting into the airbox as the bike was running without an airbox lid. So a mesh gauze mating was placed over the box to limit the water entering while still allowing good airflow to the K&N airfilter.

After cleaning the bike off and checking it over thoroughly it was put away for the night ready for the big race the following afternoon.What many people think as the norm to do at a big race, ‘walking the track’ is not typically something that is done by the US riders at the GNCC. The Brits however know better and several benefits from the 10 mile walk revealed several unexpected deep (1.5 ft) water holes as well as very dense Palm tree forests with razor sharp leaves. In fact the water holes were so deep two 6ft alligators were seen in them by race organizers on the Friday whilst marking out the track. Just to give you an idea of how remote this place was, along with the alligators a 250lb wild boar was also shot on the Saturday prior to it attacking a course marshall!

The first race of the GNCC day starts at 10am with the first race comprising for B riders, Beginners and Juniors, followed by the afternoon race at 1pm made up of 250A, 4st A, Pro Production and Pro categories.

The morning race saw the debut of the 700cc Kawasaki V-Twin and even though the bike is an automatic it rips! The top 20 riders from last years series start on the front row followed a minute later by the remaining Pro Riders. The Holeshot of the first line was by defending champ Bill Balances brother Brandon aboard another Suzuki Z400 followed by Chad DuVall (7) on his FST Honda 400EX.

Rowlands nearly got the Holeshot on the following line of pro riders but was forced out by a Polaris Predator. At the following corner as the riders headed into the trees Rowlands was T-boned into a tree and by the time he got going he was in last place in the Pro’s.

The next 2 hours saw only 4 laps completed due to the bad conditions that caused several of the top riders to drop out mainly due to water getting sucked into the engine. The track soon deteriorated into a massive bog with deep ruts being formed that started to catch on the low skid plate aboard the Z400 costing Rowlands valuable minutes having to lift the bike out of ruts.

Rowlands bike didn’t miss a beat all day and with a great fitness level he finished the race 7th in class and 15th overall out of 231 riders! A great result for someone competing in his first GNCC Race.

The following weekend the GNCC moved to a small town in Georgia called Washington. The area is famous for pottery due to the clay in the surrounding area. After another week of rain the ground was completely saturated and was also home to large chunks of marble rocks that could easily do some damage to tires and riders. The Washington track is usually used for Motocross and Supercross events with absolutely brilliant tracks surrounded by woodland. The GNCC race track was comprised of a short field start before heading into tight woodland, a slight blast onto the Motocross track, back into the woods with several deep stream crossings before reentering the Motocross track where riders where exposed to several table tops and big jumps.

Again the first race of the day was for the lower level riders and it was another earlier afternoon start for the Pros. The front row Holeshot was grabbed by defending GNCC champ Bill Balance aboard his Klotz/LRD Honda.

The lead swapped and changed between Ballance and Yokley (Z400) on the opening lap until Ballance cleared a huge double on the Motocross track and jumped into the lead. A great tight first corner by Rowlands saw him go into the woods with only one rider in front of him from the second line, and by the end of the first lap was in 10th position overall and continued to hold this spot for the second lap.

It was however the low skid plate on the bike that caused major problems on the 3rd lap again causing the bike to ground out several times on deep ruts and saw a lap time 8mins slower than his 1st and 2nd laps. Rowlands was quick to regain his composure and set a blistering 4th lap, which was only just bettered by 3 other riders. The phantom low skid plate and small diameter tires again came back to haunt Rowlands on the 5th lap causing a 4 min slower lap than those averaged on lap 1,2 and 4. Rowlands finished the race in 12th in class and 30th overall, a very creditable result considering all of the problems encountered during the race. One can only imagine how high up the overall board Rowlands would have been if it weren’t for the low back end of his Suzuki

For more pictures from both races visit www.coleatv.co.uk