Held September 10-11 in Yadkinville, North Carolina, the Yadkin Valley Stomp featured the first-ever GNCC victory for Chris Jenks, who finished in 1:59:57. Following Jenks across the finish line was Chris Borich in second place with 2:00:08, while Brandon Ballance nabbed the third spot on the podium in 2:00:49. Bryan Cook finished fourth in 2:01:42, while Michael S. Houston and Matt Smiley took sixth and seventh place in 2:01:59 and 2:03:10, respectively. Rhett M. Butler scored a ninth-place finish in 2:05:02, and Todd Knippenberg rounded out the top ten in 2:05:07. Bill Ballance, recuperating from a fractured leg, did not compete at Yadkinville.

Delighted with his victory, Jenks told gnccracing.com “I always wondered what it would be like up here. Any time it’s hot and dusty like this, and tight, at this level, everyone has a chance. You can’t just jump into this and do super-well. You need to have knowledge around you and people helping you out. And the fans, they were great for cheering us on.”

At the GNCC’s first-ever contest at Unadilla, Bryan Cook, like Jenks a member of Team 4-Stroke Tech, took the victory in 2:06:31. A still-mending Bill Ballance battled his way to second place in 2:07:34. Held September 24-25 at New Berlin, New York, the event was the biggest ever for the GNCC, with 1700 racers.

“It feels so good…I just wanted it real bad,” Cook told gnccracing.com, adding that he had trained intensively throughout the summer. Training surely came in handy on a course filled with twists, turns and at least one mud bog. In what the website called “a wild ride,” Bryan Baker took third place in 2:07:38, Brandon Ballance snagged the fourth spot in 2:07:51, and Michael S. Houston rounded out the top five in 2:08:31.

His championship performance means that the elder Ballance is still in the lead for the title. Spectators were awed as he raced with 11 screws and two plates in his broken leg, according to gnccracing.com.