Round eight of the 2024 GNCC Racing season resulted in some of the best conditions GNCC regulars have faced thus far with no major rainfall coming through the race weekend. Couple this with a course mixed with faster and tighter sections and the racing action was some of the best of the season. This battle for the overall came down to the final stretch of the race even after three hours! Here are a few things of note from the Mason-Dixon GNCC.
FINALLY, NO RAIN!
As mentioned, conditions for the Mason-Dixon race weekend were some of the best so far in 2024. A few showers fell during the week leading into the race, and one small shower early Sunday morning cut down a little more of the dust. While a few areas remained hard packed and slick, the overwhelming majority of the racecourse held the right amount of moisture, finally giving GNCC regulars a break from the muddy conditions that have seemed to be the norm for not just most of 2024, but a big part of 2023, as well.
Taking place across the street from High Point Raceway, Mason-Dixon sees a good bit of rolling elevation change throughout but not many overly rocky areas. The course starts out in view of that famous motocross track, in Pennsylvania, and then transverses some open and flowing trail for several miles before crossing the true Mason-Dixon line into West Virginia. Once you enter West Virginia, the racecourse tightens up a bit and becomes much more twisty.
There are a few technical and off-camber sections on the West Virginia portion as well, and the course then makes its way back into Pennsylvania where the woods open back up and become a bit more flowing once again. This makes for an incredibly cool experience as the Pennsylvania and West Virginia sides both have their own unique feel, making it almost like riding on two different tracks to make up one larger racecourse.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jonathan Girroir | Southwick, MA  | 271 |
| 2 |  Jordan Ashburn | Cookeville, TN | 229 |
| 3 |  Grant Davis | Meshoppen, PA | 224 |
| 4 |  Steward Baylor | Belton, SC | 210 |
| 5 |  Craig Delong | Morgantown, PA | 168 |
AND SOME CLOSE RACING!
The opening stages of the race saw the XC2 class leaders actually leading the overall positions on adjusted time. The 250cc machines are a bit easier to ride on some portions of the Mason-Dixon racecourse, and with some younger hard chargers behind the bars pushing each other, the group made a big splash early. Defending XC2 champ Liam Draper would hold the early lead with current XC2 points leader Grant Davis hovering just around a second behind for the first two laps, and the savvy veteran Thad Duvall holding down third also just around one second behind that lead duo.
Meanwhile, the XC1 guys continued to physically lead the overall with Jordan Ashburn out front on the opening lap eventually swapping the lead back and forth with Lyndon Snodgrass through the first three laps. Eventually the XC1 guys would pick up the pace, dropping the XC2 leaders from the time-adjusted overall lead. Ashburn continued to lead, while Steward Baylor had worked his way through the pack coming from seventh place in XC1 and outside the top ten overall on lap one to pull up to Ashburn’s rear wheel by lap four.
Johnny Girroir had a similar ride, coming from sixth in XC1 and also outside the top ten overall on the first lap to move into the third-place spot by that same fourth lap. As the white flag flew, Baylor had made his way into the overall lead and pulled nearly a 13-second lead over Ashburn in second place, while Girroir continued to sit third 11-seconds behind Ashburn and nearly 25 seconds behind Baylor for the lead. It seemed as if they may possibly finish in this order, but Girroir put in a stellar ride on that final lap.
Girroir put down his fastest full lap time of the day on the final lap, even though the course was at its roughest. Girroir picked off Ashburn to move up into second-place, and then with just a few miles remaining he would make a pass on Baylor as well. He then held off a hard-charging Baylor down to the wire to take the overall win by less than one second!
While all of this was going on, the XC2 leaders continued to have a close battle of their own with Grant Davis and Angus Riordan swapping the lead back and forth through the closing laps. When they took the checkered flag, Davis held off Riordan by just 0.684 second to take the XC2 class win. These two would also finish third and fourth overall, respectively. Jordan Ashburn rounded out the XC1 podium in third and fifth place overall while Cody Barnes would end the day third place in the XC2 class.
Dante Oliveira returned for the first time since his Camp Coker win at round four to end the day fourth place in the XC1 class while Craig Delong would round out the top five. Also interesting to see is that after just under three hours of racing, the entire top ten of the XC1 class were separated by just around three minutes, and the top seven of them were less than a one minute apart! Lyndon Snodgrass, Mike Witkowski, Evan Smith, Josh Strang, and Grant Baylor would round out those top ten spots in that order.
There were a number of shakeups in the rest of the XC2 class. Early leader Liam Draper would suffer a pretty hard crash that would end his day early, while Thad Duvall who ran in podium contention early would be forced to make a wheel change in the woods after his rear tire came off the rim, destroying the mousse in the process. With these two front runners out of contention, the door was left wide open for guys like Toby Cleveland to come through the pack after a first lap crash to take his career best XC2 finish in fourth while Jason Lipscomb rounded out the top five of the XC2 class.
ONE MORE BEFORE SUMMER BREAK
With eight rounds in the books, only one race stands between GNCC competitors and the annual GNCC summer break. The infamous Snowshoe GNCC will be taking place in a few weeks, after which racers will have the time to regroup and spend the hot and humid summer months preparing for the final four rounds of the 2024 season when the series picks back up Labor Day weekend.
With the Mason-Dixon win, Girroir has opened up a 34-point lead over Baylor, so regardless of what happens at Snowshoe, Girroir will lead the series into the summer break. Baylor always seems to get even better down the stretch, so Girroir will have to stay on his toes to maintain strong points lead. XC2 points leader Davis actually holds 23 XC2 class points over second place racer Riordan. Snowshoe is a rugged and grueling event where anything can happen, and only time will tell if there could be any major upsets leading into the summer break.
