The 20-year-old McGill just signed with KTM for 2008, but don't look for him to be riding orange just yet. "I want to be, but I really cant right now," McGill said. "I got a lot on the line. I want to finish out on the Honda, and start knocking off some wins on the orange. I'm very excited."
In XC2 Pro Am, the tables were turned with the 2007 XC2 Champion Brandon Sommers entered in XC1, and Don Ockerman pulled the ATVriders.com $100 holeshot award. Anthony Hill took the overall win, with Mark Notman and Kyle Martin in third.
Third place's Martin borrowed his little brother's ATV for this race, after tearing his bike to pieces following the last round in Yadkinville. "I was able to get a real good start, and was looking forward to the race thinking I would get ahead of Don Ockerman, and put some dust between me and everybody else, but we ended up blowing some corners, two or three times and let everybody get around us. I came in the first lap in thirteenth place and was pretty discouraged, so I just put my head down and was able to make up a few positions each lap."
Mark Notman battled his way into second overall on one of his favorite tracks in the series, which is also his hometrack in Ohio. "I didn't have too bad a start, I was probably mid pack. I lost them a little bit in the dust and hooked up with Ockerman when he blew the corner and just got going."
Anthony Hill brought his best start of the year to the overall first place podium position. "I was about fifth or sixth into the woods. Right out here by the front gate, a bunch of the guys in front of me blew the turn, and I just got lucky and saw the line into the woods. I came around the first lap in second, and was just hoping and praying that I'd stay up there. Adam Reed was leading it, and he took gas, and I didn't take gas for this race, and it turned out to be a good deal. 2008 is up in the books yet, I thought about hanging it up this year, but as of right now, I'm starting to change my ideas. I knew I could hang with these guys, I just never had good starts and always had trouble getting this bike off the line. Today it paid off."
The LTERacing.com ride of Angel Atwell found her way to first overall for the ATV morning race, beating out Yamaha's Traci Cecco for her fourth-straight win in the Women's class. Cecco pulled the holeshot, but Atwell made a break for the lead.
"As soon as you broke out into the long fields, if you were any more than five feet off the person in front of you, you couldn't see anything," Atwell said. "I just kept working and pushing, came out into the field and she went one way and I went the other, and she kind of let out of it a little bit in the dust, and I stayed in it, and got around her and never looked back. I'm very excited. I can't talk highly enough about the sponsors this year that have helped me get to this point, because I've never even won two in a row, so four is way past my expectations."
With the 2007 GNCC Women's championship wrapped, Traci Cecco held her Yamaha to second place overall, with a smile on her face. "When you're up here, you just love to be up here," she said. "The beginning of the season, I was just working really hard and working really good, pulling out those wins, and that's what you need to do. Come out strong in the beginning and wrap up the championship out early so you can sit back and relax a little."
Warnert Racing Can-Am's Rick Cecco won the Open 4x4 class in a close race with Bryan Buckhannon, giving Cecco the 2007 Open 4x4 Championship. His Can-Am teammates Cliff Beasley and Michael Swift won the 4x4 Lites and 4x4 Limited Class, respectively. Joshua Ribley won the U2 class, and Ohio's own Seth Mumford won the Youth ATV Overall.
The 2007 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series concludes with the Klotz Ironman GNCC in Crawfordsville, Indiana on October 27-28.