by: Jared Bolton
Friday, November 15, 2024 | 1:50 PM
Welcome to Quick Fill.
Well, we’re back stateside! Last weekend saw the annual trip to Japan for the JNCC AAGP season finale and boy was it a great experience once again. This year could arguably be one of the best showings from the GNCC attendees and we’ll have all the details on that coming up throughout this week’s edition of Quick Fill. We’re also just around the corner from the banquet, so let’s talk about that first.
The tentative top 10 is now out and available for public review. You can check out the Competition Bulletin with all the details HERE. These do evolve over time, so check all your information to be sure everything is correct. Additionally, be sure you check the spelling of your name as what is on this list is what will be displayed on the trophy you receive at the banquet.
If you made that top ten list, then you’re receiving an award at the banquet. The Marriott where we’ve been for a number of years is currently undergoing renovations so this year’s banquet will be held at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. This resort and convention center features hotel, restaurants, and an indoor waterpark, so it promises to be a pretty cool experience. So, make your reservations now as it will be here before we know it!
The banquet registration will remain open, but the deadline to book your room is just around a week away! Remember, registering for the banquet and reserving a hotel room are two different things, so make sure you get squared away on both. You can get all the details on the Banquet Event Page HERE.
Now, let’s talk about Japan! It has been tradition for going on two decades now that the JNCC and GNCC series’ participate in a mutual racer exchange program. This year JNCC AA2 (equivalent to our XC2 class) racer Keita Watanabe and Morning FUN-GP racer Kazushiro Yoshizaki participated in The Mountaineer GNCC back in September. Watanabe snagged the XC3 class holeshot and rode to a solid sixth place finish on the day, while Yoshizaki was able to take the win in the Sportsman B 40+ class. These guys had an absolute blast and loved their GNCC experience.
After enjoying his 2023 experience so much, Steward Baylor lobbied the GNCC staff to send his brother Grant for the 2024 selection and even offered to pay his own way to be able to go again as well. JNCC President, Masami Hoshino, was able to work with Kawasaki Japan to secure two Kawasaki’s for the Baylor Brothers. Unfortunately, Grant suffered an injury and the surgery required would not allow him to be healed in time to make the JNCC event, so young gun Nick DeFeo was selected to go in Grant’s place.
In addition to Steward and Nick, Phoenix Racing Honda wanted to put together an effort for Mike Witkowski to attend and thanks to some help from Honda Japan, we ended up with a three-racer roster of attendees for the first time since 2007! Once again, I returned to help serve as a liaison between our attendees and the JNCC series and we also selected one of our Trail Captains, Colby Stiles, to attend as well.
Masami worked with Basist Auto, Japan’s top KTM dealer, to secure a couple of bikes for Colby and I to use for the Morning FUN-GP race. They actually brought back out the Husqvarna FC350 I raced last year which became Colby’s race bike this time around and came up with a KTM 250 EXC (which is the worldwide equivalent of the XC-W models here in the US) for me to use. We both felt right at home on these machines as they’re pretty similar to what we’re both used to.
The travel to Japan can be pretty brutal. We all ended up in Newark, NJ for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo. When you leave on Wednesday around lunchtime and fly for 14 hours, then factor in a 14-hour time difference, you end up landing in Japan just before 4pm on Thursday. From there, it’s a five-hour car ride across the country to the Nagano Prefecture where the race is held. Yoshi Kawana has long served as the GNCC attendee’s guide in Japan and does the same when the JNCC racers come to the USA. It’s no big deal to Yoshi for him to take a couple days off work and drag a van load of Americans around, making sure everyone gets what they need along the way. Huge thanks to Yoshi for his hard work!
Once we all finally made it to the race venue on Friday afternoon, it was straight to work to begin prepping race machines and checking out the racecourse. The JNCC racecourses are actually vastly different than a GNCC course as the utilize a lot of open sections, running up and down ski slopes and grass track sections, while the woods sections are simply ribboned about 50 feet apart and features tons of single-track lines so racers can go anywhere between the tape. This means walking the course and finding the good lines is pretty important.
Saturday morning we paid a visit to the Zenkoji Temple. This temple dates as far back as the year 642, and the main hall building was built in 1707. This is super impressive when you look at the construction of the building and realize it was built over 300 years ago. Absolutely incredible, and I can’t imagine building such a place by hand all those years ago. We made it to the racetrack Saturday afternoon and did some last-minute preparations and also met up with another visiting racer, Australian Stefan Granquist. Stefan actually made several JNCC starts in 2024, actually winning two events earlier in the year.
Sunday’s race day came early as Colby and I would be taking to the track at 9am. The JNCC staff really made us feel welcomed as they introduced us during the starting lineup for the front row of the morning FUN-GP. After the rider’s meeting, the ten seconds call goes out from JNCC announcer Shigehiro Nakai and Masami readies the Japanese National flag to be used for the start. When the flag flies, I got just as poor a start as I did last year. I rounded the first turn about mid-pack and began trying to make some passes.
It was a struggle early as the course was hardpacked slick with morning dew, and couple that with having to ride on FIM-spec tires that I have limited time riding. Colby felt pretty good off the start and as the pack made our way up the ski slopes to the top of the mountain, Colby actually took over the overall lead briefly. When we got to the first long woods section, I managed to make a few passes, while Colby had a small bobble and lost the lead.
Timing and scoring said I led the first lap, but I believe the first rider through did not scan. Regardless, I held the 2nd and 3rd place spots for the majority of the race. I had a really good battle going with Toyoki Nitta for somewhere close to an hour. Just a little before the one lap card, we were fighting our way through a pack of lapped riders, and I picked an alternate line to get around a few but ended up slowing up enough that Nitta made the pass for third. I stayed close to him and saw an opportunity to try to pass back on an alternate line but ended up going down.
I opted to wear a fanny pack style hydration system, and the Moose Agroid jerseys have two nice slits cut in the back and shoulder of the jersey for you to route the hydration pack hose through. Somehow when I fell, the portion from the pack to the back of the jersey became wrapped around the handlebars and I was stuck to the bike and couldn’t get up. I have no idea how I did this but ended up freeing myself and got going. By this point Mr. Nitta had pulled a little gap and I lost sight of him. So, I ended the day fourth place in class and fifth overall in the morning FUN-GP.
Colby had a good ride going as well, hanging inside the top five for a while. He had a pretty good over the bars get-off just before the halfway point of the race and ended up breaking a big chunk of the clutch lever. This left him trying to pull in a nub of a clutch lever for over an hour, which is no easy task. Regardless, Colby still logged a top ten in class and 30th overall, which is pretty awesome after working through those issues.
With the AM race in the books, it was time for the boys to take to the track for the PM race. Just like earlier, the ten seconds call would go out and the flag flew. The front row of the PM race consists of the combined AA1 (open) and AA2 (250cc) racers where Ryo Uchijimi would get the jump off the line, snagging the holeshot ahead of Koji Kosuge and Yasuteru Kosuge Witkowski and DeFeo would round the first turn just behind the lead trio, leaving Baylor fighting through the pack on the opening lap.
Eventually, Witkowski, Baylor and DeFeo would end up holding down the top three overall spots. Nick put in a heck of an effort early to keep that lead duo in sight but riding the smaller 250cc machine with stock motor and stock exhaust on some wide-open ski slopes against the 450cc machines of Mike and Stu was no easy task. Eventually they would pull away, and Witkowski even opened up a gap over Stu for a portion of the race as well.
These guys were absolutely flying and were ticking off rider after rider, eventually lapping as high as fourth place overall. Now, I should say that the course is only around 4.5 miles and the lead duo of Witkowski and Baylor were pushing each other just about as hard as they would at a GNCC race. Meanwhile, most of the others had become spread out and we all know you keep going fast when you’re riding by yourself, but you always go faster when you’re truly racing head to head with someone.
Witkowski held the lead to the one lap card, but on the final lap Stu would make a pass stick on a double black diamond ski slope downhill. Stu said he basically just closed his eyes and went for the pass, which managed to work out in his favor. When the checkered flag flew, Baylor came across in the number one spot with Witkowski in second and DeFeo rounding out the top three overall, snagging the AA2 class win in the process.
Fourth place overall and third in AA1 would go to Kazuto Yano, who was actually at The John Penton GNCC to do some testing with Kawasaki and battled Stu at last year’s JNCC finale. Our new Aussie mate Stefan Granquist battled with Yano throughout the race and ended the day fourth in AA1 and fifth place overall. Meanwhile, Manabu Watanabe had opted to ride the smaller 250cc machine in the AA2 class and ended the day second place in AA2 and seventh place overall. This would be good enough for Watanabe to claim his record-breaking seventh JNCC championship.
With podium celebrations in the books, the trip began winding down as we eventually made our way back to Tokyo. A pit stop along the way at Mobility Resort Motegi was pretty cool as this road racecourse is home to the Japanese round of MotoGP, has previously played host to IndyCar and also features the Honda Collection Hall, full of various Honda motorcycles, cars and other products. This was a really cool stop and there were even some road race bikes getting in a few laps of practice.
The trip back is just as brutal as going there. You leave Tokyo around 6pm on Tuesday and make a roughly 12-hour trip back to the USA. Depending on exactly you land (Houston for us), you end up landing around 3pm on Tuesday. So, technically time travel is possible.
Huge thanks go out to Masami Hoshino, Yoshi Kawana and the entire JNCC staff. Your hospitality is second to none and everyone who attended is already looking for a chance to go again! That’s going to do it for this week’s edition of Quick Fill. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you back here next week!