Big Buck GNCC 2022 - February
- Kristy Bettinger
- Apr 10, 2022
- 11 min read
It is February and Round 1 of the 2022 GNCC season is here! It snuck up on us pretty fast!
We are off to Big Buck in Enoree, South Carolina!! and sooo ready for the warm sunshine! ☀️😎
Yea, here in Ohio they are calling for an inch of rain that will turn to snow.. we have had ENOUGH snow this winter! So much that Hayden has gotten ZERO seat time!!
In the end of 2021 we submitted Hayden’s race resume to a few companies that we use most.
We are thankful that BNR Motorsports, Prograph-x, and Stacy Mundy Photography accepted Hayden for the 2022 season!
Over the past few weeks David has been getting the race bike ready. We made a few changes from last year hoping they will be helpful for Hayden.
•David talked with BNR to get advice on what he wanted to change this year, and they shipped us a few things. Getting parts in a timely manner since COVID is nearly impossible. So he can’t promise much on what we are needing. David is going to order most things from other vendors hoping it will all come in.
•New button for the start that is RED!
•Hayden got the flex bars he’s been asking for.
•David changed the gearing.
•We ordered new DWT wheels and GBC tires, but they haven’t came in yet.. hopefully we’ll have them before Florida race.
•Noble Powder Coat painted the nerf bars and front bumper in matte black. New foot pegs.. Hayden says his weren’t sharp enough.
•Took all the plastic off and cleaned every piece.. took the old tape off of the wires and retaped them.
•Oil change and all the other routine maintenance he does.
•Prograph-x fixed us up with a new graphics kit. We kept the American Flag background, added sponsors, faded the stars, and changed up a few logos. Otherwise it is pretty similar to last year, we really like it!
Liz also designed us awesome race TShirts with a picture and Hayden from Stacy Mundy Photography! Grandparents got them as Christmas gifts so they can cheer Hayden on at the Ohio races!
The kill switch didn’t fit on the Flex bars like it did on the other handlebars.. so David orders another one (a little over a week before the race) that didn’t come, it was supposed to be here Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday evening (we are leaving tomorrow) he is calling around trying to find one. A trip to Parkersburg and back tonight to get it done before we leave.
We usually are well prepared in advance, but this year part availability and shipping delays it is what it is!! We better go ahead and order parts for 2023 now if we want to be ready early!
The trailer is also getting new tires for the year.. David is supposed to be putting the wheels back on the trailer tonight and loading it.. He’ll be doing that in the dark when he gets back..
We always manage to get things done and ready in time.. it might be late but we got it! Bike is race ready, trailer and suitecases are packed, good to go!
THURSDAY
The boys get their school day in and we got the last few thing together. 3:30pm and we are on our way to South Carolina! Well all of us except Luke! Luke isn’t ready to race yet.. No camper.. no fire.. he’s staying home with mammy and pappy Kuhn on his own getaway.
We were going to wait to drive down Friday morning, but Hayden hasn’t gotten any ride time at home due to the snow and the field at home being so wet. We decided to leave tonight and drive to Rock Hill, SC then drive another hour south to GTR for practice on the stock bike..they open at 10am. Hoping to get 3 hours of practice in before race day Saturday. Then we can drive to the track Friday afternoon.
Hayden and Lynlee have been great! I mean Hayden doesn’t have Luke to pick on and make scream or cry.. so it really has been quiet!
We make it to Princeton, WV before stopping for fuel and super. Didn’t waste too much time because we are on a 6 hour drive and don’t want it to be too late when we check in for the night.
Get back on the road, good to go for another 3 hours!! Or so we thought… and then…
Check engine light comes on.. “Service DEF system” comes across the dash. Well it is 8:00PM there isn’t a dealership open!
“100 miles until max speed 65mph”
What happens after that!? I start googling to see what happens.. I’m reading that eventually we are going to be in snail mode or max speed 5mph, no choice but to get it to a dealership and checked out.
Lovely! Hopefully we at least make it to our hotel tonight!
Next, here I am figuring miles left to our hotel and miles left before it goes into snail mode.. searching for a Chevrolet dealership near our hotel.
Thankfully, there is a GMC dealership 0.8 mile from our hotel that opens at 7am.
Meanwhile, David in the driver seat saying:
“Should of bought a Dodge. Always owned a Dodge before and never had a light one come on! Truck with 8,000 miles on it shouldn’t need to be at the shop.”
It is looking like we have enough miles left to get to our hotel BUT we are going to be on max speed of 55mph on the interstate.. 😒 better than not moving or being towed! Thankful that worked out!
We made it to Charolette before max speed was 65mph, that worked out as well going through the city speed limits are lower anyway!
We were only 10-12 miles out from our hotel before we dropped to max speed 55mph. Not terrible, definitely could be worse!
We made it to Home 2 Suites in Rock Hill, SC with 70 miles until Max Speed 5mph!
Well that’s a wrap for Thursday, we are ready to crash for the night so we can get going earlier than planned tomorrow.. will we even have time to practice now? Will we have a truck? Will it have to stay here to be fixed? Will they look at it tomorrow? Who knows!? all we do know is we are stuck here for now for sure! Thankfully we are only 1 1/2 hours from the GNCC track so if we are stuck hopefully someone in our race family would come save us!
GOODNIGHT 💤
FRIDAY
6:30AM.. Good morning!! Well we pray it ends up a good morning! The sun is shining bright and the weekend is looking warm and sunny! ☀️
David is up and ready to head to the dealership.. check out isn’t until 12:00pm so I’m staying in the room with the kids. Surely by then we’ll have something figured out or we’ll be sitting in the lobby with the luggage just chillin’!
The dealership will look at it, but not sure what time or how long it’ll take. It’ll probably be this afternoon 😔 David explains that the rest of the family is at the hotel and where we are heading.
The dealership told David I could take the kids to the mall across the 6 lane highway.. sure I’ll drag 2 suite cases, bath bag, snack bag, and 3 kids to the mall ..that sounds like a great idea!? 🥴
I went ahead and got ready, woke up Hayden and Lynlee at 8:00am to go get hotel breakfast, otherwise looks like we won‘t be eating! Fill up kids! There are tons of restaurants around here, but not really easily walkable with kids and luggage!
Thankfully, they were able to squeeze it in and by 9:00am they had ran all the test and found NOTHING! Reset it and he is on his way back to the hotel to get us. Which is awesome we can still drive it, but we are both worried it will do the same thing again!
9:45AM we are on our way to GTR track to practice 81 miles! We decided to go ahead and go even though he may only practice 1-2 hours.
11:20 arrive at GTR! He can get an 1hr 30 mins of riding in!
Open the trailer and Hayden’s giant e-bike fell over.. the derailleur is bent pretty bad. Nice another thing to work on and we haven‘t even made it to the track yet!? Well we are already short on time so we’ll get Hayden riding then maybe David can get the e-bike fixed. He’ll need it when we get to the track today.
They are off to find the best trail for Hayden to practice on.
Lynlee and I are hanging out.. she’s all about playing in the dirt, she loves being outside!!
Hayden found a nice loop close to where we are parked. He’s having a blast riding. However he’s only on the stock bike today and not the race bike. The way things are breaking down around here we aren’t taken any chances!
and now David’s onto the next thing.. fixing whatever is broke.. a daily thing in our lives!
Lynlee is a little Hayden ..#680 coming soon! ❤️
1:30PM We loaded back up and off to find lunch and drive another 1 hour 30 minutes north to the track.
We find a Zaxby’s and Starbucks close together so I can get my daily coffee! Dining rooms are closed in Zaxby’s .. no staff, you can pick up online orders but otherwise you have to use drive through. I explained we have the trailer and it was parked in the next lot over. She was super nice and let us order. She couldn’t get the register to work correctly so she said Lunch is on me no worries!! You don’t have to do that.. here is the cash! She wouldn’t take it. We felt bad taking it when she let us order in the first place, but we’re thankful as seeing our trip hadn’t been the best! Bless her for being a good person when she’s working short staffed!
David and the kids head back to the truck to eat while I ran into Starbucks to get coffee and Hayden always wants a brownie!
3:20pm arrive at the track, David and Hayden are off to walk the track..and the giant is going to Marrietta Adventure Company for a tune up, new derailleur, brake pads, new tires when we get home.. that didn’t happen over the winter either.. the time struggle with 3 kids is REAL!
They made sure to check out the area Hayden got stuck between 2 trees last year!!
Note to self DO NOT go through here:
Lynlee and I go for a walk and check in at registration. We pre-registered online, it gave Hayden #71 for the year. David says they’ll change it at registration since he raced all of the previous year.
Well then I find out it is our fault..
David missed the form in an e-mail from GNCC in December to request your number for the year. The service here is non existent on our phones, GNCC staff struggle with their systems as well so looks like he is racing as #71 today and we’ll get it changed for round 2!
Girl… You can’t see!? 😂
Race bike through inspection today to make sure the transponder still works from last year.. good to go!
7:00pm We are ready to pack up, get dinner and check in to another hotel for the night. It is about a 30 minute drive to Spartanburg; we picked this area a little further away, but more hotel and food choices.. you can read our 2021 blog on Tiger Run that explains our 2020 Big Buck experience staying closer to the track 😳😂!
While driving to the hotel we found a Longhorn on the other sid…. We have a Longhorn giftcard from Chrismtas, perfect! I did an online pick up order! Boys are happy they once again get out of going in for a sit down dinner!
We check into the Tru by Hilton, get our luggage to the room and start showers! David heads over to the Longhorn to pick up dinner. Hayden got Cheesecake for dessert, that better pay off tomorrow! Time to rest up for the first race of 2022!!
GOODNIGHT! 💤
SATURDAY
Rise and Shine! It’s race day!! Looking like a nice sunny day in the 50’s here in South Carolina.
7:00am We’ve had our hotel breakfast and we are off to the track! Hayden actually ate scrambled eggs and a little peach juice for breakfast! (not important but it is because I hate when he eats nothing before a race!)
30 minute drive back to the track.. and we are ready for Teeenn Seconds!
A few pictures before the race.. Haven’t had a chance to get any pics of the race bike since it was finished.. and the wheels and tires aren’t new yet..
8:30AM Hayden is all go mode this morning! Up to the start he goes..
Lined up and ready to go…
I am nervous because he hasn’t been on the track on his race bike since Ironman 2021.. so this first round we told him just take it as a practice .. He did get to try his start button out a few times on the pavement in front of our house, but that is it!
Prayer.. keep them safe out there, and let them have fun!…
National Anthem… and …
Teeeeeeennnnn Seconds!!!!
😳😳😳😳 #721 out there fighting for 2nd around turn 1!! nice clean start .. into the woods 3rd! Oh gosh .. the nerves of getting back into racing and knowing he hasn’t had much seat time 😅!
Ok .. Lynlee and I are headed to the finish area to watch.. I’ll be much better once he makes that first lap and I have an estimated time due in!
….we make it to the finish.. there goes blue helmets…I see DRRs that take off behind Hayden .. oh no we aren’t doing this again this year.. leave me hanging here for minutes with no check in..
waiting… still waiting..
David says he seen him he’ll be coming…. was shaking his head but riding good.. must be ok.. 6 minutes later… there he is!
Checks in 15th for lap 1 with 1 minute 15 seconds behind 14th.
Lap 2, nice clean lap.. checks in 14th with 2 minutes 2 seconds behind 13th. White flag is out, only going to be a 3 lap race today!
Another nice clean lap! Out there having a good time! .. Finished 13th out of 21 in his class!
Not the top 5 like he really wanted, however, he finished the race and had a good time on the track!
Results from GNCC Racing
So what happened out there on lap 1!??! Hayden reports that he was going around a sharp turn to see a log sticking out into the track.. it was too late as close as they were together to do anything but run it over. It turned his bike sideways on track up on the log. He said he was yanking and pulling finally for the log out from under it, but his tire was lodged in the rut. It was about 6 minutes then the track sweep came around and got him going again.
Stacy Mundy Photography and her awesome shots!
We grabbed pepperoni rolls I made before we left home for lunch .. and onto watching the 11:00 race .. Pro women, Pro 4x4, Race friends Chloe Harper!
We are cheering for Traci Pickens and Jessica Elioff in the WXC!
After a 2 hour battle the podium of WXC:
1st Hannah Hunter
2nd Jessica Elioff
3rd Traci Pickens
Awesome ladies!
Then we are off to the 2pm Pro race..
XC1 start:
after a battling 2 hours race..
1st Brycen Neal
2nd Walker Fowler
3rd Jarrod McClure
Time to pack up and head out.. We are driving back to Kodak, TN to stay tonight.. about 2 hour 30 minute drive.
Country Inn & Suites for the night 💤
SUNDAY
Good morning!! It is in the 30s but the sun is shining so it doesn’t feel too bad! Another hotel breakfast.. I’m ready to have my camper back with my breakfast skillets!
Lynlee girl is excited she gets a chocolate muffin! ❤️
and then we are off to try a new coffee shop..
A little Tennessee Grind for the morning! then we are on the road home bound with only 1 weekend home to prepare for Florida/Georgia races!
And then… We stop for fuel and there goes the light again.. Service Emissions system.. and we make it home with a max speed of 55mph .. So Truck going back to the dealership we bought it and Giant e-bike to the shop.. Thankfully the race bike is good to go!! $$$
We’ll be back soon with more GNCC racing!!
Thanks for Reading!!❤️
Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs no are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!
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