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away with the XC2 championship. Now we���re looking forward to heading into the 2013 season with lingering memories of tight battles coming down to the wire. It���s no secret that Paul Whibley is a favorite to take a win on just about any style track, but in 2012 he showed a few glimpses that he IS human and can make a mistake, albeit not often. Kailub Russell put in the biggest challenge of 2012 and is another championship contender but one can���t forget the 2011 champ, Charlie Mullins who will undoubtedly want to forget his 2012 season and make history on a new one. When the green flag flies in Florida, we could very well be in for one of the most evenly matched races in recent history. January���s Burnt Gin National Hare Scramble gave a little preview as to who���s adjusting well to the new bikes. Charlie Mullins walked away with the win but the National Enduro regulars of Mike Lafferty and Russell Bobbitt kept him honest. However, Kailub Russell rode strong very early on but didn���t finish the race. Another rider who nearly won a GNCC overall from the XC2 row, Andrew Delong, had an impressive Burnt Gin race as well. Of course, the trio of Whibley, Russell and Mullins won���t be the only ones contending for GNCC race wins. 2013 GNCC Champion Josh Strang will be returning to GNCC Racing in 2013 after spending 2012 out west in WORCS. Strang will be aboard a mostly privateer effort Kawasaki but he has the speed to win races, and will undoubtedly be a challenger for the championship. WMR KTM���s Rory Mead had a stellar 2012 season finishing out in third place. Rory took the wins at two of the most technical races of the year, The Mammoth and Snowshoe but also showed he has the speed to run up front on the less technical tracks such as River Ranch and The John Penton, where he also landed on the podium. After several seasons of more DNF���s than he would like to remember, Thad Duvall finally logged the overall win that many had expected him to grab a long time ago. Thad had his most consistent season since his XC2 days and will be back aboard a Shendoah Honda backed CRF450 in 2013. With numerous changes to the bikes, Thad has had a little trouble adjusting to the 2013 CRF450 this winter but looks to be working many of the kinks out. In 2013 Chris Bach made the move to the XC1 class after battling with Jordan Ashburn for top amateur honors in the Open-A class. Bach turned a lot of heads that season by logging several podium finishes in his rookie XC1 campaign. Bach made the switch to Beta in 2011 and landed on the podium in Florida but struggled from there. After switching to a Yamaha mid-season in 2012, Bach is back on a KTM for 2013. With support from Carolina KTM and others, there���s a good chance we very well could see Bach up in the front now that he���s back on familiar equipment. Steward Baylor will make the move to the XC1 class in 2013. Stu had an impressive start to the 2012 season and nearly took the overall win in a few different rounds. He also took the 2012 National Enduro title. However, a mid-season wrist injury that he kept riding on has proved to be a challenge for the 18 year old to overcome. Baylor���s wrist should be healed around the time the GNCC opener is slated to happen, but that doesn���t leave much time for him to get back into the swing of things. Baylor may struggle in the opening rounds but once the wrist is fully healed and he���s had some time back on the bike, Baylor could prove to be another one of the biggest challengers for the overall win. The XC2 class proves to be just as interesting for 2013 as Jason Thomas will defend his title. There���s no ���asterisks��� in championships but luck may have been on UK���s side in 2012. A midseason switch to KTM proved to be exactly what he needed as he started landing podium finishes, and more importantly, race wins. Andrew Delong sat out the first two rounds with a broken collarbone in 2012 but came on strong part way through the season and also nearly snagged a couple of overall wins. Delong will be the biggest threat to Thomas��� title defense in 2013. There���s also new up and coming talent as 2-time Open-A class champion Adam Bonneur will be making the move to the XC1 class. Bonneur has logged several top amateur finishes over the past couple of seasons, so we could very well see him running with the top guys as well. Grant Baylor is also making the move to the XC2 class from 250-A. Grant finished out the 2012 season as the 250-A class champion and also landed an impressive 16th overall in final series standings. Nobody knows exactly what will happen when the green flag flies in Florida but it has the potential to be one of the most impressive seasons in GNCC history. Stay tuned folks, this very well could get pretty interesting. February 2013 19