McGill wins third straight in Can-Am GNCC

KTM’s Adam McGill is starting to run away from the field in the 2008 Can-Am Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series.

McGill rallied from a bad start at the Pirelli Big Buck GNCC in South Carolina to earn his third straight victory on April 12.

McGill won the previous two GNCCs by grabbing the holeshot and staying ahead of the all his competitors. He had to take a different approach this time around.

“I rounded the first turn in 18th,” says McGill. “I just put my head down and started to pass people.”

It had been raining hard for most of race day, but it stopped shortly before the beginning of the main event. Still, the 12-mile loop was left wet and muddy and made for some challenging riding conditions.

A bottleneck at the start of the race helped McGill pass quite a few riders when he took an outside line to get around the group. By the end of the first lap, he had passed 12 riders and was sitting in sixth place, about 20 seconds behind the leader. McGill kept up his pace and worked his way into the lead on the third lap and never looked back. He ended up winning the race by 30 seconds, ahead of Honda’s Bryan Cook.

“I had to put the pedal to the metal and the balls to the walls to get this win today,” says McGill.

Yamaha’s Brandon Sommers continued his impressive season by taking third. He now sits second behind McGill in the points standings. Suzuki’s Chris Borich finished fourth, while seven-time defending GNCC champion Bill Balance rode his Yamaha YFZ450 to fifth.

McGill’s KTM teammate Taylor Kiser, who had been running in third place for much of the race, had to pull out due to a mechanical issue and has fallen to seventh in the points standings.

In the XC2 Pro Am race, Yamaha’s Don Ockerman grabbed the checkered flag, ahead of Brian Wolf and Tyler Lenig.

Angel Atwell took home top spot in the morning race, while Traci Cecco was second and Lexie Coulter finished third.

The next race for the Can-Am GNCC Series is scheduled for April 26 to 27 at Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.

Related Reading:McGill wins Round 3 of Can-Am GNCC

Can-Am GNCC Round 4 Results:

Standings: