Grand National Cross Country - GNCC History

GNCC History

In the mid-1970s Dave Coombs was contacted by a preacher from a church in a small West Virginia town. The preacher wanted to help the economy of his struggling town by hosting a motorcycle race. Dave Coombs saw major potential in the land and thought that a grand prix style race through the town and surrounding country side would be special enough to bring visitors to the town.

He named this race The Blackwater 100. The name "Blackwater" originated from nearby Blackwater Falls and the Blackwater River, while 100 for the number of miles in the race. The land was rugged, which would make the race itself one would be difficult for riders and their machines. The race became popular when Dave invited a group of magazine editors from California, who went back and wrote about their experiences with the rugged race. Eventually, Blackwater would become known as "America's Toughest Race"

Dave also promoted the first ever AMA National Hare Scramble, which was held at High Point Raceway in 1979. With the popularity of this event and the Blackwater, the Wiseco 100 Miler Series was born. The series would then evolve into the GNCC series in the early 1980s. The GNCC series began experiencing more growth when three-wheelers were added in 1983, and four-wheelers replaced them a few years later.

The famous Blackwater was shut down after the 1993 event, but by this point the GNCC series had earned the reputation as being the Premier Offroad Racing Series in America. Throughout the 90s the series would still grow more and more. With domination on the bike side by riders such as Scott Summers, Scott Plessinger and Rodney Smith, while Barry Hawk dominated the ATV side, the series gained even more mainstream coverage in various media. The series patriarch, Dave Coombs, passed away in 1998 but Big Dave's family stepped up to continue the success of the series. His son-in-law, Jeff Russell, who claimed the 1991 National Enduro Championship, is today's GNCC Trail Boss.

In 2000 the series saw its first non-American champion, as Australian Shane Watts took the title. On the ATV front Bill Balance continued to dominate through 2008. Barry Hawk made the switch to bikes in the early 2000s and found success gaining many top 5s and wins. In 2005 Factory KTM brought ten-time World Enduro Champion Juha Salminen over to contest the bike series, and he was on another level. This pushed the other pro class riders to train harder and become faster than ever. Salminen won two championships in the two years he raced the series. In 2007, KTM brought another world champion to dominate in the form of David Knight.

Since then the tracks and the racers have become increasingly faster. This has propelled the riders to becoming even higher-level athletes and has also provided some amazing racing action for the fans. In today's GNCC series, Chris Borich continues to dominate the ATV side while Paul Whibley claimed the 2012 bike championship. Barry Hawk retired from racing after the 2010 season and went to work on the GNCC track crew laying out the courses at each race.

The series is still going stronger than it ever has. With television coverage by the RacerTV program on the NBC Sports Network, and the ever growing media coverage, the series still continues to grow. 2012 saw the highest single race attendance when the Unadilla GNCC drew nearly 1,900 racers alone and the 2012 season ended as the 2nd highest season in series history.