St. Clairsville, OH — ITP is proud of its long and illustrious history in the sport of ATV racing. Practically from its beginning over 30 years ago ITP has supported countless competitors, racing events and championship series.

ITP has been a longtime sponsor of the Grand National Cross Country Series, and we’ve seen it grow from a modest, grass-roots program into what it is today: one of the premier off-road racing series in the world drawing a thousand or more racers at every event.

And for quite awhile ITP has been the title sponsor of perhaps the most iconic event on the GNCC schedule. Powerline Park been on the calendar since 2001, making it one of the series’ oldest events. It’s also one of the toughest. Located on old strip mine property in eastern Ohio, mud is always a factor here, as the course runs across fire roads that pack up and hold water. The topsoil is clay, but it gives way to a rocky base soil, and there are some rock piles around too. This is standard GNCC stuff: tight woods, mud, and elevation change. Some high-speed sections are usually thrown in, including some wide-open grass track. Ohio has some dedicated off-road fans, so you’ll see a big crowd here.

This year the crowd got to cheer Team ITP’s own Adam McGill to his first victory of the season. It was sweet redemption for the popular rider from just over the border in West Union, West Virginia. McGill has been close to winning many times this season but has had to deal with heartache and serious injury for most of it. To say it was a happy winner’s circle would be an understatement.

But it didn’t come easy. McGill (Hon) was engaged in a titanic battle virtually throughout the two-hour-and-fifteen-minute XC1 Pro event. In the end the Precision Motorsports/Lonestar Racing/Moto X Perts-backed McGill was triumphant by just one second. That’s all it takes.

In this same afternoon wave of racing, ITP’s Pat McGuire (Yam) rode a solid event to first earn the holeshot award and then land on the XC2 Pro Am podium in second place. This was more than enough for McGuire to maintain his series points lead with two events remaining in the 2012 season.

Matt Hanna continued to ride strongly in this class as well, finishing fourth in XC2 Pro Am on his Greg’s ATV-backed Yamaha. This continued his steady season climb upward into a tie for third overall in points.

There was a touching gesture in the morning’s racing made by ITP’s Dave Simmons. He paid his respects to fellow rider Glen “Jody” Pritchard, who passed away from cancer on July 30th. Simmons parked his usual Yamaha mount and took Pritchard’s Suzuki to sixth overall and yet another win in the Super Senior 45+ class (his 11th victory in 11 rounds).

Glenn McConnell (Yam) maintained his lead in what is turning into one of the most fiercely contested championships of the series. He placed second in Masters 50+, and now tops the standings by a single point.

Angel Atwell (Hon) was runner-up in her division as well, and appears to be headed for second overall for the season in the Women’s class.

The penultimate round of the series takes place October 20-21 with the Ironman GNCC in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Photos by Amy McConnell, XCountry Photos