I saw this video today on the GNCC Instagram account. One of my favorite races ever, and one of the closest finishes and gnarliest efforts of any motorcycle race ever. Not only did the hard-fought finish leave two of the  top three riders completely and totally exhausted from the effort, but one of them whiskey-throttled into a track worker. Later, the race winner was the only one with the strength to go to the podium—so he let his mechanic and wife shake the champagne reserved for second and third!

If you didn’t watch the clip above, I’ll try to explain in less than the 1:40 it takes: Three hours into this GNCC in North Carolina, Glenn Kearney and Barry Hawk were battling for the win. This track was rough, it was hot and humid, and everyone was exhausted. Kearney was gunning for his first-ever win, Hawk was a well-established former series’ champion. They pass each other over and over in the final turns, and Hawk steals the lead and the win with 10 feet to go.

But wait there’s more. Kearney literally starts collapsing of exhaustion on his bike as he takes the checkers. You know what that means… whiskey throttle. On a 250 two-stroke. Those things hit hard, literally, and Kearney’s RM goes straight into Kris Dudley, the poor woman working scoring at the finish. That totally sucked, she broke her leg. Damn, man.

(By the way, I’ll never cease to be amazed at what riders can do on pure instinct. It’s obvious that Kearney was basically blacking out in those final moments… but he was still battling and passing Hawk back in the corners!)

Shane Watts took third that day but was also in complete exhaustion and couldn’t make it to the podium. We did a hilarious interview with Wattsy in his box van later on. He was toast.

With Kearney and Watts too tired to get to the podium, Hawk was up there celebrating alone. What did he do? Handed the second and third place champagne bottles to his mechanic and his wife, and they did their own podium! Is that not the greatest throwing of shade toward your competition you can possibly do?

Can you imagine Marvin, Frankie, and Mathilde shaking the champagne while Anderson and Tomac were being attended to for extreme exhaustion? The internet would be on fire at that point. Some of the best racing drama I’ve ever seen has happened at the GNCCs, far away from where most people were paying attention. These clips are worth watching!