Mark Fortner is number 30 in the XC2 class on a Husqvarna. He is the guy with the pink flamingo (Mrs.Fluffyface) as a starting place marker. Fortner is a super talented GNCC racer. He has tremendous amounts of natural talent but yet he rarely practices.  Mark always excels at the gnarly races.  The more slick the mud, the steeper the mountain, the bigger the rocks…………..the faster Mark is!

Mark is always busy with his fulltime job doing something with a CNC machine, the continued education associated with that(school!), and working other jobs. He works a lot, but you would need to also if you had to pay for gas from New York to all of the GNCCs (even Unadilla is 8 hours!)
All in all Mark is a great guy and we are good friends. Not just facebook friends, but actual friends. Like I have his phone number and stuff. He didnt seem too thrilled to do this interview. Im assuming this because there were MINUTES between the question and the response! Then he immediately logged out of facebook!

Enjoy!

*Also, any racers add me on facebook and we will try to get you on an Offroadjunkies.com Facebook Chat interview.

Charkie: Hey Mark

This is for offroadjunkies.com

what are you up to?

Mark: hey, im just paying bills online

Charkie: well thats responsible

you had some money left after the Florida trip?

Mark: yeah surprisingly, lol

Charkie: You live in Westfield,NY…….how far of a drive was it to The River Ranch Dude Ranch?

Mark: i think it was about 23 or 24 hours altogether

Charkie: wow that is a lot

Mark: yes it is, im pretty much sick of driving. lol but i love racing so its worth it

Charkie: were you able to get much practice in over the winter?

We raced the Battle of Atlanta team race and got 5th but other than that?

Mark: other than that team race i rode once at the indoor motorcross track, i think thos are the only times i rode between the iron man and practice on monday in florida.

Charkie: wow, so you were ready to go pretty much?

How did you like Florida?

Mark: yeah i was definitely wanting to ride, i was pretty much out of shape though. that was totally my favorite florida race so far, my suspension was stiff enough for once and i tried to not care about getting hurt. so i just rode as hard as i could.

Charkie: thats good

you broke your frame too

thats badass

did you take that as a sign that maybe you should go on a diet?

Mark: haha i didnt, i thought it was because i just ride that hard. but now that you pointed that out it might have been all the junk food i’v been packing in

Charkie: haha yeah, I feel like a turd because I was eating all of that candy you had

So you rode more in those 2 races than you have in like 3 months?

Broke your frame

got huge blisters

and came back to get a 12th in GA

thats pretty good, you know everyone else has been practicing and stuff

Charkie: oh and made a mudflap for your bike out of a road cone

Mark: yeah, i was pretty happy to see i beat more than half of the class at both races. especially knowing all of this freakin snow will melt someday and i can actually go ride and do some manual labor.

lol we started looking for a road cone in florida and it took untill like ten miles from the race in georgia before we found one.

that was a good idea my dad had and it worked awesome

Charkie: You have had some top 10 overall finishes at the GNCCs before, so we know you can do it. What is it going to take to get you back into the top 10?

Mark: that was only one top 10 lol. and it was because it was a complete mudfest and for some reason i do well in the mud. but i did have some good overalls last year and i really didnt practice at all. i know i could be towards the front every race if i would practice riding fast instead of just messing around and if i just rode more period.

Charkie: whats your favorite freestyle trick that you can do?

Mark: one footer lookback

Charkie: nice, I bet you hit those all day long

OK, well Im going to start a new thing on the site where I do facebook interviews with different riders

Mark: yeah i even threw one down on the motocross track in georgia

Charkie: you were 1st

nice! I was doing a lot of looking back at my roost

Mark: lol

Charkie: Well good luck this year Mark. The Offroadjunkies are rooting for you.

Mark: alright thanks alot i appreciate it.