Since the area surrounding the Steele Creek event is somewhat saturated with big names in off-road, it was no surprise when the principal of Chesterfield Elementary called in to request Charlie Mullins and a few other local favorites to come to their school. So this morning Charlie, Josh Strang, Layne Michael and I got to hang out with an awesome group of Pre-K through fourth graders, talk about some important stuff and of course, have a little fun at the end. The students got the chance to do a little meet and greet with the guys and even get autographs at the end! The best part about this program is that the riders taking part are truly class act role models that deserve to be looked up to by kids of all ages. Those guys have no problem taking time out of their busy pre-race schedules to talk to the kids and try to make a difference in the community. For me, that is by far the greatest part of my job and I look forward to it each and every weekend because it really does put a smile on everyone’s face.

It was a fun morning and I’m looking forward to the two Middle School visits we have tomorrow with guys like Kevin Trantham, Steward Baylor, Rick Proctor of Vigilant Vet Racing, ATV Youth rider Michael Myers and a few others.

Speaking of being in the local community, the folks in Morganton are some of the most hardcore GNCC fans on the entire circuit. While it’s hard to rival Ironman locals, this community is definitely next in line. Everywhere we go in the GNCC decked out Mid-State Chevy, the townspeople are giving the thumbs up, cheering and waving at us. I stopped at Ace Hardware this morning for some paint and after 45 minutes of BSing, I learned a few key things about this area: the Steele Creek GNCC is perhaps the most anticipated event in the surrounding area, North Carolina folks are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, they do not like Chevrolet vehicles around here but they would drive a Mid-State Chevy if it looked like the GNCC truck, and there is a mass infestation of beavers all around the Steele Creek Campground. I’m not even kidding about the beaver problem. One man was actually in the hardware store searching for better traps to catch the rascals and told me about the time he trapped himself on accident. Ooof.

Other than that, things seem to be going very smooth here at the track. Jeff Russell, Barry Hawk and the whole crew have been working their tails off to get things set up before tomorrow. It’s pretty cool to see what this place looks like before all the RVs and rigs come in!

That’s going to do it for me this week. My next journey is to find some sort of internet connection to post this article. Keep in mind, there is NO cell service on this property so be sure to tell your loved ones to expect little to no contact while you’re on property. They can also tune into Twitter @GNCCRacing, Facebook and RacerTV.com for updates on the racing action. We’ll see you all soon, drive safely!

@JaredBolton:

Some people look at Steele Creek as the first “normal” race of the year after the back-to-back opening rounds in Florida and Georgia but a look at the history of Steele Creek is a good indication that it’s anything but normal, in fact, it’s pretty far from it.

Last week I mentioned a couple of the battles that have made Steele Creek so interesting over the years. (Hawk vs. Kearney in 2007 and Strang vs. Mullins 2011) but there’s so much more than that. Mother Nature plays a big factor in Steele Creek. I live just under an hour away from Steele Creek and Tuesday of this week there were three inches of snow on the ground when I walked inside Powersport Grafx at 8:30 a.m. When I came out at noon for lunch, it was gone. I didn’t make it out to Steele Creek until yesterday afternoon but I know there was more snow than that on the ground there, so I expected it to be a little wet.

Well, the first thing I noticed was that the fields were dry. I went up in the woods and the woods were bone dry too. Pretty wild that it went from covered in snow to bone dry in just over 24 hours. It got me to thinking about some of the weather we’ve seen at Steele Creek. The race was postponed in 2005 due to extremely high winds that knocked down dozens and dozens of trees. In fact, some of the trees you see laying down throughout the woods at Steele Creek are from back then. When the race was ran a few weeks later, there was a little bit of snow flying around in the air. In 2006, it was also a fairly cold year at Steele Creek but the course itself wasn’t wet or dusty either.

Skip ahead to 2007 and the temperatures for the weekend were pushing 80 degrees, which is tough on everyone when they haven’t really experienced much heat since the previous summer. It rained in 2008, and with the rain came cold. And then 2009 was a pretty close to perfect year with mild temperatures, no mud and not much dust. Then there was 2010 when the rain rolled in at the start of the afternoon bike race. It wasn’t a hard rain but that’s when there was the hillclimb that became impassable and the race was called in the middle of the lap with results reverted to the previous lap.

Basically, what I’m saying is, you never really know what to expect at Steele Creek. It could be frigid cold, or it can be scorching hot. That’s how this time of the year works! You never know what you’re going to get and you can see a 20-30 degree temperature change in just a matter of hours.

The big racing news of the past weekend was Charlie Mullins snagging another National Enduro win but this time it was Grant Baylor and Andrew Delong flanking him on the podium. It seemed as if some people were beginning to kind of count out Grant Baylor. While he did win last year’s XC2 title, he had a rough last half of the year, which put some doubt into people’s minds. Well, after nearly taking the overall win in Georgia, and now a second place finish at the Concho National Enduro, he’s back on a lot of people’s radar. It’ll be interesting to see how he does this weekend!

Andrew Delong came away third at the enduro, which is a great finish for the Factory Husqvarna rider. Andrew ran into some bike issues in Georgia but logged a solid fifth place in Florida. He also keeps getting more and more comfortable on the new Husky, so it’s only a matter of time before we see him on the XC1 podium. Keep in mind; he was another XC2 rider who nearly snagged an overall win, more than once!

Another interesting race from the weekend was the Outback Mideast Hare Scramble in Laurinburg, NC. After a hard fought, close race with several lead changes, Josh Strang came out on top with the overall win ahead of Zach Osborne and Paul Whibley. That started racing questions asking if we’d see Osborne racing at Steele Creek this weekend. While it’s not impossible, we’re getting closer to the 250 West Supercross series getting back into action so Osborne will likely be putting his focus back in the Supercross track, but you never know when he may show up!

Wow, there’s a ton more I could talk about but there also work to be done to get ready for this weekend so I’m going to cut myself here. Safe travels to everyone and I hope you all have a great weekend at Steele Creek! Until next time, Bolt-On out! 

@HotRodney22:

On your mark….get set….here we go again! It’s time for Round 3 of the AMSOIL GNCC Series and we roll into the legendary FMF Steele Creek GNCC for what will mark the 14th running of one the most anticipated, dreaded, majestic, scenic GNCCs on the tour. One thing can be said about this particular GNCC and that is that it always somehow lends itself to produce some of the most exciting and peculiar race scenarios.

As many may remember from first hand of the past or from the lore of memories of someone else, this venue produces some of the most interesting happenings in the recent history of the GNCC Racing. There are of course the infamous stories of Barry Hawk’s famous “Steele Creek Plunge” which seems to have a challenger at least once every year off that crazy wooden bridge.

There is the story of the wildest windstorm outside of the Santa Ana’s I have ever experienced that literally postponed the race for like two weeks for the bikes in 2005. Then of course, the story of Barry Hawk and Glenn Kearney’s incredible slugfest to the checkers that sent Glenn to the hospital after passing out from the heat and exhaustion of the battle.

There was the time that Paul Whibley was the only rider to finish the final lap of the race, which was called at the 8-mile marker due to nearly impassable conditions. It was impassable for all except Whibs, of course, who never got the credit for the win because the race was scored on the previous lap. In my opinion that one belonged to the Axeman and that to me shows a true never give up, never say quit attitude of a man that very well could win his third GNCC title if all goes well in 2014.

I can’t necessarily recall anything really of the scale for the ATV side of things so monumental except maybe the incredible finishes between Chris Borich and Taylor Kiser at this venue.  In 2010 the two battle to 1.1 second difference and of course the infamous 2012 final turns derby that sent Borich’s quad rolling and Kiser taking the win amongst some of the most revved up fans in the sport.

Incredibly, Chris Borich has a chance to make Steele Creek one of the best and possibly most memorable race wins of his career. Yes believe it or not, we are still waiting on Chris to set the record for the most wins ever in GNCC history. Although he owns the ATV most wins honor, Barry and he set tied at 68 when you combine Barry’s ATV and Bike wins. One has to question with the crazy things that happen at Steele Creek what this year actually holds especially since Barry Hawk has been involved in a couple of the famous stories and Chris has left his mark there as well. Will this be where that torch is passed and Chris Borich emerges to claim his place in history? Or, will the mountains play favor in keeping things exciting? I for one can’t wait.

The morning races have also yielded their share of excitement in the past. The 4x4 classes always seem to be at peak here for some reason. Maybe it’s because Kevin Trantham is in his home turf or maybe it’s the terrain that lends itself but whatever the reason it always gets good here. This year should be even better with the addition of the 4x4 Pro class in the morning. All the players are going head to head for a change this season and it is certainly making for an interesting championship battle already. With only two rounds down don’t count anyone out of this one yet.

Morning Overall Champion Cody Collier and his racing nemesis Westley Wolfe will be exciting to watch once again. These two Schoolboy A/B riders have set a whole new pace in the morning racing and the arrival of Hunter Hart to the bigger machines should raise this thing a notch or two higher even. Hunter Hart who is a 3-time Youth National Champion is just now cutting his teeth and has finished respectable second and third place finishes in his class in his debut to the bigger bikes. He also posted a seventh and eighth overall those two rounds and something tells me it is only a matter of time before we see him contesting for the win. Hunter does not like to lose and when he does he goes home and works harder to try and reach that next level. It’s a blessing and a curse but it should produce some awesome battles amongst the three this season.