With heavy rainfall taking place on Friday, track conditions were less-than-ideal for the 1 p.m. Pro race. Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha's Neal struggled off the start, where he rounded the first turn in last place. Neal put his head down and charged through the pack, where he quickly caught the front-runners on the opening lap. 

On lap three Neal jumped into the 2^nd place position but soon dropped back to 4th when his machine suddenly stalled out for a brief moment. From there, Neal fought his way back to within striking distance of the podium contenders near the end of the two-hour race. In the final turns before the finish, the leader, Chris Borich, flipped his ATV over a berm and wasn't able to re-mount quick enough to hold of Neal, who came charging through to capture the 3^rd and final podium position.

"I wasn't expecting to be on the podium coming into the last few corners," Neal said. "I saw Borich sideways in the last corner so I went out wide, squared it up, shot inside and was able to steal the last podium position. We'll take it, we're happy and we love the mud! That's GNCC Racing, that's how it works sometimes - this mud, these conditions - that's what it's all about."

After six rounds of racing, Neal holds 3^rd place in the XC1 Pro Championship standings.

Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha team rider Eli Kiger got off to a great start in the College B (16-21) Class, where he led the pack of 23 riders on the opening lap. Kiger ran into trouble on lap three when he got stuck in a mud hole, dropping him from the lead position back to 5^th place.