The Snowshoe GNCC uses a unique live-engine start procedure, which seeds the riders five-per-row based off their position in the championship standings. With a solid 4^th place position in the overall standings, Neal began on the front row where he entered the woods wheel-to-wheel with the fastest riders in the class. 

Neal settled inside the top five on the opening lap but by lap two the Ohio native had climbed his way from 4^th place up to 2^nd, tucking in behind race leader Adam McGill early on. McGill made a mistake and got stuck on a log, which left the door open for Neal to jump into the lead. McGill eventually reclaimed the lead but Neal continued to follow close behind in 2^nd.

The duo reached lapped traffic by lap three and unfortunately a rider in front of Neal hit a tree, leaving him with nowhere to go. As a result, many of the XC1 riders were able to get by and Neal dropped back several positions.

On the next lap, Neal chose a good line through the infamous "Howard's Hole" section where he was able to pass several riders who were stuck in the mud and thus climbing back into 3^rd place. From there, Neal swapped top-five positions back-and-forth during the second half of the race, where he ultimately finished 5^th place after two-full hours of racing.

"I can't complain about 5^th at Snowshoe," Neal said. "We're happy we finished and got solid points towards the championship chase. This gives us initiative to work our butts off this summer and come back ready to go at Unadilla!"

Neal sits 4^th in the XC1 Pro Championship Standings with four rounds remaining in the 2016 season.

Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha's Eli Kiger got off to a good start in the College B (16-21) Class, rounding the first corner in the 2^nd place position. It didn't take long for Kiger to get out front as he made a pass for the lead at the first downhill section.  

As the Pennsylvania native checked into timing and scoring with the lead on lap one, GNCC Officials held him for 15 seconds as the result of an early start infraction. With that, Kiger dropped back to 4^th but he immediately went to work in chasing the leaders back down. Unfortunately, as Kiger was making his way towards the leader, he got caught up in a tree and ultimately lost three minutes before he was able to break free.

Despite a hard charge, Kiger wasn't able to make up his lost time on the leader, where he ultimately finished 2^nd for the day.

After nine rounds of racing, Kiger now sits two points away from 2^nd place in the College B (16-21) Championship Standings.  

"The first nine rounds were pretty good," Kiger said. "We finally got the consistency we wanted and got up on the box a lot so far. A couple of rounds at the beginning hurt me but we'll be back even stronger in the fall to make up for it."