As the white flag came out Neal turned it up a notch to vault himself into the 3rd place position as he continued his push toward the front. The Ohio native put in a solid charge in the second half of the two-hour race to finish only seven seconds behind 2nd place to capture 3rd overall at the opening round. 

"I got off to a mid-pack start and it was a freight train of a battle for most of the race," Neal said. "I rode a little tight for the first half, where I wasn't used to the clay conditions but the second half of the race I was able to wick it up and track down the 3rd spot on the podium and finish only a handful of seconds away from 2nd overall. It was a great building block to begin with for the rest of the season and I'm looking forward to the rough and hot conditions in Florida!" 

Neal's Coastal Racing/Answer/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha teammate, Eli Kiger, returned to racing at the season opener after a couple of injuries kept him sidelined for the latter part of the 2016 season. Kiger rounded the first turn in the back of the pack, where he came through on the opening lap in 17th place in the College A (16-21) class. Kiger climbed his way up to 10th on the opening lap until high-siding his ATV heading into the field section. 

Kiger remounted but lost substantial time in the process of crashing and was forced to pick his way through the pack once gain. Despite the setback, Kiger put forth a valiant effort to climb his way back inside the top-ten, where he finished 7th for the day.

"After I wrecked it took me a few minutes to get going again - I fell back to dead last in class and behind half of the class behind me," Kiger said. "After that I had to pick my way through the Junior A class for the rest of the first lap and finally started picking off riders in my own class. Unfortunately I put out myself so far back on the first lap I could only make it up to 7th in class after a hard-fought day."

Drew Landers, the team's newest addition on the ATV side, lined up with Kiger in the College A (16-21) class where he jumped into the 2nd place position on the opening lap. While battling for the lead position, Landers unfortunately experienced a derailed chain and wasn't able to finish the rest of the race. The Tennessee native will look to rebound this Saturday in Florida for Round 2.