GNCCRacing.com: Congrats on your 10th WXC championship! How does it feel
Traci Pickens: It feels pretty good. To be honest it wasn’t planned, I was just having too much fun racing. Our main focus coming into this season was for my husband Jeff Pickens to win the Vet A championship. Once he wrapped it up early we joked about how cool it would be for a husband and wife to both win championships in the same season. We didn’t think it would actually happen.

Ten championships is definitely a lot. Which one of these was the most memorable for you?
Ten championships is really cool, but the ones that are most memorable for me are still the years I lost championships, not the years that I won.

So, the title this year came down to the last race at Ironman. In fact, you and Angel actually earned the same number of points this season, though your win at the last round served as the tiebreaker. Can you take us through your race?
I pulled the holeshot and tried to set a good pace. On the second lap I got hit/landed on by another quad on the motocross track, which bent my shifter. I thought that my day was over.  I was going to pit for Jeff to fix it, but I was able to adapt. I held the lead until the third lap, when Kate Osburn passed me at the three-mile marker in a split line section. We swapped positions a couple of times, but she was running a very fast pace that I struggled to maintain.  So I hung back, watching the lines and impressive passes Kate was making on lappers. I couldn’t help but smile, seeing how she has improved so much this season. As the white flag came out, it said I was first but I thought they made a mistake with the scoring. As I approached the last few miles before the checkered I noticed the fans were really cheering. When I crossed the finish line it said first and I was shocked. I even stopped and asked the workers at scoring if that was correct. Unfortunately Kate had engine issues and was unable to finish, which gave me the win.

Tell me about how you got started riding.
My father is the one who got me started riding ATVs. That was our weekend fun. We would ride in the strip mines, going on trail rides with family.  He and his three brothers actually started a local race series called The Line Mountain Four-Wheelers. When I was sixteen, my brother passed away and four months later my dad passed away.  To help me cope, I started racing the Line Mountain races on my brothers Honda foreman 350 4x4 with all the men.

That’s a very touching story … So, what made you decide to do the GNCC series, instead of just doing that local series?
After I finished college I bought a brand new sport quad. I continued racing at the Line Mountain races and District 6 races. I met Mike Lucas at the local races; he was already racing the GNCCS and mentioned that I should try it.  So Hi-Point in 1998 was my very first GNCC race, and 1999 was my first full season. Until I retired in 2012, I never missed a single GNCC in my fourteen full seasons. I took a few years off from riding to have our son and enjoyed being a new mommy.  We still attended the GNCC events with my husband, and I raced a few here and there, but not full time.

What has motivated you to keep racing all of these years?
A couple years ago I was approached by a father to help his young daughter out with racing skills. Around the same time I was approached by an adult female racer for some pointers. Watching Hannah Hunter and Alicia McCormick ride at my house with so much dedication and seeing how much heart these two families put into racing made me remember why I love racing and why I still do it!! I love riding my ATV, splashing through mud puddles. I love being in the woods, walking the tracks as a family, just the entire atmosphere the GNCC series has to offer!
It’s our third family.

Your husband is still racing also, right? Does that help both of you as far as training and traveling are concerned?
Yes, my husband is still racing - he just completed his 15th season of GNCCs and won his first Vet A championship this year. When we first met at the GNCCs, Jeff was racing XC1 and we lived and breathed training and racing. That was just the stressful life we lived.  As our relationship grew we got married, had our little boy, and Jeff started his own business named after our son (JP Environmental). Life gets really hectic at times, so now we use racing the GNCCS as our stress relief.

Does your son ride yet, and if so, do you plan on introducing him to the sport once he is old enough?
JP was introduced to the sport at five days old (laughs). We took him to the Line Mountain race to watch his dad compete. We enjoy going to the races so much more now, seeing everything in a new way through JP’s eyes. He has miniature “brumm brumms” that he has named after the top 15 ATV overall riders. His favorite racer though is “Uncle Johnny” [Johnny Gallagher]. He loves riding his strider at the races hanging out with his friends. He has a Yamaha YFZ50 that Santa got him last year for Christmas that he rides around the yard. He is a shorty for four years old though, so Jeff had to put blocks on the foot pegs so he could touch. When the time comes for him to race it will basically be up to him to decide whether he wants to race or not.

What advice would you give to younger girls who want to get into racing?
Come on out and try it. Racing has provided me a really good life with so many great memories and friends.

What effect has racing had on your life overall?
I have met such wonderful people through racing and made a really good living. In 2006 I signed with Yamaha Racing and they provided me with so many opportunities. I got to travel to a lot of cool places like California, Glamis, Baja and Aruba. I got to race all kinds of stuff: desert races, 10 and 12 hour races. Racing really made a lot of my dreams come true.