A grand total of 75 female racers were out on the track this weekend. Traci Pickens took her third ATV WXC win of the season, while Becca Sheets earned her first win in the bike WXC division, breaking the three-round winning streak of defending champion Tayla Jones. Conditions were pretty similar for both the Saturday and Sunday WXC racers. Intermittent rain before each race led to a slippery and challenging first lap. However, as the race continued and the top layer of mud was spun off, the trail tacked up quite nicely.

Sadiee Gorrell grabbed the holeshot in Saturday’s ATV WXC class, and headed into the woods first. Megan Shepherd followed Gorrell in second, until misfortune struck costing her valuable time. Traci Pickens unfortunately had a dead last start, while Katelyn Osburn got tangled up with other riders in the first turn. Pickens picked up the pace throughout the remaining laps, focusing on getting through the mud and lapped riders. Gorrell continued to charge, but would ultimately be passed by Pickens on the third lap.

Osburn continued to fight her way through the traffic, making the pass for third and rounding out the podium at Steele Creek. Kara Short and Jaida Phillips would finish out the day in the fourth and fifth place positions.

We talked to Pickens after the race and she stated, “A dead last start is not what you need at Steele Creek, but one by one I was able to keep making passes. After I got out of the bottleneck on the last lap, I raced to the finish and was able to come out on top.”

In the Girls ATV class, Morgan Johnson continued her perfect season, taking win number four of four and twelfth overall. Andrea Rodgers took another second place finish, and Alexis Keys took third, perfectly replicating last round’s podium. The winner of the Women’s class at the FMF Steele Creek was Hannah Hunter, who also continued a four-race win streak.

When Sunday’s 10 a.m. race rolled around it was Mackenzie Tricker getting the jump off the start. Tricker grabbed the holeshot with Becca Sheets right behind her. Tayla Jones, defending WXC bike champion, would start the day mid-pack. However, at the end of lap one Jones had taken over the lead ahead of Tricker and Sheets. As the race continued on, the slick yet tacky conditions led to some difficult obstacles. Jones would lose a considerable amount of time after finding herself in the mud, but Sheets would put her head down and push ahead.

Sheets would ultimately come through timing and scoring first, earning her first win of the season followed by Jones in second and after struggling at the past two rounds, Tricker would cross the line in third.

Sheets was excited to earn her first win, saying “The race went well and it felt good to finally put all of the pieces together. It was sweet! And finally getting to spray Tayla [Jones] with the champagne was just icing on the cake! (laughs).”

The top three WXC riders finished in the top three overall positions out of 564 riders. Brooke Cosner finished fourth, well ahead of the remainder of the WXC racers. Rachel Gutish was able to hold her machine together and hang onto a fifth place finish, edging out Shyann Phelps on the last lap.

In the Bike Girls (8-15) class, Prestin Raines took her second win of the season and finished seventeenth overall. Jocelyn Barnes placed second, and Nikki Russell out of Tennessee finished third. Pennsylvania’s Annelisa Davis took another win in the Women’s class, and this round’s Women’s C winner would be South Carolina’s Alli Phillips.

The 2018 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series resumes April 21 and 22, in Society Hill, South Carolina with the CST Tires Camp Coker Bullet GNCC. ATV racing will take place on Saturday and bike racing will take place on Sunday.