Despite cloudy skies, conditions stayed dry for both days of racing. Though the grass track sections generated large clouds of dust and low visibility conditions when riders were close together, the woods were almost perfect with no dust at all. Temperatures remained mild, a relief after the scorcher last round. There were around 65 female competitors who raced this round. In the premier WXC classes, Kate Osburn (ATV) and Mackenzie Tricker (bike) took home their second wins of the season, with this weekend actually marking Tricker’s second win in a row.

On Saturday as the 10 a.m. race started it was Traci Pickens first off of the WXC ATV class line, but it was Sadiee Gorrell who shot into the woods right behind her. Gorrell and Meghan Shepherd battled back and forth on that first lap, but Katelyn Osburn was able to sneak around both of them, moving into second place. Though she was close to Pickens, rather than trying to make a pass that first lap, Osburn says she had a slightly different strategy: hanging back a little on the first lap to scout out lines she might need later in the race.

After getting passed by Osburn, Shepherd and Gorrell continued to battle each other. However, disaster struck Gorrell for the second race in a row as she was running in the third place position. Fortunately, Gorrell was uninjured as her machine sparked a small fire. With misfortune striking at the front, this made way for Kara Short to move into fourth and Jaida Phillips up into the fifth place position. Short managed to work her way through the pack, moving close enough to make a pass on Shepherd when she stopped for fuel. The two battled for a solid lap before Shepherd was able to hold her third place position over Short for the remainder of the race.

Though Pickens was running a steady race pace, (less than a minute difference on most of her laps), Osburn remained within sight. On the last lap Pickens would miss a line, one of the ones that Osburn had checked out on the first lap. Osburn passed Pickens using that line and held on to the lead all the way to the checkered flag. According to Osburn “The race was awesome… there was a whole crowd cheering for me when I came through the finish, which was super cool!” Pickens came in a close second behind Osburn, who finished fourth overall in the morning ATV race.

In the Girls ATV class, Andrea Rodgers took home her first win of the season, Alexis Keyes placed second, while Morgan Johnson rounded out the podium in third. In the Women’s ATV race, Sydney Sams had a come-from-behind class win as she started the day out in the sixth place position. Sams would take home her second win in a row after a last lap pass on Stephanie Wray Parks who came in second. Karlie Martin rounded out the top three.

In the micro ATV race, there were six girls who competed: Khyler Davis, Jaecie Morek, Raelynn Dickerson, Laci Atkins, Ahraya Whitt and Myrakle Ray. Of them, Ray had the best overall finish, placing tenth overall. There were two girls who competed in the micro bike race: Breanna Kerr and Hailey Grounds. Kerr had the best overall finish, placing 32^nd.

Defending WXC Bike Champion and current points leader Tayla Jones pulled the holeshot for the first time this season in the on Sunday, June 10. According to her however, “it went a little south from there.” Mackenzie Tricker had jumped into the woods right behind her and gave chase for the first lap. Though she would fall back a little in the field sections due to the dust, she was able to make the time back up in the non-dusty woods sections. Tricker stayed close to Jones, and at some point, on lap two Jones stopped at her mechanic, which allowed both Tricker and Brooke Cosner by, and gave Tricker about a fifty second lead. By the next lap, Jones had passed Cosner and put considerable time on her - not surprising, given that Cosner discovered that her forks were broken on Saturday, and was forced to borrow a set that were sprung for a rider 20 - 30 pounds heavier than her. However, she still “can’t thank him and the Blu Cru enough, without them I wouldn’t have even been able to line up!”

Meanwhile, there was an awesome four way battle for fourth place going on between Korie Steede, Shelby Rolen, Shyann Phelps and Eden Netelkos. The four riders came through the scoring zone less than three seconds apart on that first lap. By the next lap, Steede had pulled a decent lead on the other three, and Netelkos had dropped back a ways from the pack. Rachel Gutish had passed her way into fifth from dead last after her fuel line came disconnected in the fourth corner, costing her several minutes and allowing both rows of Sportsman riders around her. The next lap she chased down Steede as well, before backing it down and cruising to a fourth place finish. Steede appeared well on her way to a comfortable fifth place finish, before a crash pulled her throttle cable out of place. By the time help arrived and she was able to fix the problem, she had fallen back to ninth place. Phelps and Rolen continued to battle back and forth throughout the rest of the race, but in the end, Phelps would take home fifth place with Rolen less than a second behind her.

Although Tricker had started out with a good lead, that was slowly whittled down as the race wore on. Jones was able to make up the rest of the time between them on the next-to-last-lap when Tricker went down a couple times, in addition to getting stuck behind a lapper in the single track section. Now that Tricker was within striking distance, it was an all-out sprint to the finish. Tricker was able to hold off Jones, taking home her second win in a row and finishing third overall. After the race, Tricker told us “I’m stoked to get another win, hopefully things are starting to turn around!” Although probably a little disappointed to be off the center of the box for the second round in a row, Jones says that she “had a couple issues, but all’s good, and I ended up second so I’m happy.”

Prestin Raines and Jocelyn Barnes had a hard-fought battle for the win, finishing just seven seconds apart. Raines came out on top, and the final podium spot was taken by Kayla O’Neil in her first GNCC race of the year. Olivia Judy took her second win of the year in the Women’s class, while Alli Phillips placed first in Women’s C.

The 2018 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country Series resumes June 23 and 24 in Snowshoe, West Virginia with the AMSOIL Snowshoe GNCC. ATV racing will take place on Saturday and bike racing will take place on Sunday.