Welcome to Quick Fill. 

What a great weekend of racing we had at Steele Creek. It’s never ceases to amaze me how many people show up to enjoy a weekend of racing there, and it’s mind boggling how many people can fit into that place. Yes, we know it’s not perfect and there are some issues to sort out, but having a large crowd of racers and spectators alike can be a good problem to have because that means everyone is out enjoying a fun weekend of GNCC Racing. 

Something else pretty interesting is that by our current counts, this year’s Steele Creek GNCC saw the largest number of racers in the 20-year history of the Steele Creek event. Over 1,700 competitors took to the Steele Creek course over the weekend, which tops the previous record of just over 1,600 that Steele Creek has accomplished several times over the years. Steele Creek is one of the older events on the schedule and the lay of the land doesn’t allow for very many changes to the course from year to year, but it continues to be incredibly popular. 

The racing at Steele Creek was pretty great as well. Saturday’s ATV race saw Walker Fowler do exactly what Walker is good at; he jumped out front early and led that race wire to wire to take the win. It almost seems like these types of performances would get old, but it’s so impressive that one has to wonder how many times Walker can pull off that type of ride. Cole Richardson was riding really well in the early stages of the race, but a hard crash left him with a broken A-arm and ended his day early. This made for a tight race for the podium positions but it would eventually be Brycen Neal and Jarrod McClure rounding out the podium. 

Round two of the Specialized Turbo eMTB GNCC National Championship also took place on Saturday afternoon. This proved to be a great race to watch as well. I believe most folks were already expecting Charlie Mullins to put on a solid performance and he would do exactly that. However, there would be a newcomer to the XC1 class as round one Youth class winner, Seth Stevens, would make his debut in the XC1 class. It proved to be the right choice, as Stevens would end the day in second place just over a minute behind Mullins. Nat Ross would put in another solid performance once again to land on the podium in third place while Jason Laxton and Leon Hanson rounded out the top five. 

Sunday’s motorcycle race was exciting, as it was nearly a carbon copy of last year’s event with Kailub Russell and Thad Duvall battling down to the wire for the race win, while Trevor Bollinger would keep those guys in sight for nearly the entire race, even challenging for the top spot as well. Russell had managed to pull out a little gap late in the race, but after getting hung up in a mudhole briefly, Duvall was able to make his way around and hold Russell off through the final stages of the race. Bollinger would also hang in there to round out the podium in third. 

As for the XC2 class, those guys had some great racing as well. Once again it would be Ben Kelley’s race from the early stages on. He would lead every lap to take the XC2 class win, but it would be an all-out battle behind him. Mike Witkowski and Evan Smith would battle for podium positions early, but it would be Johnny Girroir who would charge through the pack to eventually claim the second place position while Witkowski held on for third. 

We now look ahead to the next event in the form of South Carolina’s Camp Coker Bullet GNCC and there’s no doubt that this is one of the most fun events on the schedule. The venue is a really cool and beautiful piece of property with numerous ponds, rope swing, swimming, and tons of off-track activities. At the same time, the racecourse is really cool as well with some tight woods, fast field sections, and the soil is a bit on the sandy side, but nothing like we see down in Florida. What I’m saying is, if you’re on the fence about coming to Camp Coker, then get off the fence and start making plans because this is a great event! 

As for the updates to the rest of this year’s schedule, well I’m very happy to say that you will see an announcement very, very soon. I know I’ve said that a few other times but we’ve just about got all the details taken care of and you’ll be seeing those details shortly. I know a lot of you are very anxious to make plans and you’re thinking “just tell me now!” but like I’ve said before, there’s a lot that has to go into making these types of decisions and we have to get all the ducks in a row before making an announcement. 

If you’re looking to do some racing this weekend, some of our friends are in action this weekend. IXCR is racing at a brand new track in Martinsville, Indiana while WEXCR is racing in Reno, Ohio. Our old buddy Buren Hamrick has a cool event in store for the Mid-East Hare Scramble Series in the form of a new race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina. It’s a racecar track and they’ll also have some stock car racing Saturday night! And close to our Morgantown office, our friend Ronnie Wilson’s NECXC series is racing at High Point Raceway! 

I’m actually planning to do some racing at High Point myself. However, my bike is still down south so I’ve come up with the great idea to bring a knife to a gunfight. I’ve got a little DRZ250 I use at some of our motocross events at High Point, and dual sport on occasion, that I thought might be fun to do some racing on just to see how things go. Might be interesting! That’s going to do it for the intro this week. Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you in South Carolina!