Wild Boar was drier than normal this year. Although the dust wasn’t bad, many of the normal mudholes were dried up, and I would argue there was nowhere on the AM course where it was really possible to get stuck. Usually the heat and humidity prove to be a major obstacle as well, but this year the mostly overcast skies and temperatures in the low sixties were a relief for many. Once again, there was a great women’s turnout! Across all eight classes and the micro riders, there were a total of 102 females competing. Of those, Hannah Hunter and Becca Sheets were the winners in the premier WXC classes.

In the ATV WXC race, Traci Pickens got the holeshot. Sadie Gorrell entered the woods in second, but stalled her machine and dropped back to fourth, moving Kate Osburn up into second and Hannah Hunter into third. Despite inadvertently starting in neutral, and getting off the line last as a result, Alicia McCormick was able to work her way to a close fifth by the end of lap one. Everyone in the top five was still fairly close together heading into lap two. 

Early in the second lap, Gorrell’s day prematurely ended when she lost her tether cable and was unable to restart her machine, ending her day with a ninth-place finish. This moved Sydney Sams into fifth place. Hannah Hunter was able to make a pass on Osburn in one of the fast field sections. The top three riders stayed close together the rest of that lap. McCormick was down by thirty seconds, just out of sight of the lead pack, while Sams was a minute and a half behind her.

There was only one other battle going on; Morgan Solesbee was already too far behind Sams after the second lap to reasonably hope to catch up, yet far enough ahead of seventh and eighth to be safe from dropping back further. There was a battle heating up between seventh place Kaitlyn Clark and eighth place Abbi Troy. The two of them swapped positions several times before Troy’s race ended on the third lap. This left Solesbee in sixth for the day, Clark in seventh and Troy in eighth. Gorrell, who went out two laps prior, finished ninth, while Jaida Phillips, who ran into issues on the first lap, was tenth.

 A wrench was thrown into the battle between the top five, in the form of a bottleneck in the tighter sections in the first few miles. One of the utility quads died in the trail, blocking the path of Pickens and most of the riders behind her. Other quads attempted to plow trails through the undergrowth off course, but most of them got stuck in the palmetto roots. Eventually a rider was able to make a path. Hunter was close enough to it that she was able to push her quad backwards and make it to the line.

Meanwhile, Pickens, who was pinned in by other lapped riders and unable to reach the alternate line, had been helping to push the utility quad and finally cleared a big enough gap to squeeze through. She had lost enough time that she was never within sight of Hunter again. When asked about her win, Hunter told us “After I caught up to Traci [Pickens] in the bottleneck, I put my head down and charged the rest of the last lap to capture my second win of the season. I feel great and can’t thank my sponsors enough!” Pickens told us that “Florida has never been an easy track for me, but I felt the best I ever have here. My quad was dialed, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Looking forward to Georgia"

Osburn too, had plenty of drama in the bottleneck. She had almost gotten out when another 4x4 (not the one that started the bottleneck) broke a CV joint in front of her. She had nowhere to go, and by the time they got the 4x4 clear of the trail, she had lost over two minutes. She might have been in trouble, because now McCormick was within striking distance. However, she ran into her own lapper-related issue, when another machine ran out of fuel in front of her. This gave Sams an opening to move into fourth, despite problems with her setup that had been a thorn in her side all race. McCormick charged hard enough to reclaim fourth, leaving Sams back in fifth and but still giving Osburn a comfortable third place. Osburn was a little disappointed in her ride but is also ready to put these first two races behind her: "After the trouble I had in the bottleneck I was lucky to finish third. I'm definitely not happy with it because I know I'm not a third place rider. I've had a couple bad races to start the season. But I know we still have a lot of races left and I'm ready to give it everything I have."

Anna Nicely, took her second Girls SR (12-15) win of the season at Wild Boar. Hannah Moore finished second while Haile Fowler rounded out the podium in third. In the Girls JR (8-11) class, Alyssa Rogers was the winner. Kyler Davis, a frequent winner in the micro race, took second and Palara Clark finished third.

Paige Berryman won the Women’s class at Wild Boar, moving her up to first place in the points standings. Alexis Keys finished second. Jessica Elioff earned her first podium of the season, edging out Andrea Rodgers by only one second.

In the Micro ATV race, Khyler Davis was once again the top finishing girl, taking another overall win! She was followed by Camy Crump (13th), Raelynn Dickerson (20th), Aryanna Neville (25th), and Adeline Nicely (27th).

In the WXC bike race, Mackenzie Tricker was able to edge out Rachel Gutish and Becca Sheets for the $100 Trail Jesters WXC holeshot award. Becca Sheets went down in corner number three, tucking the front end and getting passed by the entire WXC class, short of Tayla Jones, who experienced an issue on the line and ended up starting back behind the Sportsman A row. Gutish then crashed a few miles later, allowing Rachael Archer to move into third place. Tricker maintained the lead for the first eight miles, then was passed by Sheets, who had caught back up after her earlier crash. The top three were very close together coming into the scoring zone. Shelby Turner, in fourth, was not far down from them and Gutish was even further back from her in fifth. 

Jones had started to work her way up through both the Sportsman A row and her own class, moving into sixth at the end of lap one. Brooke Cosner, Jocelyn Barnes and Korie Steede were all battling directly behind her. Kelsey Saltar was already three minutes down in tenth, which is where she would spend the entire race and eventually finish.  On lap two, Sheets had started to pull a slight lead, before crashing again and getting passed by Tricker. The top three all continued to switch positions over the next few laps. While this was going on, Jones continued flying through the other riders, passing both Gutish and Turner on lap two and making up over a minute on the third lap, positioning herself within striking distance of the top three. 

Turner held steady in fifth place the rest of the day. Steede made improvements as the day went on, working her way up from ninth place to seventh headed into the last lap. Then with an impressive last-mile charge she dispatched Gutish and took home a sixth-place finish for the day. Gutish finished on her rear wheel in seventh, while Barnes took eighth, Cosner ninth and as already mentioned, Saltar rounded out the top ten. 

After stopping to pit, Archer was passed by Jones, who was riding as hard as she could to catch the leaders. About two miles into the final lap, Archer t-boned a C rider who had gotten out of control in some deep whoops, and cut over into her line. While pulling his bike off the top of hers, the lapped rider grabbed her and punched her in the head, which was fortunately covered by her helmet. This obviously cost Archer some time, and she finished in fourth, out of sight of the lead pack. 

Tricker had lost sight of Sheets after stopping to pit. She had several crashes on the last lap, and when she hit the ground the final time near the eight mile marker, Jones was able to get around her. After that, Tricker said, “I just tried to make it to the end without any more drama.” Overall, she did say that her third place finish was “a big improvement compared to the last round.” 

Sheets took over the lead on the final lap, and remained unchallenged the rest of the race. She was even able to make up a bit of time on Jones, who ran into an additional bit of misfortune when she snapped her shift lever off in the final lap. When asked about her race, Sheets told us “During the third lap I rode closely behind Tricker and Archer in a tight battle, with lappers included. They both made mistakes and I was able to take over the lead and push to the finish for the win!” Meanwhile, Jones stated “This was definitely not what I came to Florida to do, but under the circumstances I’ll take it. I’ve got a week to straighten things out now and we’ll be ready to go racing in Georgia!” 

Gracie Gooch earned her second win of the year in the Girls (8-15) class. Kaitlyn Lindsey finished second. Morgan Johnson, who doubled up to race the bike Girls class as well as the ATV YXC1 class, finished third. In the Women’s class, Marina Cancro won for the second time this season. Prestin Raines was second, and the last female to stay on the lead lap. Genna Squire finished a lap down in third, but with a decent margin over fourth. In Women’s C, Roni Merrill took the win, followed by Shelbie Roman in second and Haley Phillips in third. 

In the micro bike race, Paisley Harris was the fastest girl, finishing 21st overall. She was followed by Rylee Mattison (24th) and Martina Ferrayra (31st)