Simon Johnson’s KTM 250 XC-F fired up quickly off the line giving up a 3rd place start into the first corner of the track. Simon felt good as the race began to progress and he found himself in a groove. He stayed close to his competition in front of him and battled the day out around the 9th place position in XC2 until the last lap hit. Struggling with heat exhaustion on the final lap Johnson lost a few positions which ended his day with 13th XC2 and 23rd overall. Johnson commented on being back to racing after the break by saying, “I need to work on properly hydrating my body for 3 hours. I feel like I’m back in the swing of things, it’s just figuring out how to put all of the pieces together.”

Struggling to get off the line with the rest of the WXC class, Taylor Johnston had her work cut out for her from the start. The track was fast and Johnston took advantage of that, making a few quick passes in the first lap. After ditching her goggles on lap 2 Taylor struggled to see and was unable to pit for new ones until lap 3. After pitting Johnston felt great and continued to put down solid laps on this fast paced track, she stated, “I need to work on my raw speed. I’ve always been a technical rider and that has gotten me through in New England, but the fast pace of GNCC’s call for technique and tons of speed. I’m not there yet.” Johnston finished the day 12th in WXC and said “I’m excited to get to the next one and continue to put in laps and get more experience in the WXC class.”

After his class win last round Brayden Nolette was excited to get back to racing as he lined up ready for battle. As the flag waved marking the start of the race he was quick to fire up his bike and landed himself in the third into corner one, dove to the inside of corner two, and took over the lead by corner three as they headed out into the woods. At the end of lap one Nolette sat in second in his class as he continued to lay down consistent and strong laps. Nolette held onto his 2nd place position the entire 3 hour race and was able to bring the gap from first to him down to just 23 seconds by the end of the day. Brayden finished the day 2nd 150A and a personal best 30th overall. “This race was really good for me. I had no issues and physically I am feeling a lot better than I used to!” stated Nolette when looking at his improvements over his time racing GNCC’s “I definitely feel like I am getting more acclimated to this style of racing but there is always more room to improve!”