GNCCRacing.com: First and foremost, you had a gnarly crash at The General GNCC over the weekend, how are you doing?

Jessica Elioff: Well, I don’t really remember. A lot of people say I got knocked out. For how long, I have no idea. It happened on the first full lap. I actually finished the lap, but when I came through the white flag was out. I think that lap was an hour and 28 minutes for me. But I finished. I ended up going to the hospital that night to get checked out. I didn’t really want to but my husband, a Firefighter, recommended I go just to be safe. We got there around 8:00PM and got out sometime around 4:00AM. It was a long night. Then had a nice 10 hour drive home. But all is well now, and I should be good to go by the time Camp Coker rolls around.

Wow! Glad everything is okay! Well, let’s jump into it, tell us about you! We know you’re sitting third in points in the WXC ATV class, but we want to know who YOU are.

For sure! Been married since 2017 to Alex Elioff. He raced his first GNCC at Powerline Park in 2016. He liked it and did it again at Ironman. The following season he raced and ended up getting hurt toward the end of the year. Since he wasn’t riding, I said, “You know what, let me try this!” So I ended up racing Ironman in 2018. After that, I was hooked. Ended up coming back in 2019 and racing a full season in the Women’s Amateur class. Other than that, the personal life, no kids but we do have a dog. Unless you consider my dog, the horses and my four-wheelers kids, then yes. Oh and my nieces and nephews. They’re the easy kids. You can borrow them, have fun then give them back.

Wifey Waynes and I are Dog-People, so yes, you’ve got my vote. Those are kids. Just furry kids. So you started racing the national series full time in 2019, but I gotta think you’ve been riding for a long time. What got you started into riding?

Actually, no, I haven’t really been riding that long. When I was little, we raced motocross on dirt bikes. We always had dirt bikes, snow-mobiles and ATVs but I never really raced outside of moto on the little 50. When I met my husband, we would go trail riding with friends. I would ride with him, but never wanted to take the reins. He had a 450 sport quad and it was so powerful and the throttle was so touchy. I wasn’t used to that since I’d only been on a utility quad as a kid. He was fast, and I felt silly having to go so slow, so he’d always do the driving and I was along for the ride. Occasionally I would, I mean I knew how to, it just wasn’t something I really wanted to do. Then when he got hurt racing, he had to have hernia surgery. That’s when I really opened up and said, “You know what, let me give this a try. What’s the worse that can happen.” That’s when I did my first race in 2018. Over the winter we decided to build the quad with me I mind. Nothing crazy but build it to race. I ended up racing the Women’s Amateur Class and ended up taking second behind Sydney Sams. I was only one point behind her on the year! She had more wins than me, so had we tied she still would have won the Championship. The next season, 2020, I won the Women’s Amateur Class.

Was that success in 2020 what motivated you to much up to the WXC Pro Class this season?

Yeah! In 2020 I was taking a lot of thirds and fourths. Eventually I told myself, okay you’ve got to pick it up. Somewhere around mid-season I started clicking off wins and wrapped up the Championship at round 12, Ironman. The wins I got throughout the season were by some pretty good margins. Not running away with it by any means but I thought it would not be cool to stay in this class next season just to try winning another Championship. I knew I needed to take on the challenge of the WXC Pro Class. When you start riding with faster riders, you too get better and faster. So, it was go big or go home for this year.

I gotta say, you made the right call! Just three rounds in and you’re grabbing holeshots and even took the win down in Palatka. What were your personal expectations coming into this year?

I hold myself to a high-standard. I feel like I’m physically strong enough to get the job done. I actually own a landscaping business, so the physical fitness is there. After winning the Women’s Amateur Class, I raced the Buckwheat 100 in the WXC class. I worked my way up into second place and clipped a tree. Ended up finishing the race in sixth but knew, given a good all-around race, I could compete at the WXC Pro level. So honestly, I feel like I’m capable of a top three every race. But realistically I put it out there that I want to consistently be in the top five.

Well, you’re making it happen so far! Talk about the win you took in Florida. Arguably one of the toughest tracks of the season and you come out swinging!

Yes! That was crazy! I was blown away when I got the checkered flag and I hung on for the win. I got to do some training down south over the winter-break. Over Thanksgiving we trained in the Carolina’s and the over New Year’s we got to train in Florida. In total I got to have three separate, long, training sessions in the sand. This was huge for my confidence. Come race day in Florida, before we took off my confidence was so high, I remember telling my husband, “I’m actually so confident right now it’s making me nervous, am I too confident? Is that going to mess me up being over-confident?” Things just felt different going into that race. In hindsight I think it was excitement. The training I did in the sand was going to pay off and I knew it. How the sand grabs you and pulls you. And I felt like all the landscaping work I do gives me the upper body strength needed to maneuver the palmetto roots without trouble. I was conditioned and ready for everything Florida throws at us. It was just about the mental game at that point. I knew if I could push myself and stay motivated, I had a shot at winning. I rarely sit down, but there were spots where I’d catch myself sitting because my arms and legs were tired. So I had to keep telling myself to stand up and stay focused. Then the thoughts changed to, “Wow, you’re in first in the WXC. You’ve got this, you can do this! You’re going to win the WXC!”

Talk a little bit about the training you get during the off-season and during the season. You own your own Landscaping business so are you able to make your own hours to make sure you’re getting the training in?

Yes, owning my own business helps. I try to have my work done by four or five everyday so that I have time to hit the gym. Landscaping is great, but there’s nothing quite like hitting the weights or getting cardio in at the gym. I’ve got good employees that I trust to run things while I’m gone and that helps too. We also, started getting training routines from Jacob Albaugh. He runs in the Junior A class. He started his own business, A1 Elite Training. My husband and I get our workouts through his company. He sends us the workouts to do either at the gym or even outside. That’s been a huge help in keeping us committed to a good training schedule. He makes it simple so that even on days where we don’t want to do it, it’s laid out for us so we can do it without really worry about putting together our own workout routine. I need every advantage I can get. I know my fitness and speed are there but there’s still so many things I need to learn running the WXC class. For example, picking lines. Traci Pickens sees the track in a way that I don’t yet. She can see lines and I’m behind her like, wow, how did you find that, I didn’t even know it was there. That experience will come to me eventually. It just doesn’t come naturally yet like I see in some of the other WXC Pros.