Charkie Huegel's FMF Steele Creek Amateur Bike Report
Round 3 of the Can-Am GNCC series raced through the hills of western North Carolina this weekend at the FMF Steele Creek GNCC. A bright sun in the morning threatened to break the fog at the quaint Steele Creek campground in Morganton but the sun soon went away and the overcast spring day was paired with some hot racing.
The youth race was led the whole way by Layne Michael. Michael was the champion in the Supermini 14-15 class. Aaron Plessinger gave chase to Michael all day, but was forced to settle for 2nd until the next race, the Pirelli Big Buck GNCC in Union, S.C., April 10-11. It was a similar story in Supermini 12-13 as Grant Baylor ran away with that win while Gary Myers and Dillion Eason put on a great show to finish 2nd and 3rd.
The Big Bike Morning race action was fantastic. Shane Watts, Rodney Smith and Tyler MacDonald finished 1-2-3 overall and in Sportsman A. Randy Riggs mastered the Masters A class. The Women's class was topped by GNCC newcomer Maria Forsberg, while Mandi Mastin and Ashley Crouch had their hands full with one another. Mastin was able to hold of Crouch at the end to take 2nd. The top C rider was Douglas Reed III out of Michigan.
The afternoon racers were victims of a sudden mud race. A light rain started just before the 1pm start of the race. The race course became more slick as each bike went through and as each lap went by. Towards the 2-hour mark, the rains had decided to test the riders even more as the North Carolina clay turned the race into a dirtbike game of shoots and ladders. Racers burned their clutches and overheated their bikes climbing the mountains, only to slide back down. One of the hills became so bad, that no riders could make it. The top 3 overall pro riders, Josh Strang, Corey Buttrick and XC2 rider Kailub Russell were all forced to park on the hill due to the impassable carnage of the situation. Soon a large group of racers had formed at the base of the hill, with no where to go. The sides of the trail were even steeper than the near vertical trail itself. Due to the last lap being impassable, the scores were tallied from the last time the riders had been through the finish(lap 5).
Jordan Ashburn took top A rider and won the Open A class with an impressive 15th overall. This is his 3rd time in 3 races taking top Amateur honors. Second and 3rd in Open A were Robby Austell and Darin Downs. Zach Nolan, Joe "Dirt" Scherer, and Chris Meadows kept it tight in 250A, going 1-2-3. The 250A super trio also went 19-20-21 overall. Ted Mullins showed his speed by winning the 4-stroke lites class. The 4 stroke lites class had a day of good racing. AJ Stewart finished a solid 2nd. Ian Pannebakker was a man on a mission coming from outside the top 10, to take 3rd place honors. Round 1 winner in the class, Greg Funk, put in a great effort to clench 4th. Robby Norwood led most of the race, but finished 5th.
Cody Gragg screamed his YZ125 up and down the hills, to win the 200A class. Tyson Ezell, who won the 2 previous rounds, claimed 2nd place.
Pierce Blake won the 4 stroke B lites and was the top B rider on the day. His 52nd overall, and 3rd consecutive class win, shows that Blake is an up and coming rider to keep your eyes on.
It was a great day of racing, and i'm sure due to the mud that it was not such a good day of cleanup when everyone returned home.
-Charkie Huegel (www.offroadjunkies.com)
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