Paul Whibley Race Report - Mountain Ridge GNCC

The Somerset GNCC is another tough rocky event in a similar vein to the Snowshoe GNCC. With the wave of the green flag, the silence on the start line was shattered as the XC1 class roared towards turn one. I took the holeshot and led the way until Josh Strang moved past on a fast section. We hit the first mud hole in the woods and bikes were going everywhere as the quads had made lines in every direction.

The order got a big time shuffle and I'm not sure what position I came out in or who was leading anymore. I think it was on the second lap, I ate it when the front hit an unseen rock. Picking the bike up, Nate Kanney went by and I latched onto him for most of the race. He was a little faster than me in the rock gardens but I was able to match his speed by mirroring his lines. I seemed a little quicker in the open fields but struggled to make a pass in the 2 or 3 mile section before we were back into the rocks.

I got pit boards from Katherine and Scotty as the race wound down that I was in 5th. I had tried a few unsuccessful moves on Nate during the race and it was coming down to the last lap to make something stick, going through scoring on the last lap right on his tail. As we exited the pits for the last time, I got a pit board from Katherine, if I could pass Nate I would be third. It seems Strang had brake problems and had to pit. Although Josh left the pits right behind me and we both hounded Nate, hungry for the final podium position. With about 5 miles to go, we caught Kailub Russell who was running second but a crash had slowed his pace. We gobbled him up and now the battle was for second. Half a mile before the finish line, I slid up the inside of Nate in a do or die effort to get past. It worked but I could tell Nate wasn't too happy about it. On the last turns before the finish, Nate came in hot and tried to go around the outside. He went down into the banners. I had second and Josh inherited third, with Nate picking his KTM up for fourth.

1st: Charlie Mullins
2nd: Paul Whibley
3rd: Josh Strang

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