The General GNCC

March 11, 2007 - Washington, Georgia

After the race in Vero Beach, we hung around in Florida a few days to recooperate and get things ready for Round 2 in Georgia.  It was a pretty hectic week as we found a few things that were damaged on my bike from Florida. We decided to just address the issues as best we could and go see how it held up in Georgia.  On our way out of town, however, we went to watch the Daytona Supercross!  Stewart dominated the race so we headed out a few laps before the checkered flag so that we could holeshot the traffic.  It worked!  We were on I-95 headed North in mere minutes    

We rolled into the track about 1pm the next day just as the ATV races were starting.  After getting setup in our pits and signing up, we went back to town to get some rest for the race.  Since I finished 10th at Florida, I was 10th in line to pick my starting spot so that was a pretty good bonus compared to my 30th pick before!  When the green flag flew, I had a huge surprise.  My bike started!  I actually kind of blew it because I was already expecting to have to kick twice so I hesitated for a split second before I took off.  I was able to get by a few guys in the first few corners and head into the woods in 3rd position.  Caselli and Calkins were in front of me and Andy Shea was riding strong up front too!  By the end of the first lap, Caselli still led and I was in 2nd place.  Soon I started feeling pressure from Thad Duvall.  He had some bike problems in Florida but seemed to be on it here in Georgia!  He was riding really well and after he worked his way by me, I had to let him go.  I really wanted to try to charge with him but I certainly didn't want to ride over my head and crash or worse yet, use up all of my energy early on and then bonk like I did at Florida!  

I kept going trying to run a fast pace but had some problems around lap three.  I stalled my bike in a corner and then took forever getting it to restart but that was nothing compared to my next problem.  I went down pretty hard into a tree and it took me a minute to get going again. When I did, Smith had gotten by and Scott Watkins was right there too!  I put my head down and just tried to ride smart and finish strong.  Smith was maintaining about a 25 second lead over me but I really wanted on that podium so I just kept pushing.  I was finally able to start chipping way at the gap and with one lap to go, I had made it to his rear fender.  

That's when it got exciting!  When he saw that I was back there, he turned it up!  We must have gone back and forth ten times on that last lap.  Neither one of us was going to settle for 4th and it showed!  It was kind of funny how our lines worked out when we were racing.  After being on our own for so long during the race, we had both found our own preferred lines through some of the muddier sections.  When we were actually racing, we'd come up on a place with tons of lines everywhere and he'd go one way and I'd shoot off in another direction.  When the lines came back together, we'd be right back with each other!  It was pretty fun because we'd never know who was going to up out front.
As the lap wound down, I decided to try to follow him and then put a pass on him near the end so he wouldn't have time to come back at me.  Well, it almost worked!  I got in front of him somehow with just a short distance to the finish but then before I knew it, I slid out a tiny tiny bit and he got by me on the inside!  He was doing the smart thing by not following and was able to capitalize on my mistake bigtime!  We crossed the line less than a second apart and I was pretty bummed to have been so close to the podium and not gotten it.  I guess I can't feel too bad though.  Rodney Smith is one of the GNCC greats and it was a dream come true just to be able to battle with him.

Caselli ended up taking his 2nd XC2 win in a row with Duvall finishing 2nd.  Team Green guys, Scott Watkins and PA Allen came though in 5th and 6th and I can tell you that those guys are definitely going to be in the hunt as the season progresses.

There's a short two week break before the next round in North Carolina so it's back to Arkansas for me and a chance to get things ready to go at it again!

Photo by Danny Walker