2005 GNCC "Steele Creek" Round #4 Afternoon ATV Race Coverage

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The Afternoon racers were also busy prepping their machines for the muddy race that awaits them at 1PM. Junior Class Rider & ITP Track Rep, Jim Pinkston, has had much luck the first couple of rounds with his Honda, but he kept his spirits high in hopes the mud would work in his favor this weekend.

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William Yokley’s father was busy cutting the outer knobbies off his ITP front XC tires, which is common for many Pro riders. They cut them off to help prevent the tire from trying to climb out of the main tire groove on the track.

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#4 Matt Smiley once again spent most of the morning going over his new ride for 2005 and what ever he is doing on the Polaris Predator before the race must be working because he has adapted quickly to the Predator with a Podium finish and hasn’t finished below 8th Overall yet this season.

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The Four Stroke Tech Crew were busy setting up their huge Canopy

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#10 Greg Trew was also busy going over his YFZ before the start of the race, and he announced that he will no longer be riding for the Lewis Racing Team this year due to the logistics of him living in Florida and them located in Kentucky, which prevented him from testing different setups and training on a race prepped machine between races.

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#14 Andy Lagzdins has been having a career best season finishing the first three races in the top 10 Overall as he strives to improve upon his National Number for next season.

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#1 Bill Ballance had his Yamaha YFZ450 ready to go, and looked extremely relaxed walking around the pits joking with fellow riders and signing autographs for his fans.

Sadly, #5 Chad Duvall wouldn't be heading to the starting line for this round after injurying his thumb.

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The track quickly deteriorated toward the end of the morning race, and the GNCC crew had their hands full pulling out stuck riders as over 65 riders or 25% of the morning races never even finished half the race and less than 100 riders finished the complete 4 laps out of 247 participations.

This photo quickly sums up why there were so many DNFs in the morning, and it would only get worse in the Afternoon. The Afternoon race was delayed until all the morning races were cleared from the track.

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Finally, it was time for some afternoon racing action, and Racer Productions decided to try something different this event and have the Pros stage their quads and then lineup at the 1st turn against the fence and run over to their machines one at a time when their name was announced.

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The final three riders standing against the fence were your Top Three Pro Riders this season(Chris Borich, Bill Ballance, and William Yokley) and not surprisingly these riders were the top three from last season.