2004 GNCC Round #4 Steele Creek PM Race

[Admin]

#12 Bryan Cook also picked up several spots and was in third Place!

[Admin]

Chris Borich Emerged in 9th Place

Chris unfortunately tried an alternative line up hill and a grape vine got wrapped up around his axle which brought him to a halt, and then he ran into battery troubles with his YFZ.

[Admin]

#14 Jeff Stoess (Quadshop, Kenda, Hiper) was running strong in 13th

[Admin]

By the 9 mile Marker on the 2nd lap, William Yokley was still in the lead ahead of Ballance, but before the end of the lap, Bill Ballance made his move and took over the lead!

[Admin]

For the third lap, I waited at the 3 mile marker with Seal Communications who were filming for this years TV Coverage. The camera man received the call that Pros were 15 seconds out, but after over a minute no one showed up We both looked at each other and wondered what happened.

Several seconds later Bill Ballance was spotted heading through the woods. He starting yelling at me if he was in 1st place??? I thought he was screaming remove the tree stuck under his quad, so I ran out after him, but he was too fast for me.

Bill Ballance made bold move making his own line straight up the side of the hill which was extremely steep to get around the bottleneck!

(Notice the tree branches shooting out the back of his YFZ)

[Admin]

Moments later, #5 Matt Smiley appeared in 2nd Place

[Admin]

#4 Chad Duvall took advantage of the bottleneck and worked his way up to 3rd with Brad Paige close behind in 4th

[Admin]

#9 Todd Knippenberg was up to 5th with #10 Brandon Ballance was in 6th

[Admin]

William Yokley quickly dropped from the lead back to 10th Place in only 1/2 lap and was several minutes behind the leaders.

With only two complete laps finished two leaders (Borich & Yokley) were claimed by the quickly eroding Carolina soil.

[Admin]

By the 7.5 mile Marker, Matt Smiley was now out Front with Bill Ballance & Chad Duvall close behind taking different lines trying to catch Matt!

This was truely and incredible moment in the race to see!