Coastal Racing's Camp Coker GNCC Team Race Report
Coastal Racing ATV & SxS GNCC Racing Team

Morgantown, WV (5/4/2016) - The Coastal Racing ATV and Side-by-Side team descended upon a brand new race course and venue on Saturday for Round 5 of the 2016 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series in Society Hill, South Carolina. Brycen Neal captured a top-five finish in the XC1 Pro ATV class, while Eli Kiger earned his first victory of the season in the College B (16-21) class. Additionally, Side-by-Side drivers Sean Bogdan and John Henry each earned a top-ten finish in their respective classes, despite rough conditions.

Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha's Brycen Neal grabbed a top-five start in the XC1 Pro ATV class, where he rounded the opening lap in 5th place. By the halfway point of the two-hour race, Neal had caught up to the 3rd place battle between Chris Borich and Cole Richardson. As the trio came through for the white flag, less than one second separated 3rd - 5th place.

Brycen Neal maintains a consistent start to the season with all top-five finishes thus far this GNCC racing season

On the final lap, Neal made a bold attempt to get around Borich for the final podium position but in the process clipped his rear tire and lost his momentum. Neal's mistake allowed Jarrod McClure to get by late in the race, where Neal ultimately finished 5th overall for the day.

"Fifth place is definitely not what we want but we finished and got some points toward the championship," Neal said. "Tough weekend but we're looking forward to the next race!"

Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha team rider Eli Kiger put forth an impressive ride to earn his first victory of the season in the College B (16-21) Class. Kiger put himself in a favorable position right away as he shot off the line to capture the early lead ahead of 16 others in his class. By lap two, Kiger was able to pull one minute and 30 seconds on 2nd place, where he continued to extend his lead with every lap of the two-hour race. Finishing nearly four minutes ahead of the 2nd place rider, Kiger earned his first victory of the season in South Carolina.

"It was a great race, I was able to go into the woods first and lead every lap from there," Kiger said. "It feels great to get the win after experiencing some bad luck at the last couple of rounds."

In the XC1 Pro Class, Coastal Racing / Polaris / CST / OMF / Walker Evans / Racer Tech's Bill Patterson, along with his passenger "Skinny Mike", started from row two, where he powered his Polaris RZR 1000 into a 2nd place position off the start. Patterson stuck behind Tim Farr on the opening lap as the duo blazed through the fresh trail to widen the path for the following laps. Patterson caught up to lapped traffic by the second lap and soon came to a stop when a bottleneck had formed just before a mud hole. Patterson chose an alternate line around the bottleneck but unfortunately became buried in the fresh mud.

"We climbed out of the car and with help from fans we were able to lean the car up and shove trees under the tires to gain traction," Patterson said. "Once we got out of the mud we hammered down and were able to get three more laps in and gain a few points."

Patterson made up seven positions in the final laps to ultimately finish 15th in the XC1 Pro Side-by-Side class.

Sean Bogdan earned a season-best 6th place finish in XC1 Pro Class at the Camp Coker GNCC

Starting just behind Patterson on row three was XC1 Team Driver Sean Bogdan and his passenger Jade Kiger aboard the Coastal Racing/CST/OMF/Walker Evans/Racer Tech Polaris. Bogdan got pushed wide off the start, where he entered the woods in the back of the pack. Despite a bad start, Bogdan immediately went to work picking his way through the pack, where he moved from 20th to 10th on the adjusted time clock by lap three. From there, Bogdan continued to push his way into 9th on the white flag lap, where he finished strong to capture a season-best 6th overall.

XC2 Pro Sport driver John Henry started on row six with a solid holeshot and the early class lead heading into the woods. Henry maintained a top five position throughout the first half of the race, where he then moved into the lead on adjusted time. However, with one lap to go Henry experienced a mechanical issue that ultimately ended his day while leading the race.

Henry currently sits in 2nd place in the XC2 Pro Sports Championship Standings, only one point outside of the lead position.