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Okeechobee, Florida The GNCC started off in Florida with all the best riders in the country, even the world, in attendance. There was the Suzuki’s the defending champ Rodney Smith and his teammate Steve Hatch along with new recruit Mike Kiedrowski, The Kawi boys that included west coast fast guy Destry Abbott, Ty Davis was there along with World Champs Shane Watts, Paul Edmondson, and ISDE 400 4-stroke class winner David Fretigne. To say the least the field was stacked. Brian and I got our usual starting spots on the far outside so a chance at a holeshot was slim to none. Brian got off the line as well as anyone but being outside he got pushed wide in the first corner. I didn’t get that good of a jump but cut inside when somebody on an YZ400 stalled his bike in the first turn. That left me with a last place start with a 35 rider field. I tried to pass as many people as possible right away but ended upcrashing with people three times in the first couple of miles. When we got into the open fields both of us could blow pass people pretty easily. After the first lap Brian was sitting in 13 and I was up to 21. The course started with some deep whoops though the pamento’s, and then we had some fields, which led into some bog sections that developed some deep mudholes. The toughest part of the course was through the pamento’s where all of the roots were sticking about six inches out of the ground and made it impossible to keep a straight line going. The course then opened up to some fun grass track field before the motocross section that was a really fun sand track. I kept working my way past people but Brian had problems, the first being a bent shifter that kept him in third gear. After he got that fixed he went back out only to have his rear wheel bearings break forcing him to putt back to the pits. I kept charging but was upset the whole race that I started so poorly and did not ever really get a chance to race. |