Coastal Racing’s Brycen Neal Charges Hard to Earn 2nd Overall at Wild Boar GNCC
- Updated: March 14, 2017
The Coastal Racing/Answer/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha ATV Team scored two big podium finishes on Saturday at a grueling Round 2 of the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series in the sands of Florida. XC1 Pro ATV rider Brycen Neal fought his way back from dead last to finish 2nd overall, while team rider Drew Landers dominated the College A (16-21) class by a margin of 13 minutes to capture the Top Amateur Award with 14th overall.
Neal got off to a good start in the XC1 Pro class but the Ohio native made a mistake in the mud hole within the first mile of the race and dropped to the back of the pack. Neal was able to pass nearly half of the class by the end of lap one, where he came through in the 7th place position.
As the halfway point approached, Neal was able to put himself within striking distance of a podium finish but it wasn’t until the final lap that he upped the pace completely. With a strong finish to the brutal two-hour race Neal was able to pull himself to within 45 seconds of the leader to finish 2nd overall with an impressive come-from-behind performance.
“That was definitely the most physically-demanding and roughest track of the circuit and my Coastal Racing/Maxxis/Answer/Lonestar/DWT/Custom Axis-backed machine handled the conditions perfectly,” Neal said. “I myself felt like I could’ve gone another lap at the end. All-in-all we are very happy with the first two rounds but we’re looking forward to working out some small kinks to finally get to the center of the podium.”
Neal earned his second straight podium finish at the second round. Photo: Ken Hill
In the College A (16-21) class, Coastal Racing/Answer/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha’s Drew Landers bounced back from a tough season opener one week ago to claim a convincing victory in the class. Landers put himself into a favorable position early on as he jumped into 2nd place by the end of lap one.
Landers made the pass to take over the class lead by lap two, where he then set his sights on climbing through the overall ranks. Upping the pace substantially in the final laps of racing, Landers created 13-minute gap over 2nd place, while vaulting himself into 14th overall to claim his second-career Top Amateur Award.
“It was a super rough Florida track and I’m really happy to come away with the College A win and finish as the top amateur with 14th overall,” Landers said. “I won the Top Amateur Award last year at Round 2 and after that it seemed like I couldn’t get any luck but it looks like we are on the right track now! I had a terrible start but I was able to work my way through the pack and into the lead early on. After that I focused on running my own race and tried not to make any mistakes.”
Coastal Racing/Answer/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha ATV rider Eli Kiger got off to a mid-pack start in the College A (16-21) class where he passed his way up to 3rd by making a good line selection through the first mud hole on the opening lap. However, Kiger succumbed to a different mud hole on the same lap, where he sunk into the mud and lost substantial time before getting out.
Kiger was able to get back on track by lap two as he caught up to just outside the top five after one hour of racing. The Pennsylvania native maintained the 6th place position for the second half of the race where he ultimately finished for the day.
“I felt like I was riding really well at the beginning until I sunk the whole quad in the second mud hole and lost about 4 minutes,” Kiger said. “I finally got going again and pushed as hard as I could for two laps and made my way back up to 6th. I’ve been battling the flu all week and when the one-hour mark came around I had nothing left in my body but I was able to keep it together for the last two laps and salvage a 6th place finish.”
The six-round UTV Championship kicked off on Saturday as Coastal Racing/Polaris/CST/Walker Evan’s Sean Bogdan and his co-pilot Jade Kiger lined up on row two of the XC1 Pro class. The duo didn’t get off to the best start as they entered the woods in the 4th place position off their row. With extremely dry and dusty conditions, visibility was very low at times making it hard to charge ahead at full speed.
Despite the tough conditions, Bogdan and Kiger were able to climb from 11th on the opening lap to 8th place in the class, where they ultimately remained in the final two laps of the race.
Sean Bogdan and Jade Kiger fought for a top-ten finish at Round 1. Photo: Ken Hill
“The dust was unreal, making it hard to see in some sections,” Bogdan commented. “We had some good laps until the track started to get rutted, making it extremely rough on the car so we backed off a little through the woods and drove as fast as we could in the field sections. Florida is a tough track so I knew I had to be smart but stay fast to finish inside the top ten.”
Next ATV Event: GNCC Round 3 – March 25, 2017
Results from the Wild Boar GNCC – Saturday, March 11
XC1 Pro ATV Results
- Walker Fowler
- Brycen Neal (YAM)
- Adam McGill
- Jarrod McClure
- Chris Borich
College A (16-21) ATV Results
- Drew Landers (YAM)
- Boedy Lamoreaux
- McCain Jennings
- Joseph Yurchison
- Nicholas Royalty
- Eli Kiger (YAM)
Overall ATV Championship Standings
- Walker Fowler (60)
- Brycen Neal (46)
- Jarrod McClure (43)
- Adam McGill (37)
- Chris Borich (34)
College A (16-21) ATV Championship Standings
- Boedy Lamoreaux (34)
- Corey SIlverthorn (31)
- McCain Jennings (29)
- John Glauda Jr. (29)
- Eli Kiger (29)
- Drew Landers (20)
XC1 Pro UTV Results
- Cohl Secoy
- Cody Miller
- Kyle Chaney
- Hunter Miller
5.William Yokley
- Sean Bogdan (POL)
