William Yokley Race Report - Snowshoe GNCC

William Yokley finished 12th overall and 10th in the XC1 Pro Class on Sept. 13 in the West Virginia mountains. There were 197 total entries with 21 XC1 Pro Riders. Team Rider Mark Notman finished 26th Overall and 9th in the XC2 Pro Am Class.

Yokley’s Race Summary:

It’s always fun coming to the Snowshoe Resort; the facilities are first rate and the scenery is spectacular. It’s a real treat to be able to walk out of a nice hotel room right down to your pit area and the starting line. This is the only GNCC race that has a live engine Grand Prix style start on pavement, which adds to the carnival atmosphere of the event. The machines are lined up in rows of five taking up the entire length of the main street, and each row is flagged off in ten second intervals. It’s intense, but loads of fun and the spectators love watching the quads backing in the first turn sprint car style with tires smoking and a little beating and banging going on.

I started on the second row and my teammate Mark was right behind me in the third row. I was in second place in our group as we headed out to the ski slopes and I settled in for what I knew was going to be grind. The Snowshoe course is one of the toughest on the schedule with a 14 mile lap with lots of elevation changes, and long sections of rock gardens, deep ruts and mud bogs. The scenery is beautiful if you could only take the time to take it all in, but you can’t, or you’ll wreck big time! Getting your machine set up right and jetted properly is very important here, as the start area is almost a mile above sea level, and you do go up and down the mountain several times per lap.

I ran in 5th place most of the first lap, that is until I hung a wheel on the edge of one of the many deep mud holes. That hole was much deeper than I thought, and just sucked my whole bike into it; I was in trouble already! I struggled to get the bike out, and every time I tried to lift one end out, I would sink down in mud above my knees. I got a crash course about the true meaning of suction. I finally got the bike out after about 3 minutes; I was covered in mud, my gloves were all wet and slimy which made holding on to the bars challenging, and my heart rate was in the red zone like a gazelle getting chased down by a lion. I made it back to the pits at the end of lap 1, and I had dropped out of the top forty overall.

I concentrated on keeping a steady pace and not getting hung up in the many bottlenecks and obstacles, and tried to work my way back toward the front to salvage as many points as possible. I did get stopped a few more times in traffic jams, but everybody else did too. At the end of lap 2, I had worked my way up to 15th in the Pro class; so many other guys were having difficulties like I had. I finally finished the race in 10th place in the XC1 Pro class, and I actually felt stronger as the race progressed. Many thanks to Mark Spataro and his training program! I salvaged some points and I remained in 6th place in the season standings with three races left to run.