To say the least, the Beech Mtn Pro GRT didn’t quite go to plan. The course was different from any other that I have raced. The race course had sections where it was all or nothing, full on or off, which made for an awesome course. If you have ever raced at Beech Mtn then you probably have heard of the curse.. Every race at Beech it rains, My dad and I predicted rain weeks before the race, and laughed about it when we were right as it poured down rain the entire weekend. Practice day was feeling good, had some good lines dialed and was running them smoothly. The day of qualifying the rain continued to come down and the mud started to show. I decided that given the mud, it was best to just relax in qualifying and be safe for finals the following day. My qualifying run started off pretty wild when in the first turn I immediately felt the bike uncontrollably slide around underneath me. I decided to just relax and play it safe. I seeded 8th with a conservative run and decided to embrace the mud. The next day was turning out to be a rather nice day, and before I knew it, it was time for finals. Unfortunately, I clipped a pedal on a rock and went down. I got up and continued on a decent run, where I would place 9th. I learned a lot this weekend and hoped to apply it to the next races to come. Also, a huge thanks to all the photos that Jay Shultz and GoJamMedia captured over the weekend!
Nathan StClair 
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