Race Recap: Pro GRT 2 at Mountain Creek

For its second stop the 2014 Pro GRT visited Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon, New Jersey for the Mountain Creek Spring Classic. With all of the top names in US racing in attendance it was sure to be a good weekend.


Aaron Gwin was one of those names that came out to Mountain Creek. Gwin took the Enduro out for a few laps down the track early on Thursday, but he switched to the big bike by the afternoon and stuck with it for the rest of the weekend.

Thursday practice was slow with only a handful of riders on the track. All of them seemed to take a liking to the new hip in the middle of the track. Bubba Warren shows us how it's done.

The weather deteriorated on Thursday night and by Friday the track had gotten pretty sloppy. The drizzle continued throughout the day, but that didn't stop anyone from doing laps down the track. Walker Shaw foot out in the lower corners.

A clean bike's a happy bike.

Lucky for us the weather on Friday was a low point in an otherwise beautiful weekend. Ryan Burney dips into the first woods section at the top of the track.

Ray Syron on rails through the dappled sunshine.

Esc's poster boy Adam Morse catching a rut after Asylum.

Luca Shaw waiting on the beeps in the start gate on Sunday.

Luca took the win in Jr. X by about 3 seconds over Charlie Harrison.

Keeping up with a world cup junior is no small task. Charlie's got the top step in sight.

SoCal pinner Lucas Cowan floats his 650b equipped 951 over the hip on Saturday.

Brook MacDonald managed a 4th place finish after winning here last year.

Jordan Newth through Asylum in his seeding run on Saturday.

Richie Rude making an appearance on the downhill bike. He's still got it, just missing the podium with a 6th place finish.

Richie over the finish line jump. Kind of ironic that the one enduro racer here is one of only a few still running 26's on the big bike. Almost all of the top ten appeared to be on 650b wheels whether they want us to know or not...

Mauricio Estrada rockin' the number one plate. This stop is also round 2 of the Eastern States Cup which gives out plates one through ten to the top ten overall from the year before.

Rae Gandolf took the top step of the podium for the women.

Women's Pro Podium: Rae Gandolf 1st, Lauren Daney 2nd, Allison Zimmer 3rd, Elinor Wesnor 4th, Mary Elges 5th.

Neko Mulally had a mishap on Friday which put some stitches in his elbow so he chose to not take his seeding run on Saturday. Neko was first out of the gate on Sunday which put him in the hot seat all the way through race runs until first place qualifier Aaron Gwin knocked him to the second step of the podium at the last second.

Gwin managed to shave a few seconds off his seeding time of 2:11.44 which got him down to his winning time of 2:08.01.

Mens Pro Podium: Aaron Gwin 1st, Neko Mulally 2nd, Mitch Ropelato 3rd, Brook Macdonald 4th, George Brannigan 5th.

Results post here.


Next stop of the 2014 Pro GRT takes us to Plattekill, NY for some good old fashion shale surfing. Hopefully this year without the snow...

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Racing and Events Pro Grt