It’s hard to believe that this year’s Zoo City GP has already come and gone! This year’s turnout was the best we’ve seen so far, and with the comments I heard from multiple people, I feel like a summer race is what we need. In years past the event has been in December, January and November and all have been plagued with extremely cold weather. While it was fairly hot at this year’s race, that didn’t deter a good number of riders from coming out to give the race a shot. I’d still like to see a bigger turnout, but this is a great start and I believe that once everyone tells their friends how much fun they had, the numbers will grow.

I have to give a big thanks to Barry and Krista Maness plus the whole Zoo City crew for letting us come out and race. Without them, this race wouldn’t be possible. I also owe a huge thanks to my dad, Tim Bolton, for taking 2 days off of work to come help me set things up prior to the race, and of course for going the extra mile making it all happen. For those of you who raced, you surely noticed that the pallet bridge by the pond seemed to stay in great shape all day, and that’s because my dad spent a lot of time refilling the ruts that were developing in front of the bridge. Plus, his hard work cleaning up after the event was a huge help.

Big thanks also go out to Mike “Lollipop” LaFollette. Mike took the time to come out on Thursday with his dozer and cut some of the trails that were a little over-grown, set up the log section and also take the dozer through the trails to fix up some things and take out a few trees that needed to go. Big thanks to Hank Mason as well for not only taking care of the start and finish line duties, but also keeping the races running at a good pace.. Oh, and for letting me ride his brand new 2016 KTM 350XCF on sweep during the 2nd motos.

Thanks to my dad’s crew of Allen Wood and Keith Bennett for coming out and lending a hand with the event as well. You guys were definitely a big help in making sure everything ran smoothly and that the track was in good shape!

Scott Miller from Carolina KTM stepped up big time to offer up a $400 addition to the 200% Pro purse payback. Big thanks to Carolina KTM for their help there and also for a pair of $50 gift cards that were part of the Kurt Caselli Foundation raffle. Also have to thank all the sponsors who stepped up to supply items for the raffle and the event itself: KTM, Carolina KTM, RidePG, Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Cycra, 100%, Fly Racing, Twin Air, Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro, DigitalOffroad.com and The Wheel Right Shop.

Big thanks and congratulations to the Pro riders who came out to give the race a try. Jason Thomas, Josh Strang, Trevor Barrett, Nick Fahringer, and Josh Thomas finished as the top 5 Pro class riders, respectively, while Jessica Patterson would come away with the Women’s class win over Kendall LaFollette.

Also, huge thanks to every single person who came out to the event. You were truly a part of an excellent event and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I also hope that you’ll tell all your friends how much you enjoyed the event and convince them to come try their luck at the event next year. It’s sort of unfortunate that past events like this have struggled in the southeast. However, now that people have seen how much fun they really are, hopefully they’ll grow even further from here.

Thanks to everyone who purchased raffle tickets. Thanks to you, we were able to raise $540 for the Kurt Caselli Foundation!

Results will be posted as soon as I get them! Thanks again everyone and hope to see you back next year!