World Cup Caliber? Pro GRT Windrock Track Walk 9

The land of black coal yields two-wheeled gold as the Pro GRT kicks off the official #USDH national season at Windrock, Tennessee.

sspomer

3/8/2017 8:37pm

Windrock Park is situated just outside of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town which was secretly established in 1942 for The Manhattan Project, the joint effort between the USA, Canada, and England to develop the atomic bomb. It's for this reason the holds the nicknames "The Secret City" and "The City Behind The Fence".

- Photos, story and interviews by Zach Faulkner

The mysterious nature of the area was lifted and has been a civilian-run establishment since 1959. 20 minutes north in Oliver Springs, tucked into the rugged hills is a 72,000-acre plot owned by the Coal Creek Company. While they no longer mine coal here, the remains can be found on the hillside, among their large investments in oil, timber, and wind resources. The resource of playing in the dirt on wheels is why the Pro GRT has found its way to this venue in Tennessee. Coal Creek created Windrock, the largest O.H.V. park, it is open year-round and has been a mecca for downhilling in the Southeastern U.S.

The man with the plan. Neko Mulally has been as busy as it gets. He was still walking the track today trimming odds and ends, as well as checking tape...and that was all after pounding stakes into the parking lot during an electrical storm all day Tuesday. His sense of pride in his work and maximum effort-plus-two is something to applaud.

Last year, Neko Mulally and Sean Leader were brought on board to develop and manage the bike park at Windrock, providing shuttles, trail maintenance, trail creation, and promotion. For 2017 Neko and Sean, with some helping hands, crafted a true beast of a race track for the Pro GRT. It is as gravity-fed and wild as one could hope. However, it is a thoroughbred elite track and is not suitable for multi-category racing if it rains. Since the forecast is calling for a wet weekend, Neko opted to run a neighboring track, and add in some new bits.

One might think, "Oh, that's lame to put it on something easier...", and you would be wholly wrong in thinking that. The alternate track is by no means tame, lame, or uninteresting. It's going to be full-on, top to bottom with crux rock gardens, plentiful inside and outside lines, and some seriously steep bits to deep corners. Add in a couple of hucks for the bold and that's what the riders are facing. It's raw, it's rider-built, and it's exactly what a DH track should be.

There's "gold" in them hills! Windrock Park is a 72,000 acre O.H.V. park, the largest in the country, and is also still a working oil extraction operation and wind farm. The coal mining has been shut down, but the remains of the operation are still scattered around the mountain and the mountain bikers fit right in.

With grit and desire, in back-to-back weekends Neko has managed to reshape the image of racing in the USA and shine a light on how it should be done. My faith in domestic racing has been restored after seeing what the first two races of the season have to offer, as it's been anything but groomed and dumbed-down.

Bruce Klein still assumes some of the repsonsibility of maintaining his new bike. He's absolutely thrilled to be on the new bike and ready to tackle some non-Bootleg and Fontana track.

Audio - Bruce Klein

The riders are excited, you the viewer should be excited, and at the end of the weekend, rain or shine, I hope everyone will be extra stoked for a season of World Cups and summer downhill racing. For rider, by rider, bringing the glory of domestic racing back one weekend at a time.

Luscious locks with Damon! He drove 38 hours from Whitefish, Montana, and is hoping to do well enough to make it onto the Jr. Worlds team this year! The drive alone should get him on.

Jake Kahn, starring down the sun.

Back at it with course prep and miscellaneous tasks, Mickey Denoncourt took a rogue bramble to the face when he and Neko were doing some prep in the torrential rain.