IN
THE
WIND
P32
Duvall Pulls
Through At
Steele City
GNCC
T
had Duvall couldn't have
scripted it any better after
taking the win at the 20th Annual
FMF Steele Creek GNCC 2019
in Morganton, North Carolina,
March 31. It was the Rockstar
Energy/Factory Husqvarna rider's
first victory of the season, and he
pulled it off by finding an obscure
line around a mud hole that he
had seen during the morning
track inspection. The victory
was also Duvall's second in a
row at the North Carolina facility,
and it put him right back in the
championship chase after suffer-
ing through disappointing third-
place finishes at the opening two
rounds.
"It feels good," said Duvall.
"Two years in a row I was able
to make the pass on the last lap.
Just lucky. I knew there's a mud
hole every year that gets super,
super bad towards the end of the
race. I went and looked at it and
just had a gut feeling that it would
get really bad. So I cleaned out a
line that went up on the bank and
then bypassed the mud hole."
Duvall's extra effort would pay
big dividends at the end of the
race.
The Steele Creek course is
typically one of the most demand-
ing on the circuit, and since it's
continuously winding up and
down the hilly countryside, it's
also one of the toughest to pass
on. Duvall, Russell and Rockstar
Energy/Factory Husqvarna Rac-
ing's Trevor Bollinger, the three
riders who led most of the race,
found few opportunities to pass,
although each did find a way to
get to the front at one point or an-
other during the three-hour race.
"You can't get around the guys;
it's a bicycle track over there.
There's nowhere to go," Russell
explained after the race.
Russell, who grabbed the hole-
shot on his FMF/KTM and led
most of the race, led Duvall and
Bollinger into the crucial seventh
and final lap. Midway into the lap,
however, Russell found Duvall's
big mud hole, and it stopped him
momentarily.
"I had pulled out about twenty
seconds, pretty much on cruise
control," said Russell. "I came
around a turn, and I knew it was
going to be bad; there were guys
just sitting on the track. I just
picked a bad line and tried to get
around a guy, and I got hung up."
With Russell stuck, Duvall saw
his opportunity and went for it.
"Lucky enough, I came around
Thad Duvall used
a mud hole to his
advantage on the
last lap to take the
Steele City GNCC win.
PHOTOS: KEN HILL
