VOLUME 58 ISSUE 29 JULY 20, 2021 P83
"You're doing what?!" they said
laughingly when I arrived at the truck on
Saturday morning. Barry quickly quieted
their disbelief, giving off the same con-
fidence he conveyed over the phone.
The Coastal Racing Team is GasGas'
factory off-road effort on the East Coast,
housing seven riders: Ricky Russell in
the XC1 class, Johnny Girroir in XC2,
Ben Parsons in XC3, and amateur rac-
ers Alex Patterson, Shawn Remington,
and brothers Cole and Lane Whitmer.
The Coastal guys look the part, too.
They have an entire race hauler with all
the branding and showmanship you'd
find at the Anaheim 1 Supercross.
Since I missed the track walk, the
boys offered to take me down to How-
ard's Hole (sounds ominous) during the
ATV race to get a peek at the course.
Where—are—we? After hiking a few
miles down the ski slopes and into the
woods, the sound of cheering fans
began to mix with the echoes of ATV
rev limiters. This Howard's Hole place is
the most infamous part of the course.
It's the LaRocco's Leap of Snowshoe,
if you will. It's a huge mud bog at the
bottom of the hill that looks more like a
party than a racecourse. Instead, it's a
party in the woods that a race happens
to go through. The fans eagerly cheer
on the quad guys and jump into the mud
at the first sign of struggle, pushing and
pulling them over the roots before send-
ing them on their way. The shot-gunning
beers, air horns, and nearly getting run
over by the ATV riders is like a rite of
My race bike
for the day—a
Coastal Racing
Factory GasGas-
prepped EX
350F. Life does
not get much
better than this.
