Steven Squire competes in the GNCC XC2 Pro Class aboard an Obermyer Yamaha.

XC2 SS 895

Hey everyone, hope all is well! I am going to be trying something new for the rest of the season with Offroad Viking to help people see what the lifestyle of a full time racer is like. So from now on for the rest of the year, every fourth Tuesday of the month, check in and see what I have been up to!

Since this is the first issue I will start it off by talking about my background a bit. I am an XC2 Pro Lites rookie in GNCC and I ride for Obermeyer Yamaha. I am turning 21 on July 20th and live in Indianapolis, Indiana. I grew up racing MX and turned pro at the end of 2009 and raced a season of East coast SX in the lites class in 2010 but struggled with some serious wrist injuries beginning with two compound fractured wrist that I suffered preparing for the season. After the season was over I had to have surgery on my right wrist again to fix a bent plate so I took the end of spring and most of summer off last year to heal a 100% before I started riding.

When I got back on the bike towards the end of July we decided to do a couple offroad races to help get me back in shape, but one race lead to another and the next thing I knew I wanted to make the switch full time, so when the winter came around instead of training for SX, I went south and started training for this years GNCC season! I get asked a lot of questions like “why did I switch?” or “am I going to miss it and go back?” The answer is simple, it fits me more and I like it better. I know it might seem a little insane switching over after a couple month trial run when I had been racing MX for 14 years but I love it and can’t get enough of it, I couldn’t imagine going back now.

So now to get to the good stuff, what have I been up to during the month of June? I raced a MAXC/East National Harescramble to kick off the month. Had some bad luck and crashed pretty hard, ended the day 5th overall. I race all the MAXC (Mid America Cross Country) races; they are a series that runs around Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. They do a great job at putting on a fun event and run at some sweet places. Also, the pro payout is the best around so the competition for me is great practice.

The first full week of June was a really fun week for me. On Mondays after races I usually just hangout and do something to help stretch out and loosen up, especially after a bad crash during the weekend, so after DQ (my mechanic/right hand man) and I got everything cleaned up from the race I went to my girlfriends house to do some swimming and hang out pool-side. On Tuesday after I got my training done, DQ and I met up with some BMX buddies and headed to some BMX dirt jumps to play around on for the afternoon. After I had some fun and my friends showed me up, I ran home to have dinner at my house with the family. My sister, whom I haven’t seen in almost a year because she lives in Seattle, Washington is home for the rest of the month and was there! I met up with Chris Bach, Chris Douglas, and Derrik Allan at a private riding place on Wednesday to have some fun on the bike and it was a rough day for sure, especially for Douglas. But, if it’s true that you win your races on your worst days then it was the best practice possible, hahaha. Thursday I headed down to Madison, Indiana to spend the weekend on the Ohio River till a race in town on Sunday. We had some fun swimming and just hanging out by a fire with some perfect weather! Also, we went across the river into KY to do some riding on Friday, which was a ton of fun. On Sunday, I raced a local series in Indiana to get in some race practice. It seemed like I was going to get the overall but I had a freak problem with my bike that was out of our hands and ended up with a DNF.

On Monday the 13th I went to Daniel Sims house for their annual “Moto Monday.” Got in some great riding and had a blast. For the rest of the week I played the roll of a so-called “normal kid” and helped dad out working a big job he had all week. It was fun getting the opportunity to spend some time with dad and getting my hands dirty in a different way for a change, also a little work will always help me appreciate how lucky and blessed I am. After working all week, including Saturday, I decided to take off from racing Sunday and spend it at home for father’s day.

I left Monday (6/20/11) and drove to Thad Duvall’s house for the night in West Virginia. He wasn’t home yet from the National Enduro but I stayed the night there and rode his track on Tuesday before we headed out to Snowshoe resort for the GNCC University. Wednesday morning we met up with Jason Raines, Jordan Ashburn, Cooper Bailey, and Jordan Milbaur to help set up some stuff for the camp and make sure everything was ready to go Thursday morning when the camp started. The camp went really well, we all had an absolute blast and the riders showed some major improvements. This was my first time participating in the camp and it was a great opportunity. Having all the Yamaha riders together for the event and just hanging out for a couple days was enough reason for me to come. The camp ended Friday afternoon and then I had a chance to spend time with my girlfriend and her family who came up for the race. Snowshoe resort is an awesome place and I am so appreciative to be able to race there and spend the time with my friends and family.There is so much to do there; I don’t know it I could ever get bored. We gave it a run for out money and tried to do it all (just like I tried to put everything I could into this if you can’t tell, hahaha) but we never ran out of stuff to do.

To see how the race went check out Steven Squire Facebook Fan Page for a full race recap!