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Birch Creek MX
Danville, VA Round 2
2003 ATVA GNC
Well the fun just never ends does it?
Mark Keen is a kick! Word is that he is one heck of a host (according to his houseguest - thanks much Mark!). I also hear that his little boy is one heck of an Off-Road Fury player. The way I hear it Mark's little boy can play with the best and never, ever, stop talking while playing. I spoke with Mark the week before this national when he was stressing over a big bike national coming in the week before our races. He was worried about weather even then, since he couldn't get equipment on the track for all the rain they had had. Fortunately Mother Nature took pity on Mark and his crew just a few days before we rolled in and cleared off enough to make for awesome conditions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The sun was shining and there was a whole lot of sunburned noses running around the track. In fact it was tank top and shorts weather even for me!
Round 2 was bittersweet for many riders. As most of you are aware we lost one of our own last year at this track in a freak accident. Cody Hurst was in many of our thoughts and prayers as the date got closer for this national. In fact word is that there is a 'Cody Hurst - Ultimate Challenge Grand National' planned for August 1 & 2 and Wayne County Speedway. If you want a copy of the flyer and to investigate whether or not you can make it you can pull it up here.
Dana began the first leg of his national quest in early March. The plan is simple: stay on the road til we have a long enough break to drive back home to California, spend a couple of quality days, and then still have time to get back east for the next race. Since it takes 3 or 4 days for one person to drive out from our neck of the woods, well, it was looking like the end of June for Dana to sleep in his own bed. The beauty of the master plan is that Dana is pretty mobile. He can go where there is good weather. The kink in the plan: there was no good weather for two weeks. Well, that was all good since he is still healing up from his close encounter with a landing ramp in Kentucky (see Huevos 5 where he crashes and breaks his back). Anyway, enough whining.
We hooked up a great pit spot right at the first corner. We had action all day long and we were at a great place to see all of our National friends. Pit wise we once again shared with Mike Walsh who brought Justin from GoForItGraphics along for the ride. Actually Justin was Mike's pit crew for the weekend. Next door neighbors included Team Duncan and Justin Bres and his family. We broke out the sun screen and prepared for an incredible weekend of racing. Weather reports had been way off so far, as they had called for never ending wind and rain. It was 74 degrees and no breeze. Then the really funny part of the Weather report: it was actually calling for snow on Saturday night and Sunday. According to Mark Keen, this was a pretty rare occasion in the area; especially in late March. Anyway, Mark and his crew had prepared the track to premier condition and they had gone the extra mile to make sure that the sprinkler system was working well to keep the dust down. Hey Mark, so sorry about that sprinkler head on the back part of the track that Dana KOd. Saturday qualifiers were necessary for the Pro-class, so Skip went into high gear getting things ready to rock and roll. First kink in the long range plan was the weather not cooperating in between nationals. Second kink: our mechanic (Skip), only had the weekend to prep, plan and get quads standing tall. Needless to say, anyone walking by our pits can witness Skip in constant motion working on those quads the entire three days we are there. He tries to cram two weeks of prep into three days. It seems to get done each time, but it is a challenge running this national series from the left coast.
Saturday races were stellar. I was especially intrigued with the youth classes. Of course we have our little buddies that hang out around our pits, and of course I am interested especially in what is up with them, but the youth classes in general are so much fun to watch. Also, the youth parents are a kick. They remind me of days gone by. Ahhhh the old days, when we stationed all available relatives around the track so that if the bike or kid had problems, there was someone close to help out. Today I focused on the 90 Mods (9-15 year olds). This class is especially interesting because of the speed that these kids can coax out of the little bikes. The other thing that I find intriguing about this class is that many of these riders, although stars in their own universe, will also be household names (ATV households anyway) in the next couple of years. Kids like JR Hinds, Mitch Reynolds, Cody Miller, Brandon Shipman, Leslie Ragon, Jaron Sheroan, and Joel Hetrick will begin to dominate the magazines in the near future. Moto one found Mitch Reynolds choking on the start and wheelie-ing out of control. Although impressive, it put him out of sight of the last rider. This did however make for an interesting combo out front. JR Hinds and Cody Miller went bar to bar around the first corner playing race just like the big boys. Evidently these two have some history with regard to 'Who's gonna be first.' I have to say that the best race of the day would have to be here. First off we had the front runners, including Jaron Sheroan running a strong third for much of the race, pushing the outer limits the entire race and then we had Mitch Reynolds scrambling to make up time. Honestly one or two more laps and we would have had a situation for first at the rate Reynolds was hustling. In the front, Cody pressed JR to no end. JR had to fight Cody off the entire time. At the checkers it was JR by inches.
Since that was such a good race, I decided to check out what the 70 Mods and see what they had to offer this year. Familiar faces, although much taller than last year, included up best friends Joel Hetrick and Jake Brattain. So far this year, Joel and Jake have taken turns with first and second place. This should make for an interesting Awards Banquet. Can they share a National title??? Anyway, Jake's dad is pretty convinced that the kids are doing this on purpose so that both families have to go to all the nationals. You think? DJ Spurling is also a scrapper in this class. DJ 'The Red Rocket' (one look will tell you why they call him the 'Red Rocket' - AND he has his own webiste at RedRocket.com) has a never give up strategy. He isn't the fastest in his class yet, but he is one of the youngest and has a solid third nationally going for him. Lee Rentz, Chase Horton and Chris Wild are also making waves in the 70 Mod class. I can only see a bright future for these racers.
Next up for over the edge racing is the always exciting 250A class. Every year we see new blood in that class. Fast B riders moving up, A riders from the year before stepping out of the class and going pro, and all those guys that were paying dues last year have been educated and are ready to mark territory. Evidently Patrick Brown, Dustin Wimmer, Hunter Miller, Mark Kendall, Bryan Chaler, Ryan Ogram, Eugene Gunter, and Rocco Arno are the lead pack dogs this year. So far this year it looks like there are more riders stepping up to the A Class this year than in the last two. Qualifiers will be a given for this class. Qualifier one start showed just how tight things were going to be for the season. Dustin Wimmer pulled holeshot and proceeded to check out (can we see a blue number plate on his bike in the near future or what?). Ryan Ogram gets a star for a holeshot in the Qualifier #2, but he must have had issues after that since he didn't qualify, just going to prove that it ain't over til it's over. By the tower, Hunter Miller had got around Ogram and was working on getting out of Dodge. Wimmer, Josh Upperman, and Don Lamborn played bash-bar for several laps at top speeds for position. Jesse DesRochers and Skyler Stewart showed us their style battling for position and literally looking like synchronized riding (is there such a thing?). Bobby Ross is new in the A class this year, but seasoned in the youth classes and always one of the front guys. Ross has had a quick reality check on the differences between classes. My guess is that we will see Bobby hitting stride by High Point, and beginning to find his comfort zone. Remember the A Class is the group of riders that are among the best of the best in the world. Don Lamborn is one who can vouch for the fact that the upper classes of riders are not playing around out there. Don is one fast rider and did well today in the A Class; he did have issues in his other class though. I'm not doctor, but as a mother I do come standard issue with X-Ray vision. Of course it wasn't necessary to use my special powers while checking out Don's oops. Turn out he broke his wrist pretty cleanly and will be out for a while, but will return for more abuse according to him. Front runners in today's A Class were Wimmer, Miller, Brown and Kendall.
Women's A class showed Angela Moore finding the need to work her way around Heather Rose's holeshot. Angela didn't beat around the bush too long to make her move, and then she proceeded to check out. Heather held onto a solid second place, but Angela was just to fast on this track. Melissa Bailey continues to show good form in the Women's B/C class, so does Melissa Kufel.
Pro-Production is still trying to hit it's mark as the up and coming pro class. So far I am not convinced that this class will survive. There are problems with the class in my humble opinion. First the excitement level isn't there yet. Maybe it will be. I noticed the fact that the Pro Production class seemed slower and well, clunky, compared to the Pro class. At Macon lap times for the Pro-Production class and the Pro class were significantly different,. I decided to use my special super-precise timing methods once again to see what the deal was. Basically I can see a trend for the Pro-Production class. Whoever gets the holeshot is probably going to take the checkers, and more than likely Gust,Farr,Ellis,Natalie and Cain will be top five finishers for the year. My understanding, limited as it is, is that the Production classes were born to make it affordable to literally step into quad racing with an out of the crate, or very nearly out of the crate, quad. The idea was by making this a 'production' class we would encourage people to take the plunge into racing and it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg (or two legs in some cases) to get involved in racing. Also the idea was that the Production class would put bikes on the track that were very nearly like the ones in the bike shops, therefore encouraging people to identify with the bikes that are racing in the magazines and boost sales of similar quads to the masses. Hmmm... I think I have this right. By boosting the sales, the factories would be encouraged to field a team and therefore extend team support to our ATV racers and bring us, as an ATV race community, up to speed with the bikes (right....). Well, the problem as I see it, and of course I am just a simple old lady (blonde also, so therein may lay the problem) is that the top riders, and we all know who they are don't we, have as much in their Production bike as any of the top Pros have in their Pro bike. Have we missed the intended mark here or what?
I am willing to still wait a bit before throwing in the towel and admitting that we (the ATVA who designed the Pro-Production Class) have shot ourselves in the foot. When the gate slammed into the dust for Pro-Production Moto one, Jason Luburgh followed his holeshot in Macon with a match in Danville. Luburgh's lead time was not to last. Gust and Farr were on their way around him with Ellis and Natalie closing in. Gray Parker and Josh Starrett both had good runs this weekend, but it wasn't enough to challenge the veteran Pros. New Pros always get an education, whether or not it is in the Pro class or in the Pro-Production class. Twenty minute motos are tough no matter how you look at it. Moto one found Tim Farr dominating the race. Gust pulled every trick he had up his sleeve but there wasn't any way Tim was going to give him an edge. Farr ended up with the win in Moto one. Moto two was a reverse with Gust pulling the early lead and having to work hard to keep Farr behind him. It wasn't a easy victory for Gust. Farr did everything but cut the track to try to get around him, but Gust was having none of it. Natalie, Ellis and Cain were ready and waiting for any mistake to happen, but in the end Gust, Farr, Ellis Natalie and Tavis Cain filled in the top five slots.
At the end of the day as a light cloud cover began to roll in, Pro-Qualifiers lined up. The question wasn't who would make it in, since there were only two or three guys over the max number of riders of twenty, but more would we have be able to secure our place in the main today or tomorrow. Of the seriously fast guys that for various reasons didn't place in the top ten in 2002 and therefore must go through the 'extra practice' of qualifying each national, we will continue to see such incredible riders as Jasmin Plante, Mike Walsh, Jason Dunkelberger, up and comers Matt White, Joe Haavisto, Steve Runkel, Greg Meeks, and Dave Diver every national looking for a gate in the main. Any one of these riders and a few other drop-ins could challenge for position at any given time. This day however, it was Dana with the lead and Diver on his heals. Plante was right there for most of the race as well before he literally disappeared,. He limped in later with a flat tire and prepared for the LCQ. Diver had showed that he had done a lot of homework over the winter to prepare for this year's races. Dana has his head on straight and his body 80% there, at this race, so it was going to be tight. We knew that it didn't matter on the qualifier where you place, only that you finish in the top six so that you can be assured of a place in the main the next day. Dana lead the qualifier for the first two laps when he lost concentration briefly and went off the track, took out one of Mark Keen's sprinkler heads and sideswiped a hay bale. Diver got around him. This is the part where I panic. That would be when Dana gets behind someone and decides that he is going to move some dirt behind him to change the status quo. Less than half a lap later Dana had regained position and proceeded to add insult to injury. He turned gas on and ended up showing lap times 16 seconds faster per lap than the Pro-Production class leaders. He rolled into the pits feeling pretty good. When I asked him how he felt he showed me. The day wound down with a warm evening of hanging out with friends, prepping bikes and heading out to Italian with our pit mates.
After smuggling Avon, Mike's English Pit-Bull, into the motel via a suitcase. Here is the preferred method, and Avon is well trained in Motel rules (no potty in house, no barking and no chewing on anything that you don't own): first make sure you have a suitcase that is of adequate size for your pet; second, pad the bottom with some of your laundry (clean or dirty depends on your dog's personal preference); third, invite your dog to 'kennel-up'; fourth, zip her in and hit the road quick. You don't want to spend anymore time wheeling your pet through the lobby and hallways than absolutely necessary. Little things like sharp-eyed hotel employees and air supply would be top on the list of things to watch out for. Once in your room, unzip your suitcase to your ever so happy dog who has once again performed a great trick!
We planned an early wake-up call so that we could finish up some mechanical stuff before races. When we woke up it there was a curious quiet outside. It was raining lightly. Dang it was going to be a wet day and I didn't bring any 'wet' clothes. We ran down and got some 'get-us-by' boots along with 8 or 10 other people who had the same idea. By the time we got to the track (which is about 30 minutes outside of town) the light rain had switched to fatty rain and very cold. What WAS the weather report again???? Snow. You have got to be kidding. Snow. For real. As we neared the track we knew things were going to get bad because we saw fully loaded and fully mudded trucks and trailers heading out. When we got to the gate at around 7:30 am the Birch Creek MX sign looked like this. It had started raining around 10 the night before and continued all night to ensure a snotty mess on the pit road, parking area, track and well everywhere. It got worse around 6 am when it began to snow. For once the weather report was right. Now we have all these freezing people with sunburns from the day before. Check out Team Duncan. And I thought only London, Kentucky could go through four seasons in a weekend. Evidently the powers that be decided to cancel all amateur classes for many reasons. First there was the safety reason: the ambulance crew was not able to traverse the road or the track to render assistance if needed. Second, the track was so muddy (How muddy was it?), it was so muddy that you couldn't stand on it without sliding (even if you held perfectly still), and you definitely couldn't ride on it, even the track quads. Third: to save equipment. Lord only knows how many engines would have been toast after trying to run that snot. The only question: Would the pros run. My only question: Don't the same conditions apply to the pros as the amateurs? Give me a break, if even one of these conditions were considered enough to stop the races why in the world wouldn't it apply to the pros? After a pow-wow it was decided by popular vote to pack it up for the day, let the standings stay for all the Saturday races (Saturday finishes would be the finish for the weekend), and forget about the Pro-class race for this weekend. It was crazy really, Saturday was so awesome and Sunday our pits were, well, the pits.
Once the decision to cancel the day was made, the real drama began: getting out of the pits. People were stuck everywhere and the road in and out of the pits became a parking lot. People had pulled their trailers onto the road and then left them there for whatever reason, and other people trying to get out of the pits thought that the trailers (the parked trailers) were waiting to leave so the stacked up like little soldiers marching. Anyone who has ever tried to pull a trailer through tight pit areas can sympathize with the situation that Mark Keen had on his hands. He and his crew handled it wonderfully and spent most of the day helping to 'unstick' motorhomes, trailers and even some four-wheel drives from their resting areas.
All-in-all we made it through the weekend. No one was seriously hurt and we ended up only slightly mudded out. On the way home we checked out Martinsville Speedway (one of the little bonuses for traveling). The season is off to a great start, and we look forward to more fun in the sun/mud/snow....
Have fun, play nice, call your mom and tell her you are OK,
Mom
Spare Parts:
Hunter Miller
Mark Fechtner
Gilbert Attix, 2, 3
Mark Kendall, 2, 3
Matt White
Mike Walsh
Unknown Lady Rider
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