St. Louis, Edward Jones Dome
Clear Channel Entertainment
Pro-Quads 2003, Round 1
You had to be there.
For real.
St Louis was incredible for the Dana Creech Racing team of one racer. Our debut race was the best ever.
OK, OK already you say. But HOW COME YOU HAVEN'T REPORTED ON ANYTHING FOR SOOOOOO LONG????????? Well, it's like this: Sometimes there are very good reasons for not doing something that is very important to a lot of people and sometimes I just can't go in to detail on why things were so behind. Some of the reasons are... but wait that doesn't really matter to you right??? It only matters that it IS again. Right??? OK then.
2003 marks the beginning of our own race team. No longer are we working for another company or team that we don't have any say in or any control over the direction of the team or our own future. This year marks the beginning of our mistakes being our own mistakes and our successes being our own successes. We are partnered with the 'Best of the Best' in the ATV Industry and they are trusting us to make decisions regarding our direction in racing and showing off the fact that their products are quite simply the sickest stuff out there. I am not saying that one day we won't be riding for a really big sponsor (like a real racer and everything...) but for now and the foreseeable future it will be: Dana Creech Racing. Guess who's team that is? Right. No confusion on who's team and what our focus is. We are here to race. Our team is one rider right now, but the pit team is huge! We have had a lot of requests for sponsorship right now, and plan to find a way to 'Pay it Forward' one day. It isn't there just yet; hopefully it will start to trickle down this year or maybe next.
Our bike this year was planned out beginning in August when we saw that we would need to change gears and set our own program up. Our debut race should have been Lorettas but you all know that he couldn't make that race because of injuries (I will try to write on that next). We had the main race trailer set up and a couple of bikes ready to rock and roll in August (we had to put stuff together fast), but we weren't as ready as we wanted to be. It is nearly impossible to put everything for a national program together with three weeks notice, but we did it. Since we have had some time on our hands to do some pre-planning (since Dana was out of action for nearly five months). Dad (Skip), Dana and myself along with Grandparents Dale and Mavis Cooley, Jim and Charlotte Creech, Ray Parker and Uncle Dave Creech put our heads together and figured out a way to race the Nationals and the Clear Channel Entertainment Series without robbing a bank. Our business Quality Body Works has been a major backer. Our incredible sponsors from last year stepped it up to make it happen for Dana. To be honest I was worried that the fact he hurt his back may affect future sponsorship, but our sponsors are quite simply the BEST. For example, when Dana got hurt in August, Shift sent him a huge box of videos, DVDs, snuggle clothes (you know, the stuff you wear when you don't feel good: cool sweats & beanies). He got 'Get Well' cards and calls from nearly every sponsor and literally thousands of letters sent by postal mail and email to him wishing him speedy recovery. This really meant a lot to him and to us that everyone was pulling for him. OK, OK, back to the trick stuff list.
Skip is the mechanic and the driving force in the pits - and the garage. He borders on obsessive about pre-planning and being ready weeks before an event. He also is a detail person who insists on everything being just so on the bike. For years Dana has only really trusted him as a mechanic. He knows that his bike will be in top form and he can just go out and ride the living you know what out of it without any worry that his wheel or chain (lol, sorry Mike) will fall off or something like that. We started this year with a new frame. After really checking him out the last two years, we decided to switch to Walsh Racecraft frames. Mike Walsh has one of the most finely engineered frames that are made with performance for the racer in mind. Mike has built us one of the finest frames that Skip has ever had the pleasure to set up. Although we loved the work with our powdercoater last year and totally recommend them to everyone - they are AWESOME - we decided to bring things a bit closer to home this year and use Pacific Powder Coating out of Arcata, CA. Pacific is a mere 5 miles from our back yard and they did some special stuff for us to make the frame not only be trick in the performance sense but also look like a show bike. Our version of Candy Apple red has a clear sparkle in with it (some special blend that is real fancy). Johnny Hale hooked us up with a great chromer in Oklahoma for the Walsh specially made upper A-Arms, steering stem, and subframe. Mike designed a radiator that actually cools our Tom Carlson (TC Racing) tuned Honda CRF450 engine, Anyone at St Louis can tell you that it is animal. We decided to switch to Honda for a few reasons: first we have a great dealer in Eureka, Richard Miller Motorcycle, where we can get all of our Honda parts and they were able to find us two 2003 CRFs quickly and at a reasonable price, second the CRF is more suited to ATV use because it has no oil tank to clutter up the frame and we don't have to worry about the oil lines like we did last year, and finally, the Honda also has a built in decompression device that makes it possible to kick it over much more reliability, in fact Dana was able to 'Kick' it over by hand when we were in the building process. Performance Engineered Products (PEP) and Wayne Moordian designed Dana's shocks. Wayne is the guru of suspension. He has been and will be (in our humble and obviously jaded opinion) the absolute leader for ATV suspension for many, many years to come. Dana got his first set of PEP shocks when he was in seventh grade. He has never even considered going anywhere else since then. Sure he has tried many other setups but he will stay where he is and is happy that Wayne supports him now not only by supplying product to him, but also Wayne is at every National race and will make sure that his riders are setup for optimal performance. Wayne even called to check how we set everything up after Skip finished assembly of the new bike. Also Wayne can be counted on for advice from everything ATV related and also life related. You can count on Wayne to offer free advice whether or not you think you need it (but we usually do need it). We will be running RPM Dominator 2 axles again this year for obvious reasons: they don't bend. In fact Dana's axle from the entire race season last year is still in perfect condition. My old saying is that if Dana can't break something it must be nearly indestructible. Since Dana's favorite colors are Black and Red, Jeremy at RPM is anodizing the hub and anti-fade nut to add to the overall look of one of the most exotic race machines ever to touch dirt and actually perform. For St Louis we ran the Aluminum axle and bearing carrier that are setup expressly for TT type racing. This took off somewhere around 15 pounds of the overall weight of the machine. The minimum weight for a racing machine at the CCE series is 325 pounds. The average race machine is around 335 pounds for a TT machine. A motocrosser is around 375. The lighter the better for starts and stops. In TT racing the starts and stops are crucial for the heats and main. Action is quick and changes happen instantly. Your reactions must be sharp and controlled. Tom at HiPer Technology is the brainman behind carbon fiber wheels. We are incredibly lucky that this oh-so-smart guy has taken a liking to Dana and the Creech family. Tom even carried customer service to a new high when he showed up to mount our tires and wheels and support his riders in St Louis. We began our partnership with Tom last season. We had heard a lot about the Carbon Fiber: some good and some bad. We wanted to check it out for ourselves. Dana did some investigation and testing in late 2001 and decided that the carbon fiber wheel was definitely something we needed. Not wanted. Needed. You can't bend these things. They don't fold over and they don't look like HE double toothpicks after you bump into something. You don't have to try to pound them out after 'Close-Contact' on a race track. They are modular so if something were to go wrong with some part, you can buy the piece to fix it without having to replace the entire thing. We didn't have any use for any 'parts' last year since we didn't have any issues whatsoever. In fact the wheels that Dana face-planted in Kentucky (where he broke his back), still have air in them and are still true. He is using them on his Moto-Cross bike as I type. If you have seen that crash you would know that those wheels took the initial impact that was tough enough to rip the lower control arms out of the Laeger frame. We are using Fullbore plastic again this year. They recently changed locations (still the same numbers) so that they can meet the demands of people that want plastic that doesn't droop and looks great for a long time. Billy at Quad Tech has once again gone the extra mile to make the customized set covers that say 'CREECH' on them for Dana. Quad Tech also provides the cool nose cones. AC Racing is continuing to work with Dana in designing the extended footpeg nerf. My understanding is that the testing will be completed soon and then they will be available to everyone. We are using the full Hinson Clutch system which consists of clutch basket, clutch hub, and pressure plate. This eliminates our clutch worries for the entire year. We know it holds up.
Dana will be wearing ShiftMX gear this year and Shoei Helmets. He really liked the Gray Camo and the Red/White/Blue Camo this year. He has chosen to use the Fox's Stewart boots this year. His Shoei helmet has been personalized in Red/White/Blue Camo from ProArt Works. Dana will be using Smith Optic eye protection once again. Again I can only say how happy we are with our association with these sponsors. The people are great and their product is the best.
The road trip east from Northern California to St Louis was quite eventful. Dana and his friend Michael Pastori, and Michael's six week old Pitbull puppy, Iris, planned to get on the road by noon on December 30. Unfortunately we had some extreme weather hit the Northcoast. We don't have that bad of weather as a rule, but when we have weather, we have WEATHER. Our region is known for it's mountain ranges, Redwoods, and beaches, and also for the extreme weather that we will have. We couldn't pull the trailer around the back of our house because the field we have to drive through was too mushy. We had to take truckloads of stuff in the torrential rain out to the street (about 100 yards) and load the trailer on what we affectionately call the 'Walnut 500' (actually it's just plain old Walnut Drive, but people seem to think it's some kind of race track). Luckily Shift had sent us full rain gear for the trailer and since none of us are as sweet as sugar, no one melted in a little rain. Dana and Mike ended up getting on the road in the midst of 60 mile per hour wind and rain and expected landsides on the only Interstate in and out of our area. The guys hit the one way closure (with a threatened full landslide over both lanes of the Interstate) of HWY 101 around 7:45 pm. As they were waiting for their turn to go, rocks and mud were sprinkling down the hill and hitting the trailer and the tires on the truck. The flagman opened things up for the first two cars and Dana just floored it and followed them through. 101 closed at 8:00 and had not re-opened when we flew out of town on January 3. They were on the road and headed toward HWY 80 at Donner Pass. The going was slow and they pulled up to the 'Chain Area' on HWY 80 at 1 am. After chaining the truck and trailer and heading up to the Pass, HWY 80 closed. They sent the guys back down to the bottom of the hill to wait out the storm. While waiting, Dana and Mike talked to the truckers who all said that the road was bad all the way from Donner through Colorado Springs. They made the decision to take the long way and be secure with good road conditions all the way to St Louis. The catch was that it would take them about 16 hours out of their way. OK then. They made Jeremy and Kara's around 4 am (near RPM headquarters in Prescott, Arizona), Jeremy and Kara not only fed and watered them, but took them on the grand tour of RPM and let them catch a couple of hours sleep before heading back out. After a full night's sleep of 3 hours or so, Dana and Mike headed out. They made good time and pulled into St Louis on January 2nd around noon,
After storing the trailer in the pit area, both guys hit the hay for a while. Friday Dana helped to get the track right for Saturday. As Friday rolled on, more and more of our old friends began to pull into the pit area. Dave and Zac Willett, John Forman and his LONGTIME girlfriend Jamie, Mike Walsh and Walt, Kory Ellis, Jimmy White, Stephanie Quick,Darrell Patton, Ryan Barnes and his LONGTIME and beautiful but long suffering girlfriend, Melanie (just kidding, although she must love you a lot to let you scare her like you do...), Daryl Rath, Brian Steele and his family, and Don and Ben Bettis were great to meet up with again. When Skip and I finally got to the Holiday Inn, we could hear hootin and hollering from the Grill and Bar area. We checked it out expecting to see some of our group (since the hootin and hollering sounded real familiar) and we were rewarded with an impromptu welcoming party. Actually they were watching the a college football game and really getting into it. We just joined the fun for a bit. About this time is when we received the news about our colleague Matt Bartosek.
Matt Bartosek was the most incredible person. I am so enormously saddened by his passing that I am not able to express more at this time, but I will be doing something very special about him for his family and fans in the very near future. To be honest I need to work through this a bit before I can go into it more. The main thing is that the entire Creech family feels the utmost sadness in his passing and our hearts go to Debi, John and Jody. Matt's passing is a major blow to all of us.
After the news of Matt's passing most everyone turned in early. There was a lot of feelings held in and a lot of people that just didn't feel in any mood to celebrate our reunion any more.
Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel (this is a joke, since it took over an hour to get breakfast and there were only 8 or 10 people in the restaurant). We walked to the Pits - it's only one block - and began to get our race face on. Jimmy White probably noticed one of the first major changes: we tech'ed before the qualifier! Actually we were one of the first to pass tech inspection. In fact it was a new trend for us to be completely ready when we got there. I guess all that stressing by Skip finally paid off (even though it very nearly drove me crazy). As most racers can tell you, no matter how prepared you are, and no matter how perfect things are when you get to the race, the unexpected can happen and usually does. We decided to mount up a bunch of different tires and have them aired and ready to do quick change if we didn't like the feel of the ones we were using. Also, when Dana had stopped at RPM, he decided to try one of the trick aluminum axles. We had to change axles before practice. No big deal, but if we had showed up half prepared it would have been a near disaster. As it was, Tom Darnall from HiPer Technology personally came to St Louis to take customer service to a new high! Actually he just came to watch the races and we put him to work. I don't think he minded much.
By 11 am over 50 riders had signed up to race. Over half the pit area was Quad riders (and they only let trailers in the Pits -- all trucks and fuel had to be out of the building). The other half of the pit area was devoted to sign ups for Quads and a separate area for the Monster Truck sign-ups (with some of our favorite people), tech area and Monster Truck pits. The quad people had taken up a huge area, simply by our numbers!
Practice was nerve-wracking for me. First I had in the back of my heart the feelings for Matt, and then the fact that this was the first race back for Dana. My worries were for nothing. Dana came out and played smart in practice. He tested the limits of his new ride, the track and the other riders. I watched with interest the other riders. Every season it is a new challenge for me to try to figure out who is who since they change numbers so frequently. Chris Gary, Nick Eastin, and Chris Fristoe were new faces to me and had great style around the track. Don Seay also had an eventful night. Don didn't make the main, but it wasn't because he was slow. Maybe it was because he had a great number (52) that made me think he was doing so good. I know the kids at the pit party thought he was Dana and he spent a bit of time directing traffic down to Dana's area (Dana runs a #4 for the CCE series). Ryan Barnes was looking real good, and making sure I knew he was out there (so I could snap a photo or two I suspect). He lost concentration, however briefly, along the back wall and endoed hard enough to ring his bell and send him for testing to the hospital. Melanie was probably more shook up than Ryan was, but he if he isn't bruised from the wipeout, I suspect she will work him over simply for giving her such a scare. The doctors couldn't confirm any kind of major problem, other than the obvious mental ones, and the psychiatrists are not on call Saturday evenings (just kidding); Ryan came back before the main event in good spirits, but his ride was messed up a bit, so even he wanted to race, it wasn't an option (thank goodness).
Cory Ellerbrock joined me out on the track taking photos in St Louis. He did a great job avoiding traffic, and I hope his photos turn out good.
Daryl Rath had trouble with a washer in practice and needed to do some fancy footwork to get the Predator back on track before qualifiers. He made it just in the nick of time but got a bad start in his qualifier and had to join quite a few talented riders in the LCQ. Daryl made it into the main easily.
The pit party was huge at St Louis. Mucho people attended. So many fans came by tosay hi that we gave away over 1,000 Trader Cards. St Louis fans were very nice and we saw a few familiar faces from some of the national races. I think I saw a few of the ExRiders.com guys milling around. Of course they didn't identify themselves, but they looked familiar all the same.
Qualifiers began around 6 pm. Dana drew the second qualifier. He earned the holeshot and proceeded to stretch out a comfortable lead and began testing lines for the heats. He doubled out of the inside rollers and totally wadded up on of those "FORD BUILT TOUGH" foam barriers. After he spun the barrier around and disengaged the plastic sign from his footpegs, he was on a mission to salvage what he could from last place. It took him a couple of turns to catch up with the closest rider. He got around him pretty quickly and got hung up for a while in the pack. I think that a couple of the guys may have been a little surprised to find Dana riding in such close proximity. Dana was close enough to a couple of guys that they ended up leaving their 'mark' on his rear tire rings. It's a good thing he was running carbon fiber rings, or he may have had to finish on a flat tire after all that rubbing. The easiest pass was on the white flag lap when Dana regained the lead. I think it was Don Daughhetee that just pulled over and let him by. Dana asked him later why he did that. He replied that he thought Dana was lapping him so he let him by. Gee, thanks Don! It's not often that you find such a courteous rider. Still Don earned a front row start in the Heat races by finishing 2nd in the qualifier. Dana made a crazy comeback from last place to first, but it was pretty exciting.
Another exciting qualifier was the one that matched Kory Ellis and Mike Walsh. It was easy to see that everyone else in that heat would be going for the LCQ since Kory and Mike were on a mission. It was insane watching these guys crazy-glued together around that track at incredible speeds. Kory had the holeshot but not by much. Mike wasn't giving an inch. Kory led the entire qualifier until the last lap when he took the inside option and Mike edged him over the Finish line by mere inches. This qualifier was a prelude to their Heat race.
After all the qualifiers, the 50+ riders had been narrowed down to the 20 fastest riders. Skip, Tom and Mike went over the bike to see what kind of damage Dana might have done with his eventful qualifier. There really wasn't anything other than some rubber on the carbon fiber rings (someone else's rubber, not Dana's). I guess that just shows you how close they ride at speeds topping 60 mph. One false move by the rider next to you and things are going to get real cozy; real fast. In fact that's what I saw on a couple of the qualifiers.
The Start/Finish line was midway on the front straightaway. Turn One was a big sweeper all the way to turn Two. I am labeling turn One/Two/Three/Four as the four main corners of the dome. The back straightaway ended in turn Three with a hard switchback that would head toward three rollers or an option lane- but you would take the chance of losing the inside line if you took the option. It was possible to double the rollers, but then it put you in a hard place for the hard right turn that went back toward the inside of turn One. The inside high speed straightaway lead toward a hard left in turn Four with an option toward the Finish line. It seemed that the outside was the fastest here unless there was lapped traffic.
The most common places for self-induced wipeouts seemed to be the back straightaway either right after turn Two or just before turn Three. Another common error area would be the switchback at turn Three, but that area usually was a group effort crashing area. Old friend Sean Berkely had a tough qualifier. First his group was all very evenly matched and four out of the seven ended up side by side into the first switchback. Since that switchback really only had two actual lines, two riders were going to either have to back off, gas on, or be pushed off track. Sean was one of the two that made it through side by side. The two other riders either backed off or didn't gas enough to stay in the game. One ended up spun out and stalled off track and the other rider fought for position. Unfortunately Sean's hard work didn't pay off. Only the top two riders from each qualifier would be advancing to the mains. Still the riders fought on. Sean was pushing hard in third and it was looking like he would be able to challenge for second when he ran into trouble with lapped traffic thinking they were still in the race. The lapper spun out in that same switchback and Sean T-Boned him. This hung Sean up just long enough to take him out of contention. He still had a chance at the LCQ but there were 36 other riders all vying for the same top spots to make it in the main. John Forman also had a tough qualifier. I think he might have been his own worst enemy. He reminded me a lot how Dana was when he first started on TTs. Dana is a very aggressive rider and he would work his way up and hit a corner too hard and spin out. It seemed that John was pulling a serious Dana. In fact I think a couple of John's spin outs scared him to the point he wasn't sure if he was coming or going, but he was pretty confident that other riders were going to be coming around the track real soon and he better figure it out; fast. He did.
The thing about these races is what we thought the very first time we made it to one: it's simply too cool to actually race in a dome and it's even more fun to ride against very fast guys and maybe get yourself on the big screen. No matter if you make the main or not, we were happy to be there. Luckily we made it in. We sure respect all the riders that came out and gave it their all. At some of these races people show up and aren't ready for a serious Pro-Am race. Jimmy White will black flag and send packing anyone he deems not up to the skill level. Not even one rider was thought to be not fast enough. This just means that the skill level in St Louis was up there. Congrats to all of the riders.
Heat #1 found Dana lined up with some very fast boys including Brian Steele, Josh Frederick, Chris Gary, Ben Bettis, Keith Little, Tim Chapman, Ron Hill, Nick Eastin, and Don Daughhetee. Dana took the holeshot and left the pack. He didn't take out any barriers this time and didn't make any mistakes. His bike performed the way it was intended and he cruised into the #1 spot and a quick interview with the TNN people. Rounding out the top five in his heat: Keith Little, Brian Steele, Josh Frederick and Chris Gary.
Heat #2 pitted Kory Ellis, Mike Walsh, Chris Fristoe, Daryl Rath, Zac Willett, Marc Noreuil, Jason England, Chad Greggs, Richard Richtsmeier, and Steve Fournie against each other. Kory took the holeshot with Mike Walsh pushing him around the corner and Ben Bettis pushing Mike. I had never seen this side of Mike. Mike didn't get the holeshot but he wanted Kory to know he was there so he was literally tire to tire and giving Kory an occasional bump. Kory is no slouch on the track as most of you are aware. He is fast. Real fast. Mike is fast too. This was the closest, best race of the night. Mike was on Kory like white on rice. He was just waiting for Kory to ease up just a little. I could see that this was going to be a good combo even in practice earlier in the day. Those two diced it up even then. Some where around the second lap Kory went wide and Mike passed underneath him. Kory didn't take it well. Mike led him for about two laps when he threw a chain. Kory eased in comfortably for a win, but he knew that his work would be cut out for him in the main. Mike came into the pits and resigned himself to a third row start. Nick Eastin was looking good until he lost concentration on the back straightaway. Nick was cooking right along in the same area that Ryan Barns had wiped out, when I am not sure what happened but when I looked over he was on his hands and knees and scrambling off the track with his bike twisted and still cartwheeling. Later it appeared that he was also no worse for the wear with a couple of skinned elbows and a bike that will need quite a bit of love when it gets home.
The Heat races count for points as well as starting position. Normally the racer with the fastest time will earn pole position for his hard work. The Pro-Quad people decided that they would like to mix things up a bit. They decided to draw for line up in the main. Jimmy White and a host of pro riders came in mass over to our trailer. Honestly I thought I might be in trouble for something with the look on their faces when they were approaching. Dana was up in the stands watching the Monsters race so I was all by my lonesome with Mike and Walt at the trailer. Since Dana had the fastest track time he was chosen to do the honors of drawing the chip that would dictate one of three situations for the final line-up: situation one - leave things normal; situation two - reverse order - move the front row to the back and the third row to the front; situation three - inversion - keep the row order the same but move the pole person to the far outside. Keeping in mind just how unlucky I am at gambling, I wisely insisted that ANYONE else draw besides me! I didn't want everyone mad at me if I drew inversion! Tom Darnall walked up about that time and I told him to draw. He drew reverse order (whew!). While reversing the order is not an ideal situation, it does allow for the guys that earned the front row start to remain in the front row.
Dana had to start on the far outside with Kory Ellis and Keith Little right next to him. Dana pulled the holeshot, again, with Chris Fristoe, Kory Ellis and others in hot pursuit. Mike Walsh came from a third row start to around 8th into turn three. Most of the pack was tight; real tight. If anyone had made a mistake it would have taken several down at the same time. Mike had his work cut out for him. He had to weave his way through Zac Willett, Ben Bettis, Josh Frederick and Daryl Rath to name a few. Dana just had to not make any mistakes and keep the gas on. He did that. I began to relax when the white flag came out. Dana was over a straightaway ahead of the second place rider so I didn't feel too worried that he would have to go crazy staying ahead of anyone. Dana said that one of the many bonuses of riding in a dome is that you don't have turn around to see who is behind you. You can simply watch the big screen while you are riding and monitor the guys behind you. Never one to take the standard Checkered Flag victory lap, Dana did it standard for part of the way and then wheelie'd down one straightaway and then did a two wheeled ride on the other before heading up to the podium for his second ever 1st place win as a pro.
St Louis was a great place for us to start the year. Not only was the company great, especially our dinner dates: Kory, Darrel Patten, Mike Pastori and Tom Darnall, but also many friends that we were able to touch base with. Of special note was the Hanks family, so great to see our good friends that have turned coat and ran to the car racing circuit (hopefully they will see the error of their ways and return to us ATVers - just kidding - Keeton is doing awesome and it couldn't happen to a better kid). Also our old friend Tyler, who hung around with us for the last two years - Tyler is moving into the 90 mod class this year. When we were ready to pull out of the Dome Pits, we even got to park on the amazingly empty Dome floor and take a bunch of pictures like the tourists we are! We had so much fun and enjoyed the city so much that we are looking forward to 2004 already.
Thanks to everyone for your support. Thanks to everyone for being there and for keeping the spirit of ATV alive. Thanks to Debi, Jody and John for giving us Matt for short time that we had him.
Don't forget to be careful in all your travels, and also keep in mind that your Mom does worry about you. Don't say that we shouldn't do that! Worry is one of the jobs parents take on.
Be safe, play hard and call your Mom,
Mom
Extra Photos--
Brian Steele1,2,3
Billy Clayton (Sikeston, MO)
Chad Griggs (Jefferson City, MO)
Marc Noreuil (DeLavan, IL)
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