Birch Creek MX, Danville, VA 2005

GNC MX Round 5
Birch Creek MX
Danville, VA
April 16-17, 2005

With a little hard work and persistent anything can be accomplished. Carl Reynolds, Mark Keen and Ken Ferrell, otherwise known as River Bottom Promotions, and their Birch Creek MX GNC are testaments to that. River Bottom Promo applied to have a motocross national for many years but since the Birch Creek TT was already on the GNC schedule they were often overlooked. Not willing to accept this, the trio continued to push to get a spot on the mighty GNC motocross schedule and eventually succeeded. Now in its third year, the Birch Creek stop (this year’s fifth round) was the most successful and enjoyed of the three prior Birch Creek MX Nationals.

This year’s improvements were vast! First the track got a face lift. It was widened and a new section was added. Drainage ditches were then added and the pro pit area was widened, leveled and gravel was added. On this day, Birch Creek track crews had their work cut out for them with dry dusty track conditions. The sun and wind continued to bake and blow the moisture out of the track. Track crews watered and disked the track until 5am to combat this problem for Sunday’s racing. The effort was certainly there, and in the end, other races have had far more dust problems. In the past many riders disliked this track because it was hard to pass on. Not this year, as Lost Creek’s Jason “Slam Dunk” Dunkelberger and Suzuki’s Jeremiah Jones can attest. Speaking of this, here’s how it all went down in Southern Virginia….

You would think $2+ for a gallon of gas would keep people from this year’s ATVA ITP Grand National Motocross Series. We’re thrilled to report that that’s not the case at all. This year’s turn out has been outstanding! This round was the weakest of the year so far but even so, with some five hundred entries logged, we’re sure you’ll agree with us when we call it a success. 21 of these entries made up the pro class.

The two Honda backed 450Rs of John “Ironman” Natalie and Tim Farr took the early lead. Suzuki’s Doug Gust followed in third. As the moto progressed, and as typical to the last two rounds of the series, Natalie quickly checked out. Meanwhile, Doug Gust crashed hard over a high speed double. He and his Suzuki Z400 flipped and rolled like it was dropped from an airplane. Fortunately he got up but took a beating nonetheless. The worst blow was to his back. Somehow Gust made his way back to the saddle, remounted and took off. “I just couldn’t turn right”, said Gust later about continuing after the crash as well as riding in the second moto. “I could position myself good enough to make left hand turns but there’s something wrong in my back that made it really hard to make a right”. Gust took off to the hospital after the event to get a professional opinion about his back.

While current points leader, Doug Gust, limped around the track, his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate, Jeremiah Jones, sprinted from a lousy start. It wasn’t too long before he found himself pressuring Tim Farr for third place however. Jones came from mid pack and had to be tiring from all the work it takes to pass through the caliber of riders currently racing the pro nationals, — but he sure didn’t show it. Jones eventually disposed of Farr and slowly pulled away. Natalie would be too far out front to reel in, or would he?

Jones didn’t think so and kept his Suzuki pinned to the stops in an effort to try to catch the hottest rider of the year, Mr. John Natalie Jr. On the final lap, Jones remarkably did just that. Jones was locked to Natalie’s bumper for several final turns in the final lap, but could not make a safe clean pass to get by and settled for a very well earned moto one runner up spot. Farr finished up with a sizable third place lead over Joe Byrd. East Coast ATV’s Dustin Wimmer rounded out the top five respectably.

Travis Spader continued to show consistent quality finishes by completing moto one in sixth. Perhaps the ride of the day, belonged to Lost Creek’s Jason Dunkelberger, who started the race twenty seconds after the field left. He went on to pass a whopping thirteen riders and finished up in seventh. “When I clicked it in gear the clutch never engaged and it shot forward and locked me up in the gate”, said Dunk before moto two’s start. “I got it going and rode the whole race without a clutch”, added Dunkelberger.

 

Moto Two
For the first time in 2005 dry weather GNC history, someone threatened “Ironman” John Natalie. Jones seemed to have his eye of the tiger back and it was obvious he was extremely serious about stopping John Natalie’s domination. Anticipation for another great moto’s worth of professional racing ravaged the Birch Creek hillside. “That was some awesome racing! The second moto is going to be intense. If someone wants to win they’re going to have to get ahead of Natalie early.When he gets the holeshot he’s unstoppable”, said GNC ref, “Smitty”. Smitty would later be exactly right with his prediction as Farr got out front of Natalie and led wire to wire.

Yamaha’s Kory Ellis pulled the trigger fastest and led the field toward the first sweeping off-camber left-hand-turn. When the dust settled however, Honda was right where they wanted to be, as Tim Farr led the field. Ellis rode in the two spot, but eventually got passed by Natalie. Unfortunately for Jones, another bad start meant he would have to work extra hard again in this moto. He did just that. It was said that Jones was pulling the fastest laps of the day. Those extra seconds added up. Jones soon found himself fighting in the four spot. Meanwhile Farr continued to lead the race in genuine smooth-as-silk-Tim-Farr-style. To Natalie’s credit, he didn’t need to rub elbows with Farr for the moto win, as the overall was already in his bag. “This is what Honda pays us to do. Tim and I were up front. There was no need to challenge him and disturb this. I didn’t need to win the moto so I hung back and rode smart”, said Natalie from the podium after his overall victory. While Natalie rode smart, Ellis picked up the pace and closed the gap between him and thirteen of Natalie – proving he and Yamaha are a serious threat to run up front and win in the near future.

Joe Byrd, was busy putting two good motos together but ended up crashing hard after charging through a whooped out uphill section just a tad too fast. Byrd’s quad looked like a yard sale after the crash but he still managed to ride it around and finished the day with an 11th place.

Rounding out the top five in the second moto was Lone Star Racing/Nac’s Jason Luburgh. Luburgh was later disqualified however after he received assistance on the track in moto one. That marks the second time Luburgh was DQed for such a thing, (it also happened at the London, KY round in 2004).

In the end, John “Ironman” Natalie did it again. In case you’re counting, that’s three in a row. Whenever someone shows the Ironman a wheel or beats him in a moto, the machine-like mentality in him triggers and he goes out and trains all the harder. With that said, his work is cut out for him, but there’s a chance we could see a Doug-Gust-win-streak out of Natalie this year. Stay tuned to find out.

Current Points:

1. John Natalie 117
2. Tim Farr105
3. Doug Gust 95
4. Jeremiah Jones 93
5. Keith Little 79
6. Travis Spader 79
7. Kory Ellis 72
8. Joe Byrd 62
9. Jason Dunkelberger 54
10. Patrick Brown 48
11. Jason Luburgh 46
12. Harold Goodman 46
13. Dustin Wimmer 44
14. Tavis Cain 43
15. Matt White 42
16. Joe Haavisto 35
17. Dustin Nelson 22
18. Donald Lysinger 18
19. Gilbert Attix 17
20. Giovanni Colon 11
21. Donald Lamborn 10
22. Greg Meeks5
23. Josh Creamer 3
24. John Pierson 2
25. Brit Mansell 1

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