ATV Racing/Sport Riding News and Happenings
Year 4, Issue 2
by John Pellan
jpellan@atvscene.com
Buenas noches desde San Ignacio, Mexico!
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I'm finishing up the busiest year of my life south of the border in preparation for ATV Scene's assault on the 2002 Baja 1000. The time traveling down the long, bumpy and narrow Mexico Highway 1 finally gives me the chance to up date you on the latest happenings within our great sport. I'm pre-running my section of the course with my friends Poncho Castro and Keith Little. What an adventure! There's far more to the Baja than just 1000 miles.
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Our ATV Scene.com team (myself, Nick Nelson, Poncho Castro, Ceasar "Chanate"
Lopez, Jovany Pinental, Joel Garcia and Jason Greenhaw) is kind of teaming up
with members of what can best be called the All-Star team of; Wes Miller, Tim
Farr, Keith Little and Shane Hitt. We're racing a long travel 440EX.
We originally planned on running an immaculate 265cc Sparks Racing, Arens framed
R, that the core of the team has ran in the prior SCORE events to earn a respectable
third place in the standings as of yet, but we're thinking the 1017 miles will
take their toll on our two-stroke motor. Thanks to excellent sponsorships we've
nabbed along the way, (Trinity Racing, Denton Racing, PEP, OMF, Douglas Wheel,
Maxxis, Wiseco, PIAA Lighting, Ricky Stator, Pro Grip, Tag, Hinson Racing, EBC)
we have the best equipment money can buy and we're very much capable of winning.
I'm really looking forward to this race.
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| You find gas in the strangest places in Mexico, but only if you're lucky. Poncho gets lucky! | Keith drives, Poncho finally gets some rest in the back - I type without shaving. |
Baja 1000 pre run play by play... (all the unfortunate details)
| 12:50 PM Tuesday Poncho, Keith and I met up with Wes Miller and Nick Nelson, driven by their chauffeur, freestyle extremist, John "Pigspin" Chandler. So far they've survived John's driving (and his fowl aromas) with minimal problems. Maybe his triple digit speeding ticket a few days prior has slowed him down - let's hope so. Anyway, Nick wasn't even sore from riding his dirt bike with 3 gallons of gasoline tied to his back after pre running his 240 miles, but he was a little slumped over. |
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1:51 PM Tuesday |
| 5:21 PM Tuesday I drop Poncho and Keith off at their hand off spots. Keith will ride the 237 miles that Poncho and I split up. Keith is happy he's figured out the trick to starting Poncho's XR650 bike and feels good about being able to start the quad they'll be racing -- a specially built Baldwin Motorsports Lonestar XR650 dream quad. |
| 3:12 PM Wednesday I finally get my seat time. This year was pretty full for me and didn't let me ride much, so the 130 mile pre run is going to be fantastic! Despite all the tools and extra weight in Poncho's "training back pack" strapped to my back, I feel great on the 2003 special edition Yamaha Raptor (thank you Terry Beal and Yamaha Motor Corp for hooking me up!) |
| 4:42 PM Wednesday Keith signaled for me to ride ahead so he could ride comfortably out of my dust. Perhaps I felt a little too good on the mighty Raptor and found myself clipping along at a pretty good pace. You guessed it. I crashed and crashed hard. The fourth-gear-pinned-crash left me with a badly broken collar bone, a sore lower back and severe bruises on my hip and leg. I realized that was it, no Baja 1000 for me. It was over just as quick as it started. |
| 4:54 PM Wednesday Trying to beat the fast approaching cold night, Keith and I make our way to Hwy. 1. The 10-mile ride on a bumpy trail with a horribly bent axle and A-arm with a broken collar bone was not in the plans, but a definite "behind the scenes" part of the Baja. I was experiencing the all to real side of the Baja 1000. I now have even more respect for the teams that have finished the Baja. |
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5:12 PM Wednesday |
| 6:30 PM Thursday We find out that two other members of the ATV Scene.com team have crashed and injured themselves as well. Our Jovany Pinental crashed and broke his arm and our Joel Garcia broke his hand. Maybe it's that darn number 13A we ended up with? Anyway, Rory Nevens, our ace mechanic, will step up to the plate and take some of the slack off the rest of the guys. |
Tim Farr injured
Arguably the best all around rider of all time (he's got my vote anyway), Tim
Farr broke his collar bone the day after I did while trail riding in Ohio. He
hit a rock and went over the bars then got pounded by his quad. Unfortunately
the break couldn't be much worse. It's not only broke, but it keeps dislocating
from his sternum, (I'll take my clean break in half over Tim's injury any day).
He still took his flight to So Cal and plans on chasing their team down to La
Paz. Joe Byrd will take over Tim's section.
Kory Ellis injured
More injuries to report on. Kory Ellis fell off his ladder and sprained his
ankle so bad he could barely walk. A record breaking season worth of professional
cross country, TT and MX racing in multiple classes without injury and he gets
hurt on a ladder. Go figure. He did find the foot-power to get in his truck
and go pick up his allotment of '03 Suzuki Zs from Alba Motorsports. Kory will
ride Suzuki thumpers in the Pro and Pro Production class at all the GNCs and
might show up to race one at the first GNCC in Florida.
12 Hours of ATV America to air on television
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Football wont be the only sport seen this Thanksgiving weekend. Mark your planners
and set your VCRs because the inaugural 12 Hours of ATV America will air on
Fox Sports Net's High Octane Wednesday Nov 27 @ 10am/4:30pm/2:30am Eastern/Pacific.
High Octane's Tim Zimmerman said that he has received a ton of e mails and phone
calls from people wanting to know when the event will be highlighted on their
show. We never gave out his e mail addy to anyone so it seems that a lot of
you are pretty resourceful when it comes to wanting to see ATV racing on television.
The event that never was
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I came out to California early and planned on staying late after the Baja was over. Reason - to team up with H-Bomb Films and promote an event that highlighted ATV racing to the fullest. It was to be a pro invitational quad race with a $10,000 purse, and a $5000 Freestyle Showdown. Most of the top names in the sport and the best freestyle quad artists in the world would have attended. In addition we were going to showcase an ATV Offroad Fury 2 tournament, an ATV expo, a wide screen showing of Huevos 5 and we had Alien Ant Farm, Slightly Stupid and Guttermouth ready to rock the house.
The plan was to allow everyone a try at winning a Playstation 2 game unit, the new Offroad Fury 2 game and a dvd or VHS version of the new Huevos 5 video. The ATV Offroad Fury 2 Tournament was to advance the two players with the best lap times of the day. They would then go head to head with the winning pro rider of the the race and the winning freestyle rider in a four player-6 lap main event on the wide screen just prior to the introduction of Alien Ant Farm. Would have been pretty cool huh? Everyone thought so here and everyone but a select few at Sony agreed it needed to be done as well.
It would have went down Dec 7 of this year at the Orange Show in San Bernardino, CA - - BUT Sony backed out at the last minute - leaving this event as another dreaded DNS for our great sport. Not to worry though, our time is going to come - sooner than some might think.
No Huevos 5 video premier this year
Since Sony took so long to not go ahead with the above event, the Huevos 5 video
premier party wont happen either. I've seen H5 (a few times now) and can't believe
what the "Bombsquad" (Wes Miller's crew of aerial ATV acrobats) busts
out in this video. The freestyle bar is now raised. There's also a cool segment
filmed from the vast sand dunes in South Africa, a piece on Jeremiah Jones,
the nationals and more. It's a must see, what more can I say.
Offroad Fury 2
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I've had an unexpected amount of time on my hands all the sudden. Of course
I'm playing this game on Wes' wide screen and if this overdue issue of mine
seems a little light winded, you know why. This game ROCKS! It's game-play is
incredibly accurate and the graphics, (even though they forgot the ATV Scene.com
banners) sound and music are top notch, making it the best video game I've ever
played. I'm not sure yet who's responsible for all the accuracy this game delivers
but I have a feeling freestyle great and D4 Bombsquader, August Goebel, who
works for Rainbow studios in Phoenix, had a lot to do with it. Type in "IGIVEUP"
and you'll unlock everything.
ATV Scene forums
I've been checking out ATV Scene's forums and classifieds. They're impressive
to say the least. There's a ton of reputable, knowledgeable and professional
people within our industry on the ATV Scene forums. If you haven't checked them
out your missing out on a ton of valuable inside info. And if you are a contributor,
it's an honor to have you within the pages of ATV Scene. Thank you for your
involvement! It helps the sport more than you might even realize. Last but not
least, THANK YOU JOHNNY GALLAGHER for all your help with the forums!
Tip of the US hat to O Canada's Richard Pelchat
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An ATV Scene salute is in order for Richard Pelchat for winning the 2002 Canadian
Pro ATV Championship.
"I want to thanks mom and dad for there support through ATV racing. There
company Quero Metal is also responsible for my success. I also want to thanks
Guy Diotte, because he trusted me going in this session, without Splash'n Dirt
it would have been very difficult. See you at the Olympic Stadium for the Montreal
Supercross!"
Name: Richard Pelchat
Age: 20
Class: ATV Pro
ATV: Honda 250R (250cc)
Hometown: Saint-Romuald, QC, Canada
Occupation: Mechanical engineering student. And ATV R&D for RP evolution
Sponsors: Splash'n Dirt, RP evolution, Quero Metal, ITP holeshot Mx, Maier,
DP brakes, Lavertu equipment, Hipertech, Motovan, ADM, Les structures
Pelco, Garage Réal Landry and SS performances.
Flat River Grand Prix
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The Racers for Research, the promoters of the Flat River Grand Prix, have a signed jersey that was donated to them by Angela Moore to be sold to the highest bidder on E-Bay This was the jersey that Angela Moore wore at the GNC TT race at Ford Dodge, Iowa on June 28th and 29th of 2002. Angela finished first place in the women's class that weekend. For 2002, Angela finished first place in the women's class at the ATVA GNCC MX and TT series. She is a 3 time GNC women's national champion. The jersey will be listed on E-Bay Tuesday evening November 19th for 7 days ending November 26th. Here's the link to bid
The money raised by selling Angela's jersey will be donated to the MARCH of
DIMES by the Racers for Research. The Flat river Grand Prix is part of the Missouri
Hare Scrambles Series. The Grand Prix is a two-day event, with ATVs and a poker
run on Saturday. There will also be a peewee race this year on both Saturday
and Sunday morning. Riders must bring in pledge money as their entry fee for
the hare scramble or poker run. Prizes will also be given out for the amount
of money raised by each rider along with the trophies for racing. This is the
sixth year that Racers for Research has promoted the Flat River Grand Prix.
Each year they have raised between $25,000 and $30,000 for the MARCH of DIMES!
For more information about the event check there website at Racers4Research.com.
Underrated rider of the year - Ohio's Darin Ogden
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Unnoticeably Darin Ogden (FTZ/Dirt Track ATV) had one hell of a weekend at
the Missouri GNC TT. So well that I thought I would point it out and give some
fair warning to '03 pro class TTers. Darin was on the podium four times out
of five races that night. And had a respectable outing at the other rounds as
well. In fact he was only two points out of a top five pro overall place and
walloped everyone in the Pro Short Tracks to win the championship title. With
that, he gets my vote for underrated rider of the year. Nice season Darin. He
practically camped out at the podium that night in the show me state. Let us
know if anyone has a picture of him on the podium.
Here are those Missouri finishes:
Short Track
1st open pro oval
1st open pro am oval
4th 250 pro am
GNC TT
1st Pro Am TT
2nd Pro class
E Mail of the Week
Hey John,
I'm glad to see that you are very busy and you're having a great time at work.
I really miss riding and racing and dream about possibly returning next year
or the year after. I haven't rode since Sept. 2001. I'm hoping that things change
for our sport so riders can benefit financially from the ATV Industry. If you
come around the northeast coast or hear anything interesting going on, let me
know. Continue to raise hell out west!
Later,
Travis Spader
Quotes of the Week
"It's not by chance that I eat all the right ingredients for good smelling
fawts", Boston, Mass D4 Freestyle Bombsquader, John Chandler on
his secret weapons.
"Dear Coke, my name is Jaco Cob. I am a 4-time national nose picking champion.
I am looking for 100 thousand dollars to help with my 2004 season. This is what
Doug's resume would look like to Coke because they don't know what ATV racing
is. Trust me these guys are doing all they can to get noticed. Its not that
easy." --Pulled from ATV Scene's forums, '97 Open A National Champion,
Eric Dubb on the subject that ATV pro riders are whiners.
After the course that we had this weekend at Ironman, what was up there in the
woods in Fort Dodge, IA was a super highway. -- Brian Higgins on how tight it
was at this year's Ironman GNCC.
Pix of the Week
 That's Tim Farr behind the wheel of his (Fred White's) FEW sprint car. He says the hit from the motor is like nothing he has every drove or rode. |
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| photo by Jason
Weigand Legend cross country great, Tom Tokay was spotted at this year's St. Clairsville GNCC. Tokay got second in the sport class on a bone stock 250EX! Tom's wife told us that because he had such a blast out there he just might show up at a few more in 2003. |
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| Gary Denton's son, Scotty (Ramos) of Denton Racing. | ....Instant holeshot - Father like son. Scotty seen here holeshoting the La Playa Masters of Motocross. And like pops, he went on to win the race too. |
 Wes Miller (left) and his H-Bomb Films sweepstakes winner, Mike McDondald. Mike filled out his entry, sent it in and won an all expense paid trip to this year's Bardstown TT and Loretta Lynn MX. And he survived going out with Wes for a whole week, not an easy task. |
I finish up this edition from Harry McDermott's desk at Trinity Racing in Anaheim,
while the boys do some last minute tinkering on our race quad. They didn't want
me near the quad - something about bad luck?
Adios amigos!
JP
Mark Weixeldorfer where are you?
| PAST ISSUES: |
Year 4 Issue 1 -- Jan 26, 2002
GNCC Banquet highlights, Production Class news, ATV Scene Race Team, New Year's Resolutions, ATV Industry Magazine launch, SHIFT sponsorship announcement, Brock Parker Race Team Announcement, Huevos 4 DVD, Todd Macke proposal, Quote: William Yokley, Rita Coombs, John Ayers, Bill Ballance, Doug Morris, Pix: Dana Creech Houser/Pro Fab 450R, Tune: Screaming Cheetah Wheelies - Shakin' the Blues...
Year 3 Issue
9 -- Dec 19, 2001
Bike Supercross split up, ATVA Ref Tom Prendergast's 400EX recovered, ATV
Sport's J-Rod Kelly's trip to South Africa, Salute to Hi-Torque's 4-Wheel Action,
ATV Industry Magazine announced, Upper Muddy Racing formed, Quote: Teresa Creech
and Jerrod Kelly, Pix: Spencer Whited,
Tune: Hendrix Christmas...
Year 3 Issue
8 -- Nov 15, 2001
GNC changes - my opinions, WORCS includes ATV racing in NV, '02 rider news,
Honda's new Aquatrax...
Year 3 Issue
7 -- Sept 25, 2001
Ski Resort GNCs?, Rockin' & Racin' report, Answer to Contest-1. Suzuki's
last national win 2.Yamaha's 1st factory rider, Eichner/Winrow win 12 Hours
of Pont de Vaux, Nac's and Cannondale 2002 team up, Mt Morris GNCC, Yamaha's
new Grizzly, Digger Doug's toys...
Year 3 Issue 6 -- June 6, 2001
Showroom floors to GNCC podiums, Warner Racing YZ 426 shop, Contest-1.
Suzuki's last national win 2.Yamaha's 1st factory rider, New Year's resolutions
mid terms...
Year 3 Issue
5 -- May 7, 2001
VA Beach Race, ATVA's new logo, Warlock Chassis, John T Martinez...
Year 3 Issue
4 -- March 25, 2001
GNC Tear Down Procedure, Sparks Racing's powervalve cylinder, 2001 Chocranton
Poker Run...
Year 3 Issue 3 -- Feb 16,
2001
Argentina Beach Race, SFX Finals round 5-6, Jeff Stanton goes
ATVing, New Rides...
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