12 Hours of ATV America 2003

Maxxis Tires 12 Hours of ATV America ™
Fort Dodge, IA
Oct 25, 2003

 Pit Talk
Brandon Ballance, GT Thunder Team
“The bike is working great”
“Never raced in the dark before, and you just kinda a know the course and what to expect and play it smart”
“We are all doing are part and it is a team”
“A great race that is so fun that is getttin beat up and slick with blue grooves”
“laughs, I like a fast track and I really like the course because it is great”
“Come up on a slow rider and I try to pick a different line and go for it”
“Bottlenecks haven’t been bad and everyone is respecting one another”

Chris Borich
“Spent about an hour an half each time out”

Mike Krachun
“Its was different, not what we are use too”

Mike called me with updates throughout the day yesterday as well… he said the track was really cool. It was pretty much wide-open (like a stock car racing track – that’s how he compares it since he’ll be racing stock cars next year). He said that it was pretty much wide open, but the woods were a little tricky since the bike was much wider than a GNCC bike is set up. They really had to take their time in the woods unlike at the GNCC’s. They did have some problems during the race… had to re-drill 3 footpegs, fender bracket broke off the frame, + routine maintenance (lube/tighten chain, change air filter, etc)… but they came through & won!

They each rode a gas tank at a time & then the next team member raced. Borich started the race (guess Mike & Matt wanted him to be the one to “run” to the bike since he’s the youngest

Mike called from the podium & yelled “YEAH BABY” to let me know they won.
Now, for the long ride home… Mike won’t be home until about 11pm tonight! By the time the left the track it was 1am CST, they stopped for a couple hours to sleep & then continued around 8am somewhere in IL.

That’s all for now.
Trish Krachun

We are 4-playracing.com (Jay Schwerman, Guy Sutton, and Chad Weinen) we led most of the race the first session but the blew out a right front hub bearing. We got it changed and then got up to eighth by the end of the first session a lap down from the leaders. We worked all the way up to first by the middle of the second session running the fastest lap times in our class and then had steering stem problems 2 times. With all these problems and losing over an hour total we are happy with eighth overall but oh well we’ll be ready next year. Congrats to Troy Racing on the A class win they ran great and didn’t have any failures or breaks, wish we could say the same!

We ran neck and neck with the girls all day and some of the night ..they are awsome riders !!! we were riddled with problems at the end !! broke a spindle and lost 30 mins due to being for ever away from the pits when it happend , then smoked a stater and had to change the batt every three laps to keep it running and have lights ….went from fourth to 11th
We did have a blast !!!
Also are little rascals team dominated the utility class all day long !! was also riddled with problems on the second half
Bob Bartlett changed a axle in 4min on a grizzly!!!! wow !!!!!

Way too go guys & gals!!!
It was a tough race, District 23 – was putting the smack down on a lot of teams, but………the course took it’s toll on the quads.
Little Rascals-(utility-Grizzly 660) broke 2 drive shafts & the rear frame holding the rear diff.
Team Girth- (B class-Stock KFX 400) 10th – Well……. they bent about 3-4 stock tie rods
Bartlett Racing- (A-class- Z400) 11th – broken spindle, the same lap Alba Action girls broke there’s, & wiring problems @ nite took it’s toll on 3 batteries.
A BIG THANKS to everyone there, working, cheering, & helping each other out!!!

Thanks for the support – we were running well until about 3 laps before the break – our FCR lost the needle retainer bolt (my fault, practically the only thing I didn’t loctite during our prep work) and caused serious jetting issues and throttle sticking as it bounced around in the top of the carb and tangled with the slide linkage.
Next, we lost a lap at the break coming in just after the cutoff due to the carb problems & an extra pit slowing our pace.

At the restart I jumped on the quad, and waited for the field to leave – then worked on the carb for a few minutes (at this point, still didn’t know what the problem was).

Rode another lap with the throttle sticking – pulled in the pits. Was going to replace the carb, but found the real problem – lost 10 minutes fixing it.

After that the quad went back to running well, but I was fatigued from the whole process and wasn’t able to turn laps I was happy with. We battled for 1st, then 2nd, then 3rd before finally getting back on track.

When darkness fell our top secret headlight system kicked butt and allowed us to really kick up the pace – we made 10 overall positions in the dark and ended up 15th overall (during the daylight we were running anywhere from 20th to 25th).

Congrats to all race teams that finished – finishing itself was a huge accomplishment!
Team Emu – you guys had a great battle going for 2nd / 3rd and made up a lot of time in the last hour.
PS – finally, someone got a pic of me on the quad! (I’m in the gray Moose jacket and red/gray helmet). All the pics I’ve seen except for one posted here are my other two riders — including the Ft Dodge, IA Sunday Messenger front page spread with a pic of our quad!!!
Thanks again for the great race coverage and the support! I’d also like to thank Lazarus Sommers at GT Thunder for all his help.

Hertz Racing had problems in the AM leaking antifreeze fixed it. Came back in later on for pivot bolt nut backed off raplaced bolt and rear sprocket. 29th overall and last in class. 2nd half no problems worked our way up to 9th in class and 14th overall. We finished and now we know what and what not to do.

Whew……I’m beat!!!
That was a blast, we are very happy with our finish, we went up there not knowing what to expect. We didn’t even take spare parts. Luckly we didn’t break anything! Thanks for the air filter Laz! Congrats to everyone that finished, it was a physical and mental drain. I didn’t even have the energy to go to the awards giveaway! I battled with Jason Lewis on the last 3 laps and it took every last ounce of energy I had.

I can’t wait till next years race, I will be much more prepared (LIKE HAVING A TWIST THROTTLE INSTEAD OF THUMB )

Big thanks to GT Thunder, Hiper Wheels, Burgard and Houser for all their help! And a special thinks to Rick Cecco for the pit help!

Gabe….I saw you out on the coarse but never could find you in the pits (not sure what you look like). I also looked for Colby and Dusty but never could find them either.

Tprender, nice to meat you! You are one heck of a good ref!
Now to start making plans for next year.
Jeff
03 Blaze

Team QuadShop GNCC:
Jeff Stoess (me) 4-stroke A, Blaze
I was one of the riders for “Wisconsin Quad Riders”. Great PIC!! We were running in 5th after the first hour but the tranny went out on us. We had to do a complete engine swap and were down for about an hour. Including the tow back from the mx part of the track. That put us back to last place but we rode hard and ended up 15th for the “B” class.