12 Hours of ATV America 2004
- Updated: October 30, 2004
Fort Dodge, IA
Oct 30, 2004
Promoted by: Fast-Trak Promotions, Inc.
Scoring by Bay Racing
photos by John Pellan and Jim Nance
*Special thanks to Nathan Delabar for help with this report
Maxxis girls await the introduction of last year’s winning team, East Coast ATV.
103 teams originally signed up for this year’s Maxxis 12 Hours of ATV America race. By race time, an official 99 teams were present, up from last year’s total of 68. All but two teams went with the full three-rider max. After Ft. Dodge, Iowa trick or treators invaded the 12 Hours mini block party in the pits and some severe Friday night weather blew over, — it was finally time for Saturday morning’s special occasion.
Since the original 12 Hours course had been converted into a car racing track, and the soon to be state-funded-ride-park is not yet available, promoters, with help from participating land owners and the city of Fort Dodge, converted three pieces of private property into a temporary race track. Thanks to a lifetime of ATV racing experience, track-smart Bryan Shipley and Bruce Breeser masterminded and created a race track that equally challenged cross country, motocross and TT racers beautifully. By Saturday midnight their track would total a combined 23,000 miles of ATV abuse. The course was roughly six miles long and featured all types of terrain including several gnarly off-camber wooded areas, a few tricky doubles, a massive whoop section that ran parallel to the Des Moines River, and one enormous straight stretch that made its way right down the center of the pits. Teams were wedged in tight, with only twenty feet of width permitted. One after another, in perfect uniformed progression, stood a collection of some of the most diehard riders in today’s ATV racing industry. Teams formed a bond of unity that any US military general would proudly claim as his own platoon. The track would soon become the roughest in 12 Hours of ATV America history! It would take an effort of combined talent, determination and discipline to just finish this legendary race. “Survival” was the word most mentioned in the pits.
During intermission, after kids got to trick or treat through the pits, announcer Mark Straubinger ran a costume party.
Yamaha was nice enough to give a lucky ticket holder a brand new Yamaha Raptor 80….
And the winner is???… ..Chris Borich? Are you kidding? Nope, Chris won just about everything that could possible be won that day.
The #1 Honda of East Coast ATV awaits Chris Borich in the pole position.
A Le Mans style start would be used with both six-hour sessions. 98 riders nervously made their way to the fluorescent painted starting line and awaited the introduction of the 99th. Last year’s Maxxis 12 Hours champions, Team East Coast ATV (formerly known as Team Hi-Per Wheels) were cordially introduced by announcer Mark “Banger” Straubinger “Banger” excitedly announced the champions. First to make his appearance was 2004 GNC #2 Motocross star, John “Ironman” Natalie, who replaced Mike Kruchun from last year’s team. GNCC #4, Matt Smiley was next. Last was first session starter, GNCC #3, Chris Borich. All the pre-race hype turned to collective silent concentration, as Borich made his way to the pole position, where he joined the others and waited for the gunfire start signal. The 3rd annual Maxxis 12 Hours of ATV America was a mere ten seconds from its official start.
Chris Borich leads the pack through early first-session-mud.
On with the first battle
Team East Coast ATV was serious about getting away from any potential bottleneck situation or collisions with other riders. Borich sprinted to his team’s perfectly prepped Honda 450R, kicked started the number one machine and quickly left the enormous field. Fast-Trak Promo crews awaited with chain saws in case riders busted out the seems of the slippery off-camber uphill through the woods. Rider after qualified rider successfully negotiated the multi-lane tricky areas without incident. Some thirteen minutes later, the field completed a problem-free lap-one. Two laps later, the day’s worst injury happened to Team ATV Scene.com, (Tom Farr, Jim Stack and John Maley), when Maley of Canton, OH crashed the lone Suzuki King Quad while running second in the ultra competitive Utility Expert class. Maley severely broke his arm in the crash. We’re happy to say his doctor expects a 100% recovery. Unfortunately for Team ATV Scene.com, the crash broke the King Quad’s rear axle and ruined hopes of proving that a bone stock utility quad could fair well in its class.
Cody Miller of the 188 of Team JB Racing/Twin Creeks. .
GT Thunder’s Laz Sommers had his hands full at all times. He helped his B team win and he helped wrench for the Maxxis Tires pro team.
With just a few hundred dollars shy of $30,000 on the line, the biggest story of the day was indeed the pro class. Eighteen pro teams were gunning for the biggest prize money in the ATV racing business, (up from 14 teams last year). Early on in the race, #111 Outlaw Racing, #222 Thumper Racing, #4 Maxxis Tires, and #29 DeRisi/Houser Racing all gave chase to Borich and his black East Coast ATV Honda. As the field completed the first lap, Team Maxxis, with multi-time GNCC champion Bill Ballance on board, passed their way into the lead. East Coast trailed closely. Believe it or not, eleven hours later, these two teams battled it out as if lap-one never ended. More on that later.
East Coast ATV took over the lead on lap two when Bill Ballance stopped to adjust their suspension. “Bill came skidding in on the second lap. We knew we had some sort of set up problem”, said teammate Johnny Gallagher. “Bill told me later that we were set up way too soft and we would have surely broke a frame if we tried to race it like it was. Fortunately we were able to swap out the rear shock in less than two minutes!”
The first to have trouble was the all North Carolina team of DeRisi/Houser Racing (Santo DeRisi, Bryan Cook and Michael Houston). A dead battery was the start of a their day’s bad luck. Within the next few laps the #500 of Team ECO-Tech and #88 of JB Racing/American Dream made their presence known by challenging for the top four spot. After a 10th place start the #44 JPMX Suzuki made their move into fifth place on lap seven, where they stayed consistent for the next ten laps.
ATV Marketing Director for Maxxis Tires, Thad Josey was not surprised that the entire pro podium ran Maxxis tires. This has happened in all three years as well!
On lap 16, (a little past the first session half way point), Team Maxxis (Bill Ballance, Brandon Ballance and Johnny Gallagher) rolled to a stop as East Coast ATV continued to dominate. “I had a really good pace going. Then all the sudden I smacked a rock pretty hard. It knocked our skid plate off and wadded the chain up into the front sprocket. By the time we got the chain on, limped back to the pits and got the problem fixed we lost about eight minutes”, said rider Brandon Ballance. Team Maxxis was now back to fifth place but more crucial was their place on the track. They lost eight minutes, which could have been much more if it weren’t for a well prepared fast-acting Ballance/GT Thunder pit crew. Since East Coast ATV continued to sprint through the first session, they very well could have put a lap on Team Maxxis. To try not to let this happen, Team Maxxis ace, Bill Ballance, hopped on their repaired blue Yamaha YFZ and picked up the pace in legendary Bill-Ballance-pace. The way the race is structured, only laps carry over into the second session. So there was still plenty of hope for an overall at the Maxxis camp.
The 188 of Team JB Racing/Twin Creeks (Cody Miller, Jake Balsiger and Mitch Reynolds) dominated the A ranks.
When Mike Walsh told us he was teaming up with “a local kid down the street”, we were a little concerned for Team Walsh Racecraft. It turns out Josh Creamer was a great addition to the team. He even led the second session field for nearly an hour!
East Coast ATV’s John Natalie was informed of Team Maxxis’ trouble. “Ironman” Natalie kicked it up a notch and tried to catch up to the flustered Maxxis team and put them a lap down. “Our plan of attack from the beginning was to ride hard, put everyone a lap down in the first session and build a good cushion”, said Natalie earlier. There were far too many prepared professional teams for East Coast to actually lap them all, but we’re willing to bet if they could pick one team to lap it would probably be Ballance’s team. If Ballance could maintain his quick pace and not allow East Coast ATV’s John Natalie to lap him, Team Maxxis would start deep within the pack on the second session, but with some crafty first lap moves they could very well wind up back in the hunt!
Missouri’s Team Dirt Works (Josh Owens, Butch Jones and Jake Wyatt) finished top five in the A class and 15th overall with this sharp looking YFZ.
Maxxis 12 Hours of ATV America event founder, John Pellan, explained why the event elects to only carry laps to the final session, “It takes more than three talented riders to win this race. Every person in the pits has an assignment and a responsibility. The way this race is set up, strategy is just as important as logging good laps. For example, smart teams will try to stay on the lead lap, pay attention to how long they have until they might be lapped – and use this time for a long pit stop near the end of the first session. If we carried time to the next session, pit stops would be much shorter. We feel longer stops, more strategy and less second session math, (which leaves everyone guessing as to who is actually winning) — all equate to a more interesting story. Future television segment producers’ only interest is that of a less-confusing and more-interesting story”. Pellan added, “If we carried time into the final session, in this case, even with the quick-acting Team Maxxis pit crew, their team would have been eight minutes down the whole race. They wouldn’t have been able to get back in the race and their incredible last-hour-charge that their team accomplished wouldn’t have meant anything. There wouldn’t have been a first session nail-biting situation, and there wouldn’t have been a come from behind near-win with an hour to go in the final session. Instead, pit crews, riders, spectators and potential television viewers would have been left subtracting and adding time to each other’s score in an effort to figure out who might have a chance to win.”
Dirt First / Cherryhill Cycle (Mike Kyte, David Kyte and Curtis Forrester) walloped the competition in the +30 class.
As the first session drew to an end, Matt Smiley took over for East Coast ATV. He opted to keep charging and continued to try to put a lap on as many riders as he could. While many teams used the later laps of the first session to prepare for the second session dark, East Coast kept speeding by their pits to try to put Team Maxxis a lap down. They almost pulled it off.
In other first session action, GNC MXers #6 Lost Creek Cycles (Pat Brown, Jason Dunkelberger and Dustin Wimmer) also had chain problems in the first session. They too were able to quickly fix the problem and stay in contention. Team JPMX (Jeremiah Jones, Harold Goodman and Jeremy Lawson) had an unfortunate race-ending set back near the end of the first session. After impressively charging all he way to third place from a tenth place start, their engine let go.
