12 Hours of ATV America 2004
- Updated: October 30, 2004
Team Lost Creek was flat our flying with GNC pro rookie Pat Brown behind the bars. Brown is seen here with Lost Creek’s Kevin M boasting the fastest lap of the day award.
6 More hours!
Much like a red flag re-start situation at a TT race, teams started the second session in the order that they came across the first session finish line. Another Le Mans style start was used for the second session. Team Walsh Racecraft, with up and comer Josh Creamer on board, pulled the holeshot with their custom made 500cc KTM powered Walsh Racecraft ATV. The Walsh Racecraft team of Mike Walsh, Josh Creamer and Germany’s National Champion, Denny Seifner, were fighting to make up for lost time due to a broken rear axle carrier in the first session. Creamer led the field for almost an hour.
Hot on Walsh’s heals was the all too familiar East Coast Honda with the sexy blue #1 plate gleaming from its black fenders. Chris Borich was on board in early laps. Next was the #6 team of Lost Creek Cycles (Dunk., Wimmer and Brown). Rookie Pro GNC MXer, Pat Brown, started the second session for Lost Creek. Even though his team was a lap down, Brown didn’t like his third place position on the track very much, so he turned up the intensity and challenged the leaders. Brown’s motocross background helped him blitz into the lead spot after he clipped through the torturous whoop section along the river like no other rider. He later sailed over even the trickiest doubles on the course and pushed the Lost Creek YFZ for all it was worth. Brown’s hard-charging-aggressive third lap into the second session earned him the fastest lap of the day, a 12:25.860, and moved their team into the lead past East Coast and Walsh respectively. Remember, Lost Creek was a lap down and Walsh Racecraft was six whole laps down — the real lead still belonged to eventual winner, East Coast ATV. Their real threat was the persistent Maxxis Tires team, who by now successfully swerved their way through a whole lot of bunched up riders in early final session laps. At this time, the Maxxis team amazingly shoved their YFZ into the six spot on the track, which was actually second overall.
Sweet Victory~!
JB Racing/American Dream (Jathan Seale, Jeremy Rice and Chris Jenks) battled hard and finished on the podium with a respectable third overall.
Lost Creek Cycles were serious about getting that important lead lap back. The young pro motocrossers continued to push as hard as anyone on the track. This pace took its toll on their equipment however. On lap 32, Team Lost Creek broke their swing arm in half and dropped back several spots. “I really feel like we had what it takes to win this race. Our lap times were just as good as anyone’s out there and we were off to a great second session. A few problems kept us from the top, but that’s how it goes sometimes. We’ll be back next year”, said Pat Brown after the race.
East Coast ATV continued with lap after flawless lap. They later reported that other than their rear hubs becoming slightly loose – they had absolutely zero problems with their 12 Hours winning Honda 450R. Meanwhile, with roughly an hour to go in the race, the #4 Yamaha of Team Maxxis was in hot pursue and wanted a come-from-behind win extremely bad. Bill Ballance rode as aggressively as he ever has. Ballance even sailed through the air doubling all the big doubles and pounded through the whoops in true motocross style. His pace actually put him within sight of Team East Coast ATV. A half a lap later, with roughly an hour and twenty minutes remaining in the race, the Bay Racing Scoring equipment picked up the #1 of East Coast ATV on the ATV Scene.com plasma display. One second later the system sounded off another beep and displayed “#4 Maxxis Tires”. After almost 11 hours the race was separated by a mere second! “We were getting extremely nervous toward the end”, said Matt Smiley of Team East Coast. “That’s classic Bill Ballance for you, — he lays back, lets you make a mistake then he takes the victory from you at the last second.” Bill was up against the red-hot-Chris-Borich however. Chris has recently gotten used to the new Honda and has done very well on it at the last few GNCC events. In fact, Borich has beat Ballance in four straight outings now. Team Maxxis would have their hands full with another problem as well. Since East Coast already pitted, they could finish off the rest of the race without stopping, while Ballance and Team Maxxis had to pit one last time for gas.
Local boys on a mission!
FD Racing shined in their home town and took honors in the Utility Expert ranks.
Team East Coast ATV’s Chris Borich led early in the race, but we’re sure he enjoyed his later laps lead, pictured here, much more.
As the final lap approached Team East Coast ATV continued to ride perfectly. They were able finish up 43 seconds a head of team Maxxis Tires and win the race. Natalie, Borich, Smiley and the entire crew behind the scenes at the East Coast ATV pits kept tabs on the progression of the race beautifully, communicated well and put together a problem-free day. Without a doubt, East Coast ATV proved to be at the top of this ATV racing game. They defended their number one plate with style and dignity and will proudly run it again in the 2005 Maxxis 12 Hours of ATV America on Oct 29, 2005 in Fort Dodge, IA.
Rounding out the top five in the pro class was JB Racing/American Dream in third, Mike’s Cycle World/Duncan Racing (Brad Page, Andris Laqzdins and Justin Short) fourth and the Nac’s Racing team of Bryan Baker, Rhett Butler and Mike Carter, who finished up a strong fifth with their Honda 400EX. The all GNCC team of ECO-Tech (Jason Lewis, Gregg Stewart and Greg Trew) rode a good race and finished a respectable sixth overall.
The fastest amateur team was JB Racing/Twin Creeks (Jake Balsiger, Mitch Reynolds and Cody Miller), who finished mid pack in the pro results and ninth overall.
Statistics |
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| Machines (41) Yamaha YFZ450 (26) Honda TRX450R (4) Honda 400EX (4) Kawasaki KFX400 (3) Polaris Predator 500 (3) Suzuki Z400 (3) Cannondale Moto 440 (3) Aftermarket ATV (2) Bombardier DS650 (2) Gas Gas Wild 300HP (2) Kawasaki Prairie 700 (2) Yamaha Grizzly 650 (1) Suzuki King Quad 700 (1) Honda Rincon 650 (1) Honda TRX250R (1) Kymco Mongoose 250 | Riders *Riders came from 28 different states in the USA, Germany and the United Kingdom 125 traveled West of the Mississippi River 170 traveled East of the Mississippi River 158 called Cross Country racing their specialty 137 called MX and/or TT racing their specialty |
