12 Hours of ATV America 2007
- Updated: November 10, 2007
Ironman
For more years than not we did not allow riders to try this race on their own. We felt it would be too much physical and mental abuse on a person and they might end up putting themselves and other riders in danger. Since our tracks feature many areas to safely pass and several riders pleaded with us to allow a one man team the Ironman class was indeed added last year. Low and behold this year saw seven solo riders sign up, (a class record).
One in particular was Todd Macke of Decatur, IL. Todd has competed in the 12 Hours before but never by himself. To attempt this is an extraordinary task for any person especially one who was born with Cerebral Palsy, like Todd. In the end Todd finished fifth of seven and raised over $1000 for his new organization called ART “Ability Riders for Tomorrow”. Todd with his ART program in hand plans to provide the means for people of all ages with disabilities to enjoy the sport of ATVing as much as he has in his 27 years of riding and racing ATVs. Todd’s story was recently told on the front page of the State Farm Insurance newsletter where he is employed. Some 80,000 people receive the newsletter. Our hats are off to Todd, not for his idea of racing the event despite his disability – but for using it to further enhance the lives of others.
The Ironman winner Daniel Pirrie of ATVSkills.com fame finished with a record breaking 43 laps! He also raced with the number 43 and accomplished this incredible achievement on his 43rd birthday! Be sure to read Daniel’s post event bio in the “Pit Talk” feature further in this article. Diehard 6 and 12 Hours of America Ironman competitor Zach Martin (from Ohio) finished only seven minutes behind for the runner up spot. We wish we had a camera on these two throughout the day. Can you imagine the interesting video feature these two could have told as they pitted and learned how close the race for Ironman gold indeed was?
Utility Expert
Team Can-Am (Michael Swift, Cliff Beasley and Rick Cecco) battled long and hard and ended up out running the massive Arctic Cat Thundercat 1000cc ATV of Team West Racing (Jesse West, Josh West and Pat Brons). Team Grizz Racing (Brandon Wallis, Casey Cardin and Tony McDonald) finished a respectable third with a bone stock Yamaha Grizzly.
A
The Ohio based team of Team Performance Honda (Josh Kirkland, Adam Reed and Anthony Hill) took home plenty of money after finishing fifth overall and first in the A class. Team Laker Custom Plastic (Jason Gudde, Derrick Schrock and Jeff Schrock) didn’t do bad at all either. The trio finished runner up and sixth overall. The team that have made six years of Maxxis 6 and 12 Hours of ATV America possible, Team Maxxis (Jeff Horton, Jay Corey and Eric Hoyland), finished up third and a respectable eighth overall.
B
The all-Oklahoma team of Team Auto Intentions (Brett Brown, Chase Ingram and Matt Holmes) took honors in the biggest class of the day – the B ranks. They were followed by Team Willow Creek Boys (Butch Jones, Keith Lee and Ray Aspey) while Team Omar (Gabe Ellett, James Coffer and Shawn Robertson) rounded out the top three respectively.
Youth 13-15
The All-Star team of Team ELS (Neal McGrath, Walker Fowler and Wyatt Gann), who all won youth titles at the WPSA, GNC and GNCC this year battled hard with Team Wild Boys. In the end these two youth teams nearly found themselves collecting top ten overall purse money! They finished with a respectable 11th and 12th place overall! Now that’s impressive! Team Young Guns (Kevin Fonseca, Kenny Fonseca and Kyle Pirrie) rounded out the top three spot.
+30
Team Big Country (John Perkins, Jay Wells and Scott Dunn) finished one lap from a top ten overall spot themselves. Runner up went to three OCCRA riders called Soul Bros Racing (Mike Randolplh, Kevin O’Laughlin and Jason Lawson). Jason Lawson not only raced the event and put his team in contention for the class win – he also helped sign up, score and awarded riders after. I sincerely thank him for all the hard work and all the trying times he went through in sorting out the facts that solved the protests and disputes we had this year.
Industry
Not as many Industry teams took the opportunity to further showcase their place of business and enjoy the day on the track as we would have liked to see. Nonetheless we had five teams in total. Team C&D Racing (Colby Kostman, Dusty Kostman and Shane Schrock) took the win but not after a long day of competition from JH Racing (Jamie Andeel, Derek Henderson and Ty Richardson). Team DNF Racing, who wrote me an incredible letter of appreciation that makes me want to continue the race for many years, finished with a respectable third place. Team DNF was held down by Eddie Bright, Mike Bright and Brian Agnew. Be sure to read their post event bio in the “Pit Talk” section as well. Miss ATV America
Some felt the first annual Miss ATV America Beauty Pageant detoured from the real reason everyone was there, the race. For others it broke up the long monotonous day of lap after lap of quad after quad.
