On The Fast-Trak 6-15-00

GNC Round 6 – I-79 Speedway TT – Shinnston, WV – June 10-11, 2000
Hot, humid West Virginia weather fell on the second annual Mountaineer TT National. Friday night’s round 2 of the AMA Short Track National Championships was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with the track owner’s Friday night stock car racing program. As for the Saturday and Sunday TT National, all systems were go. West Virginia’s very own, Shane “Dog” Hitt entertained his hometown fans by winning the 2000 Mountaineer GNC Pro main event. Hitt also won every other race he entered, including all his heat races and the 250 Pro-Am class.

Team Duncan Racing/Roll Design/Golden West Cycle is still on fire. Spader rocketed off his fast qualifier position on the line and instantly pulled away from the field. Behind Spader was Team PRC’s Keith Little, Doug Gust (TC/Nac’s) and Baldwin/Ferrell/White Bros’ Tim Farr. As laps progressed, the hometown hero Shane “Dog” Hitt found the needed speed to pass his way to the front and move into striking distance of Spader. All the while, Farr worked his way past Gust and gave chase to Little. At the race’s midway point Spader’s lead on Hitt decreased. Hometown fans were on their feet for Shane “Dog” as he slipped by Spader to take the lead. It appeared as though Hitt was flat out faster than “Doc” Spader toward the second half of the twenty lap feature. However, a closer look at Spader’s sleek looking racer revealed he had a flat rear tire. Somehow lap after lap, Spader managed to log consistently impressive 31-second lap times with a flat tire. “I was just lucky the tire that went flat on me was my inside tire. There is only one right handed turn, the others are all lefts- I could get good drive off of them and maintain second place pretty comfortably”, said “Speedy” Spader while on the podium. Little held Farr for third. The rest of the pack had to deal with a ferocious John Natalie, who picked off riders all race long on a 16th to 6th place charge. “I totally messed up on the start, somehow I clicked it into neutral – the green light fired and everyone was gone”, said Natalie after the race.

“Travis was definitely on the gas. He sure has proved that he’s the guy to beat this year if you want to win a national championship. I knew he wouldn’t want to do any major bar banging with me and chance not collecting 1st or 2nd place points. I guess I had some luck going my way when his tire lost air”, said Hitt at the closing ceremonies. “I really need to give thanks to Curtis Sparks, my Sparks motor was a big reason for me being able to get to the front and win in front of my hometown fans.”

Pro Class Results
1. Shane Hitt (Sparks)
2. Travis Spader (Duncan/Roll/Golden West)
3. Keith Little(PRC/Nac’s)
4. Tim Farr (Baldwin/Ferrell/White Bros)
5. Doug Gust (TC/Nac’s)
6. John Natalie (Burgard Cycle)
7. Tom Miller (TMM)
8. Chris Bartholomew
9. Michael Walsh (Walsh Racecraft)
10. Ben Jackson (TC)

Pro Class Current Points
1. Travis Spader (161)
2. Shane Hitt (127)
3. Doug Gust (119)
4. Jeremiah Jones (111)
5. Tim Farr (95)
6. Keith Little (89)
7. Joe Byrd (81)
8. Ben Jackson (72)
9. John Natalie (69)
10. Justin Gandy (64)
11. Kory Ellis (60)
12. Ryan Detrick (41)
13. Chad Lohr (39)
14. Mike Walsh (33)
15. Johnny Hale (28)
16. Jimmy Elza (25)
17. Jeff Seegott (24)
18. Tom Miller (22)
19. Kevin Carlotto (21)
20. Chris Bartholomew (18)

For full amateur class results just click here:
http://www.amadirectlink.com/amrace/00atv/00atv.html
It’s the ATV GNC results page found on the AMA website.

Next Stop on the GNC Tour—Mt. Morris, PA for the High Point MX on June 24-25. For additional event information surf over to www.racerxill.com

GNCC Round 8 – Boyers, PA — June 3rd, 2000
By ATV Scene GNCC Correspondent Scott Johnson
Duvall Wins Boyers!
That’s right Chad Duvall took the overall by a minute over Bill Ballance
to win the mudfest at Boyers, PA.

Pro Results
1. Chad Duvall (Duncan/Roll Design/Golden West)
2. Bill Ballance (Maxxis/Rocky Ridge/LoneStar)
3. Kim Kuhnle (Yamaha)
4. James Wahl (Laeger)
5. Justin Brown (Laeger)

Wow, a couple of newer names in the top five this race. This just goes to show you how competitive the GNCC Pro class is getting. I did say mudfest, didn’t I? Heavy rain the day before the race made for a course that was slicker than nasal drip from 200 hundred 1st graders in the middle of winter. This is great for guys like me in the utility class (since most are 4x4s). It is also bad for guys like me who are aspiring back of the pack reporters. Because all of the pros looked the same when they would come up and very gingerly and politely ask if they could get by.

Along with the mud there were plenty of BIG ROCKS; BIG HILLS; BIG MUD HOLES. I think this was responsible for more DNF’s than normal. I saw a lot more ATVs than usual sitting or stuck all through out the 10 mile course. I finished but ended up bending an axle and cutting a tire if that gives you any idea of how rough it was. I think some of the big bottle necks may have attributed to the time gap between the top riders too.

Next Stop on the GNCC Woods tour: Brownsville, PA on June 17th. For more GNCC event info. click over to www.racerxill.com/gncc  . Give me some feedback too. Here’s your chance to have a say and influence the GNCC articles. E-mail me at Sjohnson915@aol.com

Making the Scene
Chad Duvall
Chad makes the Scene for claiming his first GNCC 1st win of the year on his Team Duncan Racing/Roll Design/Golden West Cycle 250R.

Tom Miller
If you’ve ever met Tom Miller you don’t need to read this to know what a class act guy he is. Good-old-southern-boy Tom from Yuma, TN has been riding ATVs since way back when he was just a little kid and they only came with three-wheels. Twenty years later he’s still a hard core ATV racer. Tom took home 7th place in the Pro class at Shinnston and an extremely respectable 2nd in the 250 Pro-Am class. Miller also owns a highly successful aftermarket shop called Tom Miller Motorsports (TMM). Need any hop-up goodies? Give TMM a call at: 901-986-0893

Shane Hitt
The Dog dominated all weekend. In the days of high-dollar aftermarket racing chassis, Hitt still kicks ass on a stock 250R frame. With his big win in his home state of West Virginia, Shane moves into second place in the points and puts himself in a great position to make a serious run at the GNC title. Shane-Dog is having a fantastic year. Travis Spader’s great success this year seems to over shadow Hitt’s points totals a bit, but with a bunch of TT races still remaining–Hitt’s specialty–he’s got a good chance at winning the GNC championship.

Travis Spader
The doctor is in the house – now take your medicine and report directly to the back of the pack. Spader was smokin’ fast once again. He logged in as the fast qualifier and in the main he shot to the front and left everyone to fend for themselves in his roost. His rear tire went flat midway through the main, but somehow it didn’t slow him down much. How many flats can you have in the GNCs? He’s had two now (London, KY and Shinnston, WV) so we’re thinking that the chances of another flat aren’t too likely. Have you noticed how awesome Spader’s setup and engine has been working all year? His new Duncan Racing PC2000 power-valved engine is unstoppable! It sounds crisper and sharper than most of the competition’s. Spader has continued to holeshot his way to front of the pack ant just about every national so far. And let’s not forget the Roll Design chassis. If T-man wins this thing, we want invited to the party – it should be a wild one.

Keith Little
We’re thinking Keith sure wishes that axle didn’t break at Red Bud. With his impressive rides at Danville and now Shinnston, K-man very well could be holding down third or fourth place points. None the less, keep an eye on Team PRC/Nac’s/ITP/Sparks Racing’s Keith Little, he should rack up some impressive points during the second half of the season and better that number 6 he’s wearing now. Interestingly enough, Little almost missed his Shinnston heat race. Little’s mechanic Chuck Moores and Mike Walsh’s father collided in the pits. The impact from Walsh’s pit bike hitting Keith’s quad was so great – it bent the right A-arm severely. With only minutes until the main event, Team PRC switched the A-Arms while Little rode down on his brother Greg’s race quad and explained what happened to the ref in order to get his allotted 3 minutes of repair time. All in all everything worked out – except we understand Mr. Walsh now has a broken collarbone.

John Natalie
Natalie is putting on an extremely respectable charge in his quest for tallying up as many GNC points as he can. At Shinnston, he flat out flew! With a better start, he would have been up front and giving Spader and Hitt a run for their money. He also fared well in the Pro-Am Four-stroke class—taking the win over Kory Ellis. Look for Natalie to win a pro GNC sometime soon. You’ll know it when he does, he’s got the loudest and wildest pit crew cheering him on. Does anyone else remember when Natalie used to ride a pink JP 250R in the pro class back in the early 1990s? We do. Glad to have him back from retirement and glad that hot pink is no longer in style!

Darren Ogden
This Ohio rider has big-time TT talent. Once again he dominated the 250A class, winning wire to wire on his FTZ/Dirt Track ATV/Blendzall 250R. John Fitzpatrick at FTZ is building some fast 250 class legal stroker 250Rs.

Yamaha Raptor 660
ATV Scene is attending the Yamaha 2001 ATV model press introduction next week. AND we’re bringing Tim Farr along to get the lowdown on how it performs! Look for an indepth report on Yamaha’s new sport quad on ATV Scene soon.

Team ATV Scene
Oh, yeah! Your ATV Scene editors, John Pellan and George Davis, finished 4th and 5th respectively in the Open Pro-Am class at Shinnston.

GNC Youth Classes at Shinnston, WV
The little guys took center stage Saturday night under the lights and the race action was intense! In 90 Mod class action, Fischer Cycle’s Cole Robbins slowly reeled in Cody Hurst to take the win, passing him in the last turn. Kent Robinson claimed the 90 Superstock win, while Cory Ross took the 70 Mod checkers. The crowd was definitely into the youth classes. Kudos to Rita Coombs and the Racer Productions crew for giving the next generation of ATV pros the spotlight during the Saturday night Pro TT program.

Justin Gandy
Joins the growing pro class YZ brigade by purchasing Harold Goodman’s Walsh Racecraft YZ400. Gandy chose to ride his 250R at Shinnston, but look for him to possibly ride the thumper on the blue-grooved, slick uphills of Mt Morris.

Scott Bulter
If you ever get a chance to check out Scott ‘s tricked out Trinity Racing/LoneStar Banshee, go for it. This thing is insanely fast and built with many innovative Trinity Racing secrets, including a hydraulic clutch. This is Butler’s second Open Pro-Am win of the year. We understand that Dirt Wheels Magazine is planning to do a feature on Butler’s screamer sometime soon.

New Duncan Racing Catalog
Loren Duncan is proud to announce the release of his new catalog, featuring his potent line of Duncan Racing/Paul Turner products as well as Roll Design chassis and Custom Axis shocks just to name a few. Surf on over to www.duncanracing.com for more information.

TM Designworks
TM Designworks manufactures a wide array of ATV chain rollers, guides and sliders. The TM products offer improved designs that last much longer than stock and have a warranty. We’ve been torture testing their 250R product line on our MX and TT quads without failure. Give them a call at 541-535-1612 or write for a free catalog: PO Box 355, Phoenix, OR 97535.

New Products from Baldwin Motorsports
Baldwin Motorsports—home of 3-time GNC champ Tim Farr—has released a whole host of new products including: front wheel hubs, heavy-duty 250R gear sets, bearing carriers, case savers and many more. Drop them a line at 440-224-2734 to request a catalog.

For all you 400EX owners who want better front braking than the single piston stock caliper provides, Baldwin manufactures a front caliper mounting bracket that allows for mounting 250R dual-piston front calipers on 400EX aluminum spindles. They retail for $199.95/set. This also is the hot setup for anyone running Walsh Racecraft or Roll Design 250R a-arms that utilize 400EX spindles.

The new Baldwin Motorsports billet cable guide bolts to your steering stem block and keeps your control cables organized. It’s available in blue, red or natural aluminum for $29.95.

Buckeye National News
If you haven’t already heard… this race is the can’t miss event of the year! Yes, we promote it, but regardless it is the one GNC no one should miss.

This year’s GNC at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio on July 21-23–the 2000 Jerry Ferrell Yamaha Buckeye Nationals–has already been talk of the pits at each round of the GNCs. The action kicks off on Friday night at 7 PM with high-speed, bar-banging flattracking action on Wayne County Speedway’s famous 3/8 mile oval AND a special ATV Freestyle exhibition (Round Two of the Division 4 Triple Crown of ATV Freestyle) — www.divisionfour.com . If you’re a fan of spectacular “can-can’s”, “heel-clickers”, “supermans” and other high-flying tricks, then you won’t want to show up late and miss Friday night’s extreme action. Then on Saturday, besides witnessing the world’s best quad racers racing for the biggest purse in GNC history, we’ll set the Kangaroo Kid loose once again to try to break his Guinness world record distance jump!

The Kangaroo Kid is the Evil Knievel of 4-wheeled ATV distance jumping. He’s got no fear and he’s ready to launch his specially-tuned KTM 550 two-stroke, Phillips-framed quad off of a wooden ramp at speeds approaching 100 mph!! The Kangaroo Kid will try to fly his quad through the air and hopefully land safely an incredible 200 feet from the take-off ramp! At last year’s Buckeye National, Coulter’s attempt on breaking the record ended in a horrifying crash, which was featured on FOX Television’s Guinness World Records Prime Time. This year, Coulter is back with vengeance and determined to fly his ATV to an unheard of 200 feet and break his current Guinness World Record! The attempt will again be broadcast on worldwide television at a later date, but don’t waite months to see it on TV. Be there live for this once and a lifetime event!

The world’s best quad racers! ATV freestyle acrobatics! Beautiful trophy girls! The Kangaroo Kid’s world record jump! Tons of free prizes! Vendors. Autographs, and much, much more for only ten bucks a day! And kids under 10 are FREE!

Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio is only 9 miles East of Wooster and 27 miles West of Canton. For more information, call Fast-Trak Promotions at (440) 461-4858.

Legends 2000 Update
While your making your reservations to check out the Buckeye Nationals in Orrville, Ohio, you might as well stay for the whole week and stroll up to Ashtabula for round 10 of the GNCs and the much talked about – Legends 2000 hoopla.

Latest gossip on the event has Allen Knowles from CT Racing losing twenty pounds as he trains in the California heat for the Legends Race. A conversation with Dean Sundahl says that the king of the desert knows TT racing pretty well – so look out. We asked if the King of Baja if he would be riding his Yamaha Banshee from his home in Santee,CA to Ashtabula, OH. His response, “that might be a bit too far even for me.”

Arrangements are being made to have the exact three-wheelers that Curtis Sparks raced back in 1975 on display in the pavilion. It’s a an old Honda US 90 three-wheeler that Curtis worked his magic on. He turned it into a 213cc alcohol-burning missle. We are also making arrangements to put Curtis’ championship winning 1985 200X on display! These Honda ATCs, Jimmy White’s Tecate three-wheeler, posters, looped videos and a much more will be on display. All this and a tribute to ATV racing’s departed riders will make up the ATV Racing Hall of Fame exhibit. The weekend will be highlighted with several activities, including a special Legends video feature from H-Bomb Films. This video will explain how ATV racing got started and where it’s going. There will be videos of history-making racing events, interviews from the pioneers and a look at who these legends were in our great sport. If you have a piece of ATV racing nostalgia, whether it be one of Gary Denton’s number one plates, a home movie of a particular legend in race action, or a picture of someone or something making ATV Racing history that you think deserves to be in the ATV Racing Hall of Fame, by all means drop us an e-mail at info@atvscene.com or call Fast-Trak Promotions at (440)461-4858.

Thank you’s for making this event possible go out to:
Nac’s Racing, Maxima Lubricants, Works Performance, Hollywood Racing, PEP, Pro Design and Hinson Racing.

Nac’s Racing Air Box Plug
Look what we found. It’s an air box plug for the TRX250R. It’s used when the air snorkel is removed, the plug keeps mud & water from entering the airbox. The newly-designed plug comes with an extruded lip that presses flush against the rim of the hole. It also has a wider clamping area. Best of all, it sells for only $6.95! Part# NC013 at Nac’s Racing (914) 246-3086, or cruise to their web site at www.nacsracing.com

“Ask Curtis Sparks Race Team”
An arrangement to add another feature to ATV Scene has just been made. Readers will now be able to ask Curtis Sparks and/or the entire Sparks Racing team any questions they might have. We honestly can’t think of a person more knowledgeable in ATV performance than Curtis Sparks. If his successful personal racing career is not proof enough that he knows his stuff, then maybe you need to ask any of the top guns in ATV racing who they think knows how to get the most out of an ATV. You’ll find that even competing race teams will admit Sparks is the master of horsepower and performance. So if you have a tech question (or any other question) that you want the real truth on, just “Ask Curtis” (or any other member of the Sparks team). Here’s how you do it. E-mail your question to: curtissparks@sparksracing.com and look for the answers to your questions to be posted in our Ask Curtis Sparks Racing forum.

GNC Series T-Shirts now available at ATV Scene
You read all about the GNC series here on ATV Scene, so what better place to debut these one of a kind GNC Series T-Shirts. The shirt features our 1999 Grand National Champion — Doug Gust, all twelve rounds of the GNC city and states and all the series sponsor logos. Shirts are 100% cotton and come in blue or white. Sizes S,M,L,XL, and XXL. To get yours just send a check or money order for $24 (this includes shipping and handling) to Fast-Trak Promotions 6532 Highland Rd. Cleveland, OH 44143.

Quote of the week:
“Some people will probably sign in to call me a murderer. That will be a waste of their money.” -OJ Simpson, on his upcoming for-fee Internet chat site. Geez, what is this world coming to.

Tags:

Comments

comments