On The Fast-Trak 6-6-01
- Updated: June 6, 2001
Year 3, Issue 6
GNCC’s Kirton Ranch on TV
We just saw the first round of the GNCC television report on Fox Sports Net (also on the Empire Network). You need to check this out! EXCELLENT coverage! GNCC bike legend Mark Hyde captures some really cool camera shots with his Fox Sports Net helmet cam. Then he, Larry Myers and Bob Walker combine for great narrating. Don’t just take our word for how impressive the coverage is, here is Bill Ballance’s thoughts of the hour long ATV segment. “They did an incredible job. I didn’t think they would be able to follow the action as good as they did. It’s way better than I would have thought it to be. Those guys (Fox Sports Net) definitely did their homework on this”.
Quick Recap from the Macon, GA GNC TT
“Digger” Doug Gust pulled the holeshot and rode off to the main event win. Tim Farr, on his Baldwin Motorsports 250R, hung on Gust’s every move for a few laps but faded with a minor get off on lap 7 of the 20 lap race. Jeremiah Jones quickly advanced on Farr’s mistake and rode in Gust’s shadow for the rest of the race to take second. Shane Hitt rounded out the podium finishers.
1. Doug Gust
2. Jeremiah Jones
3. Shane Hitt
4. Travis Spader
5.Ben Jackson
6. Joe Byrd
7. Nathan Dallas
8. Jason Luburgh
9. Chris Gary
*Approximately 30 minutes after the race, Tim Farr noticed that the Georgia Promoters Group score keepers had him in the 17th position on the posted finals. After the race many pro racers and people on hand reported that Tim Farr advanced himself through the pack and was on the current lap in the 7th position, not a lap down like the scorers had him listed. After some investigating, Donny Banks changed Farr’s overall position to 7th place. The following morning there was a verbal protest with referee Tom Prendergast, claiming that no protests were made in the official 30 minute protest time after the main event. With that, the person believes they should have been awarded the 7th place position that was originally given to them the night prior. Tom Prendergast investigated the matter and changed the overall back to what the scorers had as final. This put Farr back to 17th position — giving him a total of only 4 points instead of the 14 points that he feels he earned by working his way through the pack.
From the showroom to the racetrack
For the first time in over a decade stock ATVs directly from manufacturer have made their way to a podium of a pro GNCC event. Steve Holbert and Curtis Crump have the honors…
Steve Holbert’s basically stock Cannondale FX 400, which is available to anyone at a Cannondale dealer, worked good enough to give him a third place overall in the pro class at the Clarksburg, WV GNCC
Curtis Crump charged to third place overall on his BONE STOCK Yamaha Raptor at the Uhrichsville, OH GNCC. Crump prefers the Raptor in almost all situations, especially the mud.
(Photo by: Julie LeMay) Tim Farr put Yamaha in the GNC pro class winner’s circle for the first time ever at the ’01 Muddy Creek GNC.
Contest time — Go get your thinking caps.
Recently a couple of the printed ATV publications reported a few incorrect GNC history facts. This has inspired us to hit you with a contest. It’s a two part question that will win you a Special Edition 2000 Grand National Series T-shirt if you get it correct. Only avid ATV enthusiasts will know this one….
Yamaha recently won their first ever GNC pro class win when Tim Farr won the 2001 Muddy Creek National on his 440cc Baldwin MotorsportsYamaha YZ powered race quad. (By the way Tim is not teammates with Duncan Racing’s Ben Jackson — He’s a Baldwin Motorsports team member for life). Although Tim is not an official factory rider he does get support from Yamaha through Jerry Ferrell Yamaha in Medina Ohio. With Yamaha’s recent GNC win and Tim having somewhat close to a blue factory ride, — our first question is all Yamaha…
1. Who was Yamaha’s first official ATV factory rider and what year was this?
Doug Gust and Suzuki recently made ATV racing history as well. Doug Gust used his Suzuki DR powered fourstroke to win the London, KY GNC. Doug gave Suzuki their first ever fourstroke GNC pro class win. In doing so, he made ATV racing history by becoming the first rider ever to win a pro class GNC on a thumper! Riders like Curtis Sparks, Mickey Dunlop, Todd Williams, Tim Weaver and many more have won GNC events on fourstrokes but until Gust’s London win, none have done it in the lucrative pro class, (formerly known as the “250 Pro Class”). With the recent incorrect reporting of Suzuki’s last pro national win, — we come to our second part of the contest…
(Photo by: Julie LeMay) Doug Gust becomes the first rider to ever win a pro class GNC on a fourstroke powered ATV. He did it at round 2 in London, KY.
2. Before Gust’s recent win, who was the last person to win a GNC on a Suzuki? Also, what year and at what event did he win it at?
We’ll report the first three correct answers in the next Fast-Trak column. Each will win the GNC Millennium Collectors’ Edition T-shirt.
E-mail your answers here: contest@atvscene.com
Good Luck!
New Year’s Resolution Mid Terms
In our January issue of our On the Fast-Trak column we posted a few new year’s resolutions from a few people in the ATV industry. Now that one half of the year has past, ATV Scene has decided to grade our participants. Our grade is below each.
Steve Johnson — Crow Canyon MX and Wiseco Piston – “My new years resolution; Do everything possible to help promote the growth of ATV racing and provide support to it’s riders that make a difference week in and week out such as Tim Farr and others who provide the professionalism that this sport needs to attract new outside sponsors that will enable its growth and a bright future. My second resolution is to not put my foot out while cornering!”
F – Julie LeMay — “To not be single anymore”.
Steve Johnson, Wiseco’s Off Road Products Manager and owner of the Uhrichsville, OH — Crow Canyon motocross/cross country track and facility gets an A+ in living up to his new year’s resolution.
A+ — Steve has done the above very well. He’s also been a major factor in bringing back a successful District 12 (Northern Ohio) racing program. All the while, he’s turned his Crow Canyon motocross park into a national worthy facility. It’s nice to have a dedicated dirt bike guy sincerely care and do something about the growth of ATV racing.
F — Shows major capabilities of success on this, but needs Tim Farr’s cooperation.
Jerrod Kelley — ATV Sport, managing editor — “My New Year’s resolution is to compete in at least one race (maybe a GNCC track). Teaming up with my wife in attempt to have our first child is also on the schedule!
F — On the GNCC ride. Unless he raced and still hasn’t finished?
A — On the sex with wife, (no proof — but it’s a good assumption.)
The Winky Monster, Jim Winkelbauer – “This year I’m going to quit having sex for money”.
F — We saw him at Red Bud, lipstick all over his face, panties in his pocket and a shit eatin’ grin on his face. Plus he broke out a new hundy at the bar!
Sam Jackson — “It was to quit drinking beer, but hell – I blew that last night”.
F — No improvement since January 2nd.
Jimmy “Superfly” Elza — “Mine’s to break Coulter’s distance record”.
F — On the resolution.
A — On being smart enough to not try it. We can’t bare to see him busted up again.
Teresa Creech — “My new year’s resolution is to actually update Mom’s Race Column within a week of each event – HA!”
‘F’ — However we give her an A on all the hard work. And admit we would have failed ourselves if we took on this resolution. Some of you might not know this, but there is zero money and massive amounts of hard work and time involved in having an online ATV magazine.
Dana Creech — “To Drive Grave Digger in the SFX series”
B — We’ll give Dana partial credit for his mini Grave Digger drive at the London GNC.
Jeremiah Jones — “You know what I want.”
A+ — The points’ race says it all.
Kory Ellis — “I’m going to double check my pipe mounts before every race”.
A+ — We haven’t had to hold our ears once this year.
Brad Warner — “To go all year without breaking my shoulder”.
We would rather not grade Big Bad Brad on this one – Brad can’t afford any gooching from us.
Joe Byrd — “Together, Doug and I are going to try to stop Farr, Spader and Jones from completely dominating. And no more Pintos — I’m going to be on a Cadilac for ’01, thanks to East Coast ATV. I know that we will do better this year than last year for sure. I’m also going to get rid of the black cloud that has haunted me for the last few years, and enter 01′ with clean new image”.
A — Big Byrd, with help from East Cost ATV has held true to his resolution.
John Pellan – “I’m going to continue to take ATV racing to a higher level!”
Incomplete — Needs more time and way more cooperation.
photo by: Julie LeMay Massillon Ohio’s Scott Zollars recently scored a 1-1 at the Red Bud GNC to win his first ever Open Pro-Am National. Zollars says buying Tim Farr’s old national championship winning R and training his butt of all winter was all worth it.
First time winners
As a former Open Pro-Am ATV racer who came close but never came home with that national cigar, I know how hard it can be to win a GNC National (especially when funds are limited). In appreciation of how rewarding it must be to bring home the big W — and have it for life, the following recently won their first Pro-Am national: Scott Zollars, Dave Diver, Matt Bartosek, Jason Dunkelberger, Khris Butter, Chad Lohr, Nate Frees.
Stolen Trailer and race quads
Jeremy Hamilton from Huntsburg, Ohio planned on a successful and fun outing in the 250A class at this year’s Red Bud National. Wrong! Thieves ripped off the Hamilton family race quad hauler and with it two 250R racers and a ton of spare parts. We last heard that the empty trailer was found in Indiana. If you have heard any news on stolen national race quads let us know so we can forward the info to Jeremy.
Since Yamaha has no plans of putting their potently fast fourstroke YZ 426 motor in an ATV chassis, Brad Warner will do it for you.
Brad Warner’s Yamaha YZ Production Line
Big Bad Brad Warner has an option to all the time and hassle of putting together a competitive pro caliber race quad. Brad has put together a plan to offer customers race ready Yamaha YZ powered Laeger, Lone Star, or Walsh Racecraft framed race quads. If you’re in the market for a quad like the one Brad, Kory Ellis, Tim Farr, Jason Luburgh, Dave Diver and many others are using as their choice ride, then you might give Warner Racing a call and see if this option is for you. Seems like a great option to having to wait several months for a frame to be delivered, going through the hassle of buying a new Yamaha YZ 426, trying to sell the motorless dirtbike, figuring out and buying all the components that are needed to make it work, and wrestling with the project installation for months. Brad has several of these brand new super-thumpers in stock already.
Waner Racing
573-820-6132
Are the ATV aftermarket companies ripping racers off?
We’ve interviewed a good handful of riders and industry aftermarket companies about this. The first ever “shared interview” will be posted in a few short days. — It’s great reading!
Fullbore
Curious where you get that great looking plastic like Tim Farr and many more of the top name riders are using? Well here’s your first start in finding out. Surf over to Fullbore’s new web site…www.fullboreinnovations.com
Scott “baldy” G ponders a few possible brand names for ATV racing sponsorships while sitting down for a spaghetti dinner compliments of Outerwears and K&N Air Filters.
Outerwears/K&N Spaghetti Dinner at Red Bud
If you’ve been attending the GNCs you might have noticed more and more people hanging out at the tracks longer before venturing off to their hotels. Many are skipping the whole hotel scene all together because there’s simply too much fun to have at the track! GNC sponsor coordinator, Ray Christy has been organizing planed track side parties at the nationals. His latest creation was the free to all Outerwears/K&N spaghetti dinner. Christy has organized a different fun filled happening to go hand in hand with just about every round on the series. The London GNC hosted a Baldwin Motorsports/PEP pizza party. Round 6 in Macon, GA had another spaghetti dinner along with a country music gig. Maxxis is going to give a set of tires away at the Mt. Morris GNC along with some other cool prizes from the ever popular “Maxxis Games”. Challanger will host a “Nac’s Racing Snac-Attac” on Friday night. Rem-N-S Productions and Scott USA will be hosting “Movie Night” at the Loretta Lynn’s National, while ATV Scene.com promotes the 4th annual “Pit Crew Challenge” event. We’ve also heard tentative plans on a “Maxxis Talent Show” that will pay winning participants some pretty decent money. Christy also tells us that he has a few surprises in the works as well
Quotes of the week
(Yelling over high revving motors with only seconds to the Open A moto one gate drop) -“OK – you turn left then back to the right, down the ski jump, over some whoops, over a tricky double that you really have to gas it hard to make. Then two doubles – stay on the gas hard the whole way through or you’ll never make it — shit dude – just wick it -you’ll be all right” — Kory Ellis to Denton Racing’s right hand man, Nick Nelson, who arrived at the Red Bud National for the first time with only seconds to spare for the first moto of the Open A class and prepared to race the first moto without ever seeing the track.
(Yelling while the Red Bud number 2 card disappeared behind the starter’s number 1 card) – “Wait Kory! Which way after the first turn again?” — Nick Nelson to a laughing and highly entertained Kory Ellis.
“Holy Shit! He just pulled the holeshot on the whole field!” — Kory Ellis laughing out loud while Nick lead the entire pack in his classically clueless first lap voyage.
That’s all for now… Will the real Slim Seegott please stand up…
Pix of the Week
Jeff Seegott, Professional ATV racer …..
Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees and 2000 World Champion Pitcher
Fox Sports Net interviews Jeff “Andy Pettitte” Seegott about the differences and similarities of GNCC ATV racing and GNC ATV racing. Surprisingly, no Yankee questions were asked.
Hubbard, Ohio’s “Dirty” Curty Crump prepares for a “pimpin” night on the town after his podium position at the Uhrichsville, OH GNCC.
Larry Myers, one of the best ever voices of motorsports, (right there with Doug DeSpain) finds himself thick in the ATV scene. Look for Myers comments and all the GNCC action on Fox Sports Net. (Some cable systems will pick it up on the Empire network).
