Bartosek Celebration Race 2004

Matt Bartosek Summer Celebration 2004
Pymatuning Holeshot Raceway
Linesville, PA
Sept 5, 2004

Sixteen pro level riders showed up to claim their share of the big pro purse money, but if you asked any of them, they were more there to celebrate the life of Matt Bartosek, who lost his life while racing his ATV.

Heavy rain had many thinking there might not be a second annual Matt Bartosek Summer Celebration. That wasn’t the case. Pymatuning Holeshot Raceway crews did a fine job of getting things back to how they were on Friday. Prior to Friday, Pine Lake’s Bud Fischer offered a hand and tuned the track into a more ATV friendly one. Bud’s dozer handiwork would later be very appreciated by “Ironman” John Natalie, as he used every square inch of the track to incredibly pass his way from nearly last to first in route to collect his share of the $5000+ purse.

Heats
Jason Luburgh looked to be ready to take on all by easily winning moto one. Behind him were PA riders Bobby Ross, Matt White and Jason Dunkelberger.

In the second heat, John Natalie walked away from Pat Brown Mark Kendall and Jesse Shaeffer. Natalie seemed to slow up and wait for his apprentice, up and comer, Pat Brown. Luburgh logged the fastest heat and the fastest lap in the heats, although, like we said – Natalie was play riding at times.

Natalie’s Dominance
All sixteen riders got to go to the feature race. Three started behind the thirteen man gate. It appeared that Jason Luburgh pulled the holeshot but drifted a bit wide, allowing Pat Brown to sneak through a hole that Luburgh and Natalie weren’t guarding. Thirty seconds later, at the halfway point of lap one, a massive pileup formed on the small tight course. As the dust cleared and the riders settled back into their single file line, much to the delight of the many spectators (who were also there to celebrate Matt’s life), John Natalie and Jason Luburgh got tangled up. Those wanting to see a good race were in for a treat as the two fastest riders were now stopped by themselves on lap one.

Natalie was first to break free, Luburgh was dead last. Lap times were about a minute and seven seconds. Since twenty laps were planned, there was time to pull off the mini miracle, but was there room to pass on the tight course? The answer was yes. While Pat Brown and teammate Jesse Shaeffer led the field Natalie and Luburgh were passing through it and approaching fast. Natalie seemed to find opportunities past riders faster than Luburgh did and found third place by the midway point.

Natalie continued to work his way through the pack. On a tight, hard to pass on track with multiple riders, we were expecting Natalie to have to force his way through by bumping and grinding. That wasn’t the case, Natalie rode a clean respectful race, taking his time to get to the front one rider at a time. Before he knew it he was in Brown’s shadow, but not for long. Much to the crowd’s approval, Natalie slipped past for the lead. From then on he simple walked away only an occasional lapper slowed his impressive speed. In the end, extraordinarily, Natalie easily won the race. Brown surrendered and rode off to a respectful second place, while hometown hero – Matt White worked his way to the last spot on the podium.

As for Luburgh’s charge from last. He spent many laps glued to Jason Dunkelberger’s rear fenders trying to move into the four spot. The two rode inches from one another for what seemed like a half hour. Maybe they were a little too close. On the second to last lap, the two dove into a left hander hard, neither wanting to give an inch. The result of being in the same place at the same time put them both on their heads. Both were ok but frustrated about wrecking.

Interestingly enough, from the podium, “Ironman” John Natalie thanked Debi Bartosek for the great event. After that he mentioned that he was proud to be there for Matt. Then, in front of many dirt bike riders, who shared the weekend’s activities at Holeshot Raceway, he said “I’m also proud of our sport’s recent growth. I think quad guys are now recognized more and slowly considered as an equal to the bike guys. I’m happy to be a part of this sport. It’s really on the move! And to tell you the truth, I think we make better role models than the bike guys do too.”

Bigger than the race
Debi Bartosek, (Matt’s mom), closed the event with this, “I’m so happy to see all of Matt’s friends here enjoying the day together. I think this weekend was so appropriate. Matt mentioned how he hated riding in Cody Hurst’s funeral. He disagreed with it. During Matt’s funeral, we got one of the worst Winter snow storms ever, so we weren’t able to let friends ride to the cemetery. I think he planned that somehow. Here we go again. We had planned to watch some of Matt’s old videos on the wide screen on Saturday night, but it rained. I think Matt made it rain as to not make people sad with those videos.”

Lastly, Debi thanked Unlimited Sports, JB Racing, Capp Steel, Lost Creek Cycles, Kame’s Sports, Douglas Wheel, Baldwin Motorsports, Lucky Dog Racing, PEP, Pymatuning Holeshot Raceway, Gear Racewear, AC Racing, ATV Four Play, Bortnick Tractor Sales, Jos. J. Dragon & Son Inc., DP Brakes, Fischer Cycle, Full Bore Innovations, Hetrick Racing, Hinson Racing, Horsepower Inc, Legacy ATV, Lonestar Racing, J & J Motors, Mothers Polish, North Ridge Yamaha-Suzuki, Ogram Heating & Cooling, Outerwears, Owens Motorsports, Rem-N-S Productions, Scott USA, TC Racing, The Rider’s Edge, Triumph Motorsports, Williams Motorsports and Wiseco Piston for helping with the event.

Debi signed off with “88 4Ever!”

Results and photos are on the second page.

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