Daniel Boone MX, London, KY 2004
- Updated: July 4, 2004
Your 2004 Grand National MX Champion, Doug Gust!
GNC MX Round 10
Daniel Boone – Bluegrass MX
London, KY
July 4, 2004
In the beginning of the season many people thought that this year’s pro class would offer the most competitive season ever. After all, Yamaha’s YFZ raised the level of competition, Honda’s new Tim Farr factory supported 450R was just on the horizon and Suzuki would be defending their ’03 title with a full-on factory effort with defending champion Doug Gust at the helm. It hasn’t been this interesting in a long time. With three different OEMs building production based ATVs worthy of a professional national championship and a heaping handful of talented pro ATV athletes worthy of the same, we were bound for a tight close fight all the way to the end, – right? Wrong! No one predicted the kind of season Gust and Suzuki would have. Through ten rounds, the Gust/Suzuki combo have simply dominated the competition, leaving fans scratching their heads with confusion as to how fast their exciting season turned into a lop sided Gust/Suzuki runaway. As for round ten in Kentucky, we have some of the same old news for you.
Nac’s/LSR’s Jason Luburgh pulled the holeshot but got bumped hard enough from behind to send him over the bars and over a retaining fence.
Honda’s Tim Farr won moto one and finished up second for the day.
As Gust made his way to the moto number one line at round ten of the series at London, KY’s Daniel Boone MX, he was reminded that he only needed to have a decent finish and have second place rider John Natalie (East Coast ATV) finish 6th place or worse. If this happened he would indeed clinch the championship. Gust’s reply; “Let’s just wrap it up with another win”. In the end, it was game, set and match as he won the final moto, the overall and the championship. Here’s how it happened.
Moto 1
In the past this event has been held earlier in the year. More than once the Bluegrass Nationals in London, KY have seen three season’s worth of weather. This year the event was moved to July so snow wouldn’t be a factor, but rain would. A torrential downpour hit the track just prior to the pro moto one start.
Ohio’s Jason Luburgh (Nac’s/Lone Star) was first through the narrow muddy access to lap one. It appeared to be nothing but clean goggles and smooth sailing for Luburgh. That all changed with a slight nudge from behind. Luburgh, who looked very impressive in practice, flew over the bars and over a fence in Superman fashion. Luburgh is not lucky around fences. Last year he broke his leg after hitting a fence at a GNC TT. This time he wasn’t injured but this would cost a decent finish for sure. He gathered himself, re mounted and tried to start his LSR Yamaha. Meanwhile a track official hooked a rope to his front bumper and tried to get him off the track before the field needed the space he took up. Even though Luburgh got going, caught up to and passed a few riders he would end up with a DNF on his first moto score card. It was determined that he was illegally bump started, thus the DNF score. Luburgh has appealed this decision. He says he never asked to be towed off the track and started the quad on his own.
As you can see, Farr’s roost made Gust weigh a little more in moto one than he did on in the photo below from moto two.
Yamaha’s Jeremiah Jones (Media All Stars/ITP/JPMX) took over the lead from there. Jones enjoyed clean roost-free-vision and quickly distanced himself from Honda’s Tim Farr (Baldwin/DG/ITP) and Suzuki’s “Digger” Doug Gust (Yoshimura, Hinson, Weekend Warrior Trailers). Jones looked impressive – typical to his hard charging riding style. After the race Jones probably wished he used a little more finesse and a little less of his hard-charging style though. While attempting to put further ground on Farr and Gust, he high-sided and crashed in the mud.
Yamaha’s Jeremiah Jones was on the gas. Bad luck struck however, as Jones crashed in moto one and DNFed moto two.
Yamaha was instantly taken out of the win scenario and replaced with a Farr-Honda or Gust-Suzuki one. “I tried to close in on Timmy, but I used up all my tear-off’s and couldn’t see a thing. When I got right up on him, the roost was so bad that I was literally running blind”, said Gust of his effort to get past Farr. Suzuki Team Manager Wayne Hinson of Hinson Racing saw what was going on. He saw that second place in championship points, John Natalie Jr. was having a bad moto. Hinson saw no need to pressure for a moto win and chance a collision with Farr so he radioed to fellow Suzuki mechanic and pit board man, Randy Lawson to give Doug the “slow down – be smart sign ” sign. “There’s no point in taking chances with the title on the line”, veteran race strategist Hinson said after the race, “We played it smart this moto. We can come back and get them in the second moto”.
Lost Creek Cycle’s Pat Brown finished up with a 6-7 for fourth place overall! Top five overall in his first GNC pro race — Pat Brown is indeed for real!
In the end, Farr rode to a clean, smart, mistake-free victory while Gust finished second. Third went to Jones, after he quickly re mounted from his get-off. Jones’ speed through the mud was something to see. He finished only inches behind Gust. He was definitely the fastest man on the track and would be a threat for moto two, no doubt. Or would he?
Dustin Wimmer (East Coast ATV/Maxxis) finished up fourth. Duncan Racing’s ace, Tavis Cain (Duncan/Roll/IMS) finished up top five. Not too far behind was pro class virgin, Pat Brown (Lost Creek/Donnelson/Maxxis). Brown fit right in with the best ATV racers in the world. His speed and track smarts are not the typical rookie kind. This goes for Wimmer as well. It’s refreshing to see that the future of the sport looks to be represented very well.
John “Ironman” Natalie appeared to finish up the moto in sixth place, but track officials had him in the 14 spot. Since Natalie or any of his pit pit crew saw the 14th place listing in the 30 minute appeal time his final moto one score stood as official. He filed a protest after the race. The decision is pending at time of this report.
ATVA officials came to London prepared. After the race, Gust was presented this sharp looking number one plate – an award well deserved!
Moto 2
High humidity and sunshine quickly sopped up the wet track. This offered perfect dust-free racing for the second pro moto. When the gate dropped Gust and his factory Yoshimura Suzuki pulled yet another holeshot. Dustin Wimmer followed in hot pursuit. Jones, Farr and Natalie rounded out the early top five.
Jones meticulously hunted Wimmer’s every move. You could almost read Jones’ mind. He’s devoted to winning and his aggressive second moto moves looked the part. You could just tell that he wanted a come from behind win badly. Just when it appeared that he might be able to pull it off, the sub frame on his YFZ broke while he hammered through the whoop section faster than most. All Jones could do was pull to a stop and watch the remainder of the race.
Meanwhile another veteran vs. rookie mystery awaited the crowd. Could Wimmer pass legendary Doug Gust like he did in the at the first moto at last round’s Mt Morris GNC? Would Gust show the youngster what’s up? The answer was the later. Gust slowly put distance between himself and Wimmer. While Gust was busy hogging up yet another victory position, competitors were left with nothing else to do but fight for what was left of the podium scraps. Natalie pressured and passed Farr for third. Natalie would not effect Farr’s second place position but hard charging Joe Byrd (joebyrd.com/Maxxis/Hinson) would knock him clear off the podium. As laps came to a close Byrd peaked in but would not get close enough to mess up Farr’s runner-up spot.
Duncan’s Tavis Cain had a good outing with a 5-8 fifth place overall.
On the last lap, mechanic Randy Lawson’s pit board simply read, “You’re #1”. Gust happily cruised in for the massive win. Wimmer took second (third overall). Farr’s typical smart and precise riding earned him fourth in the moto and second on the podium. Natalie looked strong as ever with third in the moto. Rounding out the top five in the moto was Joe Byrd followed by New Jersey’s Pat Brown. Don’t you wish you could finish up forth overall in your first GNC pro class race?
The moto win did indeed give Gust “game, set and match”. It’s been a phenomenal season for the Gust/Suzuki program to say the least. Gust finished up strong with a 2-1 overall and clinched the championship. His win was number seven of the season, a GNC MX record that probably wont be beat. It also marked the tenth podium in as many races. Gust and Suzuki own professional production based GNC MX racing. They now have two consecutive GNC MX Pro Production Championships in the books. “What can I say? It’s pretty simple. My Suzuki performed great all year. I think we’ve proven pretty convincingly that the LTZ400 Suzuki is the best machine out there”, said Gust with his entire Suzuki team by his side – all proudly wearing white ’04 ATVA GNC National Championship tee shirts.
Farr shows no mercy to the little kids in the front row of the podium.
ATV Scene’s own, Kory Ellis (Alba Action.com/ Kenda/Medal Craft) finished up in eighth place overall. On lap two of the second moto, Ellis crashed in the “Supercross Six”. It appeared as though he wouldn’t be riding from then on. Just then, he jumped up and roosted off in hopes of catching up to last place and earning a few points. Much to the crowd’s approval, he ended up not only catching last place but passed his way into 11th place.
Kymco had a sharp looking display and even allowed people to test ride their fleet of Kymco quads.
Kymco Cup
The marketing people behind Kymco decided to hold the first annual “Kymco Cup”. The race allowed ten pro riders to duke it out for two laps on identical Kymco 250s. Riders were allowed to take the machine to their pits the night before the race and change anything they wanted. Most simply changed the machine’s chain, rear sprocket and put race gas in the tank. The best part for last; they offered a $5000 purse! $3000 would go to the winner.
“Ironman” John Natalie ended up pocketing the cash by beating Gil Attix and Donald Lysiner. Other pros included Kory Ellis, Josh Starrett, Matt White among others.
John Natalie took to the Kymco well and won the Kymco Cup while smiling all the way to the checkers. Natalie certainly abused the little 250. He even doubled some of the jumps with it. The little blue devil took everything Natalie dished out at it. He and all the riders competing in this race can’t wait to do it again next year.
Pro Race Results:
1. Doug Gust 2-1 SUZ
2. Tim Farr 1-4 HON
3. Dustin Wimmer 4-2 YAM
4. Patrick Brown 6-7 YAM
5. Tavis Cain 5-8 YAM
6. Joe Byrd 11-5 HON
7. John Natalie14-3 YAM
8. Kory Ellis 7-11 YAM
9. Harold Goodman 10-10 YAM
10. Michael Walsh 8–13 YAM
Pro Points after 10 events:
1. Doug Gust 285 * Clinched 2004 GNC National Championship
2. John Natalie 195
3. Tim Farr 183
4. Kory Ellis 171
5. Jeremiah Jones 166
6. Tavis Cain 144
7. Dustin Wimmer 141
8. Keith Little 121
9. Jason Luburgh 107
10. Joe Byrd 103
11. Jasmin Plante 101
12. Jason Dunkelberger 80
13. Gilbert Attix 72
14. Matt White 63
15. Harold Goodman 58
16. Joe Haavisto 58
17. Nate Frees 37
18. Dana Creech 36
19. Michael Walsh 35
20. Shane Hitt 31
