Dave Porter’s Old School
- Updated: April 25, 2013
By Dave Porter
Photos by Daniel Owens and Jorge Cuartas
Well I couldn’t be happier that the first national of 2013 is over with, it wasn’t so memorable but was miserable. I’m talking about the weather of course. Unless you’re one of those crazies that actually likes 40 degree ice cold windy rainy race days, then you probably agree with me.
Yeah mud races and all that go with them are a pain in the butt, but if you know how to take advantage of the bad weather and make the correct changes to you quad set up, you can actually turn the wet muddy track into an advantage.
Without giving Casey’s competition too many helpful hints, I’ll divulge just a few tidbits to make mud races a little more tolerable and possibly give you some faster lap times when conditions are less than desirable.
The number one thing is to raise you quad. Not so much for ground clearance, put to raise your center of gravity thus allowing for more weight transfer giving you more traction in the corners. Another one you might consider is to change to taller stock-type tires. Also narrow up the back of your axle by taking off you hubs and moving the spacers. Those are just a few hints that you may have overlooked. I’ve got a few more but those will cost you.
As for our season opener, Casey’s and my race day started off well but didn’t go as well as we had hoped. We qualified 9th in timed qualifying. We were safely in the show and we beat a lot of very fast pros. Things looked to be going well, but everything went down hill after qualifying. I did something that I’ve never done before, I left three of four lug nuts lose on one of Casey’s front wheels. Now this wasn’t some sort of 3-wheeler riding test that I wanted Casey to experience, It was a flat-out screw-up on my part. I did go back and track my steps and I figured out the circumstances that caused me to screw up. The bottom line is I messed up and thank God Casey didn’t get hurt. We ended up pulling out of there with just ten points.
Round 2: Muddy Creek
The best and only way the put a bad weekend behind you is to put your big boy pants on, move forward, and bust your ass the next weekend. So that’s what we did. We had the tenth fastest qualifying lap, got second out of the gate in the first moto, ran second for four laps, and finished 11th overall for the day. Hey it could have been a lot worse. Some bone head could have left a couple of lug nuts loose, right?
What I’ve learned from the first two rounds….
I have just a few Old School observations after observing the first two rounds of the 2013 Mountain Dew AMA ATV Motocross Nationals.
First off, Joel Hetrick is the man right now! And let me tell you, his dad Rich can flat out build one bad-ass Honda! Joel would be unbeaten right now if not for some missed communication with a pit board at the first national. At the second round at Muddy Creek Joel pulled two of the cleanest most picture perfect holeshots you’re every going to see in the Pro national level. Together father and son made it look easy.
It’s super cool to see a full gate in the Pro class again. Although it’s a shame that it happened at the expense of the Pro-Am Production class. Maybe they should look at cutting some of the A,B, and C classes. Just my opinion, but I think there are way too many classes at the nationals.
This is just an observation but I expected more than what I have seen when it comes to Mountain Dew being the title sponsor to the ATV Nationals. I guess I expected more hoopla, something monumental. We’ve never had such a big outside the industry sponsor so I thought their title sponsorship would have been a much bigger deal, but so far all I’ve seen is some banners, a 14 foot Mountain Dew wrapped trailer, and an ez-up. Maybe I’m being way too critical. I just expected something more 2013-cutting-edge out of the deal.
Lastly, I’d like to welcome Daniel Owens as the new Old School photographer. This guy really takes incredible pictures. I’m sure you will all enjoy them.
Casey Martin, his family and I would like to thank the following sponsors for their support:
PRP Racing (Dave Porter), Dasa Racing (Dan&Brandon), T&T Motorsports (JT), Fox Shocks (Ryan), SSI Decals (Ian), Maxxis Tires (Scott), Fly Racing (Chris), WPS (Jared), Precision Racing (George), Never Sleep Designs (Gloria & Scott), Walsh Race Craft (Mike & Nate), Rath Racing (Jen & Daryl) and ATV Innovations (Glenn)
