Echeconnee MX, Macon, GA 2004
- Updated: March 20, 2004
Doug Gust raced with a slight flu. He’ll tell you he didn’t feel right and wasn’t in his groove at Macon. Nonetheless, he was unstoppable in the GA sand and won the second moto with almost 30 seconds to spare.
GNC MX Round 3
Echeconnee MX Park
Macon , GA
March 20-21, 2004
Factory Suzuki Z400 mounted Doug Gust (Suzuki/Yoshimura/Hinson) continued his winning ways at the rough, whooped our sandy Echeconnee GNC. Gust, the oldest rider in the pro class at 36 was recovering from a bout with the flu, nevertheless he dominated his younger competition once again in convincing fashion.
“I got the sore throat and everything earlier this week. I’m feeling pretty drained”, said Gust as he drank water relaxing before the first race.
The Donny Banks/Mark Barnett designed track was groomed to perfection for this race. It was clear from the start however, that the predominantly sand based track surface was going to get rough. Sure enough, by the end of the day this was indeed a test of man and machine.
John “Ironman” Natalie had another excellent finish and more than proved he’s hungry for a national championship by taking the runner up spot.
Before the first moto, the track was groomed to a “pool table” like surface. This placed a premium on getting a good start as a fast track would surely develop, at least for the first lap or two before it stated to get rough. In moto one, Keith Little raised a few eyebrows by winning with his Lonestar/Ronnies/Sparks YFZ. Gust had the rest of the crowd smiling proud by charging from his seventh place starting spot.
Gust was charging from his new fifth place spot while heading down the hill toward the crowd when he hit a hole at high speed. The machine went through a hay bale, knocked down a few banners, and scared the heck out of a photographer. Somehow, “Digger” saved it and got back on the track. “I hit a hole and I went up on two wheels coming around the top of the hill”, an excited Gust said after the race. “I thought I was going to have to throw it away but at the last second she started going straight… and I held on. I bet that photographer up on the hill got a heck of a shot!”
Once back under control, and on track, Doug put his head down and took off after Honda’s Tim Farr in fourth place. Gust caught him in one lap and was glued to his every move as they approached the finish line tabletop. Things got a little too close for comfort because when Gust went to put a pass on Farr he ran out of room on the track and went off the side of the jump, down a sharp drop, and slid around a service next to the track. Although he lost a lot of time, one lap later, he re-caught and passed Farr for the position.
Bad luck plagued LSR’s Keith Little again, but not before he won the first moto. Little DNFed the second moto with a faulty electrical harness.
As the race went on, Gust, as usual proved to be the guy to beat in closing laps as he continued to pass fading riders. He passed his way to second place behind Little. “I couldn’t’t find my rhythm in that race.” Gust said afterwards. “I can’t remember when I made so many mistakes. Towards the end, I started to flow a little, but I never really felt right.”
Just as he did at the Gainseville, FL GNC, Kory Ellis worked his way to the front with two not-so-good starts. He finished 4-4 for third place overall and now holds down second in GNC points.
Moto two – Gust continues to amaze
This time out Gust would started his rode to victory in the five spot early on. Only halfway through the first lap, Gust amazingly passed three riders in one move and rode up to second and hunted down Jasmin Plante (JPMX) for the lead. Gust and his Yoshimura Suzuki were tuning some impressive lap times and it was only a matter of time before Plante would have to surrender to yet another legendary Doug Gust charge to the front. It didn’t take too much time at all, by the end of the lap, Gust had passed the Canadian Yamaha YFZ mounted Jasmine Plante for the lead.
After Gust got the lead he succeeded in burning a succession of flawless laps into the Georgia track. Within three laps he had dropped his competitors like a bad habit and was flat out gone. By the end of the race Gust had a twenty five second lead, winning in a dominating performance. Apparently Doug had found his rhythm.
While Gust was having his way with the lead, Jeremiah Jones took over second place honors. Jones DNFed the first moto with motor problems and was no threat to any of the front runners for a podium position. “Ironman” John Nataile muscled his way into third place on his East Coast ATV backed Yamaha. Natalie would later go 3-3 for second place overall. Kory Ellis (Alba Action/atvscene.com/Kenda) continued to impress by advancing himself through the pack with consistent smooth, steady hard laps. He went 4-4 to take the last spot on the podium. Farr had his best race of the year with a fourth overall after going 5-6 in his motos. Jasmin Plante rounded out the top five with respectable 7-5 finishes.
“The bike worked flawlessly”, Gust said celebrating his victory, “This LTZ400 Suzuki is clearly in a class by itself! At least until these other guys figure it out and start racing them against me. For right now- I’m glad they are on those other brands! This is basically the same quad I raced last year. The Yoshimura guys put in the same “off the shelf” 450 kit as last year and no one has power on me out there. Everything else is the same aftermarket Roll/Elka bolt-on products that I used last year. My Suzuki just seems to work better.”
Team Suzuki/Yoshimura team advisor Wayne Hinson had this to say, “We’re working pretty good, the Suzuki is an honest quad that really responds well to input. A lot of people are saying that we are doing all kinds of “trick” stuff to the quad, but we are actually using a lot of the race winning set-ups that we used to run with Gary Denton’s program. Some of these other teams might be outsmarting themselves out there?” Hinson went on to say, “It usually only takes us one practice session to hit our correct race set-up. From there, it’s pretty simple. We just give it to Doug and let him do what he does best. Also, a lot of the guys are suffering from motor failures this year, but the Suzuki is pretty bullet-proof if you ask me. We went through the entire pro-production season last year without a DNF. And so far this season we’ve had no motor problems in spite of having the fastest machine. And if anyone doubts we got the motor, they didn’t’t see Gust waxing everyone going up that big hill at Glen Helen!”
On the victory podium, Doug thanked Donny Banks for building a great track. “I want to give a special thanks to Donny Banks. A lot of these places we go to, – the owners don’t put a lot of effort into the tracks, Donny, and Mark Barnett have really done a great job. I’m looking forward to coming back here next year.”
Doug’s win puts him 16 points ahead of Kory Ellis (in second place), 20 points ahead of John Natalie Jr. (third place), and 28 points ahead of Jeremiah Jones (fourth Place). Tim Farr is now 51 points back.
