Flat River GP, Park Hill, MO 2004
- Updated: June 20, 2004
Avid Missouri ATVers, Greg Kinkelaar, Garry Horn, Diane Horn and ATV Scene.com’s own Tom Prendergast decided to start an annual event that would raise money for the March of Dimes. The event is called the Flat River Grand Prix. It’s part of the highly successful Missouri Hare Scramble Championship Series, which is one of the biggest local level cross country scenes in the country. It’s promoted by 16 different promoters who averages 150 ATV entries per event. Right from the beginning, Farminton and Park Hills, MO, accepted the Flat River GP event with open arms. It’s held at Missouri’s St. Joe State Park in Park Hills. The one and a half hour hare scramble event, now in its eighth year, has attracted plenty of riders and plenty of money for the good cause. To be specific, 222 ATVers showed up this weekend and raised nearly $30,000 for the March of Dimes! The event is actually two events in one, – ATVs on Saturdays and bikes on Sunday.
How’s it work?
Riders are sent a collection envelope a month prior to the event. Entry is free unless no pledge money is collected. Prizes are awarded to the top three ATV and bike riders who raise the most money. The ATV crowd is never quite as big as the bike crowd, but money raised by ATVers is routinely more. As riders wait to drop off their donations and enter the race in the sign up tent, they’re greeted with a silent auction. After the race and during the main auction those that wrote down the highest bid at the silent auction are awarded the item that they bid on
St. Joe State Park History 101
600 feet deep and a quarter of the 8200 acres of the St. Joe State Park was heavily mined mainly for lead and iron ore back in the fifties. The mining stopped in 1972 and the St. Joe Lead Co. donated the land to the state. It’s now the third biggest state park in the Missouri and one of only two that allows ATV riding. History buffs will love the fact that adjacent to the park is the Missouri Historic Mines Museum. Impressively, a fourteen mile paved bike course winds its way through the area. In addition, the park features horse trails, hiking trails, fishing, camping and more.
ATVers like the park best because of its variety of terrain, which features challenging sand, dirt, rocks and woods riding. 52,053 off road riders paid their three dollar per weekend fee last year. Unfortunately for these rec riders, but fortunate for the Flat River Grand Prix event, a good portion of the park’s area does not allow motor vehicle riding. It’s this portion of the park that the Flat River Grand Prix is raced on. This year’s nine mile course ventured through this area, while rec riders rode in their designated area on the other side of the barricading fence.
This year’s race
Most of the plates in the pits were of the Missouri brand, but several out of state plates were present. As mentioned, Park Hills, MO cooperates with the event extremely well. Hwy 32 is closed as are several roads leading to the start area, which is on a downtown Park Hills’ street. From the St Joe Park pit area, 13 adult classes form three lines and follow a police escort to the start area. A LeManns start is used for each class.
Since the start of the race features a popular river crossing, many spectators gather to cheer on the riders as they splash by. Unfortunately they cross this area at the start of the race only. Another popular spot on the track is the old loading building on the side of a hill. Back in the day, iron ore was sifted through this two story building and loaded into rail road cars. On this day, it was used as part to the track. Riders entered on the second story and navigated through concrete pillars and exited on the basement floor.
The AA (pro) class is first to leave. This year, Todd Senger pulled the holeshot. Mike Burrows, Josh Eaton, Duane Johnson and Kyle Martin followed. As the race went on dust would be the day’s biggest obstacle to overcome. In fact, riders needed to pull over numerous times due to blinding dust. Burrows and Eaton ended up following one another right off the course, where they got lost in the blinding dust. Meanwhile, in the race for the overall, the number one rider of Duane Johnson (last year’s champion) and Kyle Martin dueled it out intensely. The two passed one another for the lead about five different times. “It’s usually pretty dusty here. This time out was the worth though. On the last lap, he went wide as we came out of the building. I slipped underneath. It was so hard to see in that dust today. I was really happy to move into the lead at this point. We ate a lot of each other’s dust. I basically made as much dust as I could for the remainder of the lap and won”, says Johnson about the final pass that put him into the lead and gave him the win.
In the end, thankfully no one was hurt in the dust and thanks to a great event and all the people who support it, the Racers for Research group gets to present another big check to the March of Dimes.
For more on this event be sure to visit racers4research.com
