Old School
- Updated: June 7, 2009
By David Porter
Photos by Jorge Cuartas
I thought I would check in with a mid season wrap-up of sorts.
Let’s get something straight right off the bat. As of the half way point the ATV nationals are not suffering as far as I can see. Attendance at each event has been good. To be honest, I myself don’t really understand how this is. With the economy in the tank I really thought rider numbers would be way down. That is not the case as of now. People are indeed still racing their quads. I haven’t been to any local races yet this year, but as of now, I’m here to say the nationals are going strong. I sure hope they stay that way in the last half of the season.
Yamaha
Rookie of the year? I’m all for it. Thomas Brown says he’s doing well in his rookier pro season because he’s not putting any pressure on himself. He’s just going out and having fun. I’d have to say there are a few things I didn’t quite expect to see in the Pro ranks this year. Number one for me has to be the way Thomas Brown has started his freshman year off against the world’s fastest ATV racers. He’s had a few problems as of late. But after talking to him at the Ballance National I understand just how he’s been able to do so well. Thomas explained that he’s just trying to enjoy his rookie year. He said that he’s focusing on just having fun and trying to forget the fact that he’s out there racing against many of his Pro class heroes. He went on to say that no one expects him to do well in his rookie year anyway. Hey whatever he’s doing it seams to be working pretty well for him and I’m happy for him.
Lets not forget Thomas, his teammate Pat and the team’s mechanic Paul Turner are working their butts off to get their new YFZ450Rs dialed into their liking. Any time you start the year off with a brand new machine you can usually count on a bumpy road. Those three know their way around Yamahas so don’t be surprised to see Thomas and/or Pat on the box by the end of the year.
Suzuki
Dustin Wimmer’s shoulder injury means he can’t win the title this year, right? Wrong! Mark my words, Wimmer will end up winning his second consecutive championship. At the top of the heap in ATV racing as far as I’m concerned has been Dustin Wimmer. This guy in my opinion is the fastest ATV rider on the planet! At the Danville round I watched Wimmer do a few things on a quad that no one else was able to do, hell, for the past few years he has been doing things that other guys don‘t think of much less attempt.
Wimmer and his fine tuned LTR doubled then tripled into a corner at Danville that had me and others watching in awe. Other Pros that tried the double / triple continually blew the corner after, but Wimmer somehow managed to nail it every time perfectly. At that point in time I thought to myself this guy is going to be unstoppable.
And it doesn’t hurt that he’s got the best ATV race team behind him as well. Then all the sudden he got hurt and everything has changed for him and Suzuki. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wimmer misses one race and still is able to win the Pro championship, you watch.
Honda
Don’t look now but mark another year in the books that Joe Byrd is in the hunt for another title. Joe Byrd is right there in contention for another title. The guy has no real factory support other than bikes, parts and cash. What I’m saying here is it’s all up to him and the people that he has selected to put around him to help make his program the best it can be. There isn’t a Honda truck and trailer full of parts sitting at his pit area. It’s all up to him to put the right people around him to make sure he finished consistently well race after race.
If you stop and think about it, I don’t care if you want to call him a factory backed rider or not, he’s really racing the old school way, like we did back in the day without factory support.
I give Joe Byrd a lot of credit for doing it on his own, he’s not just showing up and racing like some of the other pro riders are now days. He’s the factory rider with the most responsibilities for sure. I truly believe that not many, if any, Pro riders could do what Byrd has done year in and year out. My hat’s off to him.
Kawasaki
Congrats to Josh Creamer for winning the Steel City Pro National. Not too many riders can say they won a Pro National. Add Josh to the short list. I have to give props to a couple of guys under the Monster Energy Team Green tent. First has to be team manager Jimmy White. The job he has done with that team is outstanding. He has been able to put the right people in the right places at the right times. At mid season of his third year he has his team not only winning races but contending for a championship.
The other guy is Monster Energy himself, Josh Creamer. Josh and I bust each other’s chops all year long. He’s the guy I’m always rooting for to win, and good for him – it finally happened for him. He finally got that first Pro win at the Steel City round. It was well deserved and I’m damn proud of him.
Pro-Am
Englewood Tennessee’s Cody Gibson has owned the Pro-Am Production class, winning every round but one where he finished runner up. On the amateur and Pro-Am side of the coin I would have to say there are not a lot of big surprises other than full gates, I really didnt think we would see that, but I’m happy that’s how it’s going. At mid season many of the classes are running double gates. So at this point in time it appears the tanked-out economy isn’t really affecting either the pro or amateur ranks at all. Here’s hoping it stays that way for the rest of 2009 and beyond.
The Pro-Am class this year is very strong. In pure speed as well as how many Pro-Am guys are lining up in the gates race after race. I should have taken a bigger interest in the two Pro-Am classes before this year, but over the past few years being a Pro mechanic doesn’t give you much of a chance to watch too many races. Anyway I wish I would have taken the time to make my way to more Pro-Am gate-drops before this year. I don’t know if many of you realize it or not, but many of the Pro-Am riders have Pro speed right now. Lap times don’t lie. At least six of the top Pro-Am guys could indeed qualify for the Pro class at every race this year, and not at the back of the pack either. I’m telling you these guys are flat out hauling ass! If most of the top six Pro-Am guys end up turning Pro next year – you’re going to see some big names watching Pro motos instead of riding in them. Like I said, lap times don’t lie, these guys are flying and they’re already just about ready to battle with the best riders in the world.
All’s Well
I don’t want to jinks things but so far this has been a pretty good year for the AMA ATV Motocross Series. Attendance is still strong as of the Steel City round, the weather has been pretty good and the people running the events have treated us great. Yea, did you hear that? That was me knocking on wood to all of the above.
And by the way, I’m 10-0 so far in the 40+ class. Not bad considering I really had no plans of even riding this year. So far so good.
