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The John Penton
GNCC Race Report
Millfield, Ohio, May 12, 2007
Millfield, OH (5/16/2007)
- William Yokley had his first DNF of the season
today after experiencing a suspected electrical problem.
There were 245 total racers in this race including 25
XC1 Pro riders. William is still in the top 10 in the
Pro ATV GNCC point standings.
Summary:
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#5 William Yokley |
The brake problems I had been having were sorted out
during the two week break since the last race at Loretta
Lynn’s. We solved it through a little different
setup and some testing; the brakes are now working great.
The Millfield track is pretty typical of most GNCC tracks,
part of it runs on a really nice motocross track with
some extra treats thrown in such as a big mulch pile
that gets whooped out really bad. This track is either
really dusty or really muddy, today was dusty. The weather
was great with warm temps and sunshine.
The ten second signal sounded and we were off; I got
a poor start and rounded the first turn in about 15th.
They had just watered the track and it was real slick
in spots which caused several accidents and backups.
I was able to thread my way up to 7th by the time we
went in the woods; I felt good and the bike was working
awesome. The dust was pretty thick, and I had to slow
down in some places to let it clear. I finished the
first of 5 laps in 7th, then some problems began happening.
The bike began misfiring intermittently and was losing
power. I tried to ride smooth but it would cut out at
different times causing me to mess up, eventually causing
me to crash going over a jump. At that point, I just
tried to salvage as many points as I could and finish
the race. I was 11th at the end of the second lap and
fading quickly, the misfire was getting worse and everybody
was passing me. I made it to my pit area, and stopped
to see if anything could be done. I thought that maybe
the air filter was clogged but it was clean, I could
start it up and it would rev up while in neutral, but
once I put it in gear, it would barely run. We decided
to park it because I was out of the points by now, and
I was either going to hurt myself or another racer,
if I tried to go back out.
What a bummer! I scored no points which really hurts
for the season championship. The good news is that the
bike handled great, the brakes worked fine and the motor
was making great power. The support people at Kawasaki
will figure out what happened; they will fix it and
make it better. When an all new bike like the KFX450
is introduced, you can do all kinds of endurance testing,
but until you race it under brutal conditions in the
GNCC’s, you really don’t know where problems
will occur. This is true of any brand of new bike. The
race team management at Kawasaki understands this, I
understand this, and I am pretty sure that all my sponsors
understand this. Nobody is pleased about this, but it
will get better!
We have a four week break until the next race in Sparta,
Kentucky. I will continue to test, develop and improve
the bike. I will have myself ready and the bike will
be prepped and ready to race! The National Guard is
planning on having some pretty neat displays at Sparta
so it should be interesting for everyone. I can’t
wait, see you there!
www.YokleyRacing.com
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