AMA ATV Motocross Nationals Round #11 - Loretta Lynn's Hurricane Mills, TN August 13, 2011

Rewinding back to June, Motoworks Can-Am's Chad Wienen had swept four of the first seven rounds of racing - giving himself a padded points lead heading into the second half of the schedule until a season-ending practice crash put a halt to his championship sights in 2011. Like the true champion that he is though, Wienen attended this weekend's season-finale race to support his Can-Am teammate as well as his friends and fellow racers. To keep his mind in the game, Chad even co-announced both pro motos alongside ATVMX announcer Rodney Tomblin, adding his on-track experience and expertise for the fans at Loretta Lynn's.

It wasn't either of the championship contenders standing out in the morning's times qualifying, but instead - Makson Construction/JB Racing/Maximum RPM's Joel Hetrick who grabbed the ATVRiders.com Fastest Qualifier Award, posting his fastest lap time of the day in the first qualifying session. "I'm pumped to get the fastest qualifier award, it was a great start to the day and definitely set the tone for what we wanted to do this weekend," Hetrick said.

Hetrick carried his qualifying momentum into moto one as he grabbed the SSiDecals.com Holeshot Award as well, followed closely by fellow rookie Chase Snapp. It was an epic battle for the AMA Pro Racing ATV Motocross Rookie of the Year award until SSiDecals/Motoworks/Can-Am's Snapp was forced to pull off the track to fix his derailed chain. Snapp eventually made his way up to tenth in moto one, although he lost crucial points in the championship standings.

Points leaders John Natalie and Josh Upperman both got off a rough start, but worked their way up throughout the moto. "I spun out of the gate and missed a gear, so I didn't get the best jump and then just settled in behind John [Natalie]. I wanted to find good lines and maybe try some different things for the second moto," Upperman said.

Joe Byrd led a pack of Natalie, Upperman, Thomas Brown and Jeremy Lawson - all fighting for the fourth place position but it was Ballance Racing Yamaha's Brown who charged hard about mid-moto, past Byrd and Lawson to eventually wrap up the fourth spot in moto one.

Natalie caught up to Hetrick towards the end of the moto and put the pressure on pretty thick but even the veteran didn't have anything for Hetrick who was on rails in moto one. "John [Natalie] was on my bumper the whole time but I just did my best to stay in front of him the entire race. I made a couple mistakes and he closed up the gap a little bit but luckily he didn't put a pass on me," said the rookie Hetrick. Hetrick edged out Natalie for the moto one win and Upperman finished in third behind Natalie, extending Natalie's points lead heading into the final moto.

"I hung back a little bit, we didn't want to take any chances for that second moto. Joel [Hetrick] was riding really good and I didn't want to take a chance of taking him and myself out so I figured I would wait for him to make a mistake, but he rode flawless," Natalie said after moto one.