| ATVA
ITP Moose Racing
National Motocross Series
Round #13 - Loretta Lynn's
August 12-13, 2006
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| ATVA
Motocross Nationals
Round #13 - Links |
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Hurricane Mills, TN - Once again, Racer
Productions went all out to make the ATV Dirt Days National
at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch one of the most fun and
entertaining weekends of racing this year, which is probably
just one of the reasons why it is also the most highly
attended event of the year with over 700 entries. The
festivities kicked off on Thursday evening with Doug Gust
signing Autographs at America’s Motorsports outside
of Nashville, TN, which ended with an intense line of
thunderstorms moving in and lighting up the night sky
for hours and easily dumped over an inch of rain on area.
On Friday, several more passing rain showers dowsed
the track, which meant for some sloppy conditions for
those willing to head out for practice, but by Saturday,
the chances of rain ended, but it remained overcast
and somewhat cool for Loretta Lynn standards with temperatures
only in the 80’s. As usual, Racer Productions
kept the racing action moving with one class taking
the checkered while the gate dropped for the next, and
all along, the track crew worked throughout the day
grooming the track to keep it from becoming a one line
race.
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Some
of the many items donated for the Anthony Mastrocola
Auction |
With all the Saturday racing action wrapped up, it
was time for a few first in ATV Motocross National history
with Parts Unlimited hosting a free Spaghetti Dinner
and Akraix Entertainment performing a Freestyle Show.
The spaghetti dinner started at 6PM with several hundred
families taking advantage of the delicious meal, which
was followed by a benefit auction for the recently paralyzed
Anthony Mastrocola. Anthony and his family made the
long trip down from Pennsylvania to attend the auction,
which was a huge success for the Mastrocola family with
numerous pro racers, series sponsors, and families donating
items for the auction. Announcer, Robbie Whitehead volunteered
himself as the auctioneer, which was a career first,
but he handled it like a pro and really worked the crowd
with help of Debi Bartosek, Lori Reynolds, and many
other volunteers. The toughest moment of the auction
was to see the also recently paralyzed #2 Jeremiah Jones
Jersey and his #1 race uniform from 2002 go up for auction.
Rita Coombs was the top bidder at $1,000 for the #2
Jeremiah Jones Jersey, which she graciously gave to
Anthony, which brought tears to his parent’s eyes
as the crowd cheered. Wes Miller of H-Bomb Films took
home Jeremiah Jones Championship uniform for $1,200,
and the auction lasted to well after dark and was a
huge success with over $15,000 raised for Anthony Mastrocola.
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| The
Pro riders like Pat Brown not only donated items,
but also attended the auction and participated
in the bidding |
Anthony
Mastrocola and his family were just overwhelmed
by generousity of everyone involved with the auction |
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| Akraix's
Derek Guetter practice run before the start of
the show |
With the benefit auction still going on and the sun
finally peaking through the clouds as it disappeared
behind the trees, the Akraix crew couldn’t wait
any longer as thousands of spectators gathered around
their mobile freestyle ramp and landing. With the muddy
conditions and only a short run at the ramp, the normal
75 foot gap between the ramps was shortened to just
over 60 feet because of safety concerns in getting enough
speed to clear the gap, and luckily for Jon Chandler
the gap was shortened as he barely made the landing
ramp and almost went off the side of the ramp during
a practice run, which forced him to become a spectator
for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately, Jon Guetter
also didn’t perform his highly anticipated back-flip
because conditions weren’t favorable with the
mud and shortened ramp gap. “I really wanted to
do the back-flip more than ever, but the conditions
were sketchy with the mud, and I have been in this situation
before on the Crusty Tour and crashed,” said Jon
Guetter.
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| Derek
Guetter |
Caleb
Moore |
Jon Guetter may not have felt comfortable pulling off
the back-flip, but his brother, Derek, wasted no time
busting out some insane tricks over the shortened gap
for the cheering crowd. ATV motocross racer, Caleb Moore,
was outstanding as well as he shocked everyone with
his high flying aerobatics, and he even busted out his
signature “Tsunami” where he tilts the ATV
vertically and does a vertical hand stand above the
ATV, which had the crowd going wild. After the show,
the Akraix crew tossed shirts into the crowd and wrapped
up the evening signing autographs for the fans.
The auction and the freestyle show both ended shortly
after 9PM, but the fun wasn’t over in the “Yamaha
Triangle” as Pat Brown, Travis Spader, and Kory
Ellis hosted a pool party sponsored by Yamaha’s
Steve Nessl. An inflatable ten foot pool was packed
to capacity and a huge crowd gathered around at their
own risk of getting soaked to share in the fun. After
a few photos, I dropped the camera and grabbed the swimming
trunks to join in on the fun, which was a great way
to end a long day.
Sunday Morning, everything was back to business as
usual with the class championships on the line in several
class including the Women’s Production Class,
and after yet another incredible year of racing between
Angela Butler and Heather Byrd, the championship would
go to Angela Butler after winning six races in a row
to earn back the women’s title from Heather Byrd,
which is Angela’s sixth women’s championship.
Pro Race
Heather Byrd may have lost her chance at a third consecutive
championship, but her husband, Joe Byrd, was determined
as ever to win the Pro Championship as he extended his
points lead over Suzuki/Yoshimura’s Doug Gust
to 15 points by winning both Motos convincingly and
claiming his fourth consecutive overall win at Loretta
Lynn’s with Doug Gust and Pat Brown rounding out
the Podium.
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| #7
Joe Byrd wins his 4th Consecutive Pro Overall
at Loretta Lynn's |
Joe Byrd hasn’t won a race since round two in Texas
and his only win in 2005 came at Loretta Lynn’s,
so what is it about Loretta Lynn’s that gives Joe
Byrd such an advantage over the competition. “The
track is slower than most and technical. It has two whoops
sections, triples, doubles, so it is a timing track. It
is not a high speed wide open track like some of the other
ones, and usually the technical tracks favor the better
riders. I have been coming hear for 20 years, and I was
just a little kid when I started racing here, and I just
love the track. I may not be the fastest guy on the track,
but sometimes you get lucky, and it has just gone in my
favor for four years in a row,” said Joe Byrd.
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"I have also liked yellow, and I
have been begging them to let me run yellow, and
for this event they let me run it", said
Doug Gust |
Doug Gust wanted the win more than ever this weekend at
Loretta’s to narrow the points gap on Byrd, but
it just wasn’t meant to be as Doug Gust finished
out the weekend in second place, which gave Byrd a 15
point cushion heading into the final round. “I stay
focused, but I just didn’t get the start that I
wanted. I happy that I finished second because I am still
in the points, but don’t get me wrong because I
still wanted to beat Joe and stop him from winning four
in a row, but you know what, I finished second and there
is still a chance for me so I am still happy,” said
Doug Gust.
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| Yamaha's
Pat Brown earns first ATVA MX Pro Podium |
After coming so close to earning his first Pro podium
last year at Loretta’s before snapping his axle,
Pat Brown finally was able to put together the two Moto
combination to earn himself a spot on the Pro Podium.
“I am out here with the fastest guys in the world,
and to be up on the podium with them in awesome,”
said Pat Brown.
Pat Brown has started off the season barely able to
crest the top ten, but in the past six rounds he has
only finished lower than 7th place once, and he now
has earned his first ATVA MX Podium appearance, so I
asked Pat what has made the difference. “We got
a late start with the program and everything has been
evolving the whole time with my suspension getting better,
my motor getting stronger, and my training getting better
and better with MotoTST, and everything is working as
a unit right now and it is starting to pay off,”
said Pat Brown.
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| #8
Jason Luburgh has his best finish of the year
with a 4th Overall on the Suzuki LT-R450 QuadRacer |
#20
Josh Upperman finishes out his second Pro race
with an 8th Overall |
Probably one of the most intense battles of either
Pro Motos was the one between Pat Brown and Jason Luburgh
in the second Moto for the second spot. “Jason
was riding really strong, and I was trying everything
to get around him. He finally left the door open and
by that time Joe had checked out, but it was some good
racing,” said Pat Brown. Jason Luburgh would eventually
drop back to fourth place after Doug Gust made the pass
late in the race, which was enough to earn Luburgh his
best finish since last year at Unadilla with a fourth
overall followed by Dustin Wimmer.
Wrap-Up
Now in less than three weeks, the 2006 ATVA National
Motocross season will come to an end at the Ballance
Moto X in Bowling Green, KY, which is the hometown of
Jeremiah Jones, and he is as determined as ever to be
able to attend the season finale, which I hope becomes
a reality because a weekend at the races just isn’t
the same without Jeremiah Jones.
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| Paul
Turner & Ryan Cox Prep Jeremiah Jones ATV
for the Raffle |
A special thanks to everyone that participated in the
Anthony Mastrocola Auction and to those that purchased
wristbands to support Jeremiah Jones, which are still
available online. I am now coordinating another fund
raiser for Jeremiah Jones, and we will be raffling off
his Suzuki LT-R450 QuadRacer, and we hope to sell a
minimum of 500 tickets at $50/each by the final round,
so Jeremiah Jones himself can present his race ATV to
one lucky winner, so please don’t miss out on
your opportunity to share in the experience and purchase
yourself atleast one ticket once they become available
online and at the final round.
| ATVA
MX Nationals - Top 10 Pro Point Standings |
| Position |
Rider Name |
Machine |
Total
Points |
| 1. |
Joe Byrd |
Honda |
287 |
| 2. |
Doug Gust |
Suzuki |
272 |
| 3. |
Jeremiah Jones |
Suzuki |
222 |
| 4. |
Keith Little |
Honda |
210 |
| 5. |
John Natalie Jr |
Honda |
202 |
| 6. |
Dustin Wimmer |
Honda |
185 |
| 7. |
Joe Haavisto |
Honda |
150 |
| 8. |
Pat Brown |
Yamaha |
145 |
| 9. |
Travis Spader |
Yamaha |
137 |
10. |
Harold Goodman |
Honda |
128 |
Pro
ATV Race - Video Clip |
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| Videos
By Austin Wilson |
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