#5 Shane Hitt with the help of Paul Turner earns his 1st Win of the season and 3rd Consecutive at Paducah International Raceway

What they didn't see coming was a dog named "Hitt". With sagging confidence in his ability to go fast after his accident a year or so ago, Suzuki's Shane Hitt had struggled through the first four rounds and, by his own accounts, wasn't living up to his own expectations. All that changed on the highly banked and blue grooved clay of PIR. Hitt won his qualifier and posted the fastest time out of the three Pro qualifiers which were necessary to seat the Pros on the grid. Lining up for the main, Hitt moved way up on the banked straight-a-way for his chosen starting position and was joined there by Keith Little and Tim Farr who had both won their qualifiers. Ahead of the three lay the best lines leading into turn one. The remaining 16 out of the Pro field of 19 had to take the scraps. From the green light on, everyone in the stands and in the pits knew that this late night Pro main would turn into a melee between Hitt, Little and Farr.

It almost did, but Hitt put a damper on any challenges for the lead when he hooked around the first turn, gave it all the thumb he had and squirted out of turn two onto the back straight in "jack rabbit running" mode leading the pack. From that moment on, Hitt was on his way to winning his third consecutive Pro class at Paducah International Raceway. Left to battle it out behind him, Little and Farr played a game of cat and mouse for the entire twenty laps. As they engrossed themselves in their own micro battle, Hitt pulled away to a comfortable lead, occasionally taking a quick look back to see where the competition had gone. As for Little and Farr, the two, with Little always in the lead, diced the infield corners, one blocking, the other charging, the outcome sitting squarely on the racer who didn't make a mistake. It was Farr who boo-booed. In a tight 90 degree corner on the infield, he set Little up with an outside/in move which, if it had panned out, would have given him the second spot. This turn of events wasn't to be. Farr caught a little of the loose stuff on the outside of the corner and before he could hook and shoot inside, he did a half a donut which cost him his momentum and valuable time. Regaining his line and laying chase after Little, Farr could never make up the distance lost by this split-second spin out.

Black and whites waved for the yellow Suzuki of Shane Hitt for the first time during the '05 season. Behind him taking down the second and third Pro main spots were Little and Farr. Behind Farr, putting in the best ride of his '05 season, Pro/Am Unlimited points leader, Daryl Rath of Rath Racing came flying by the checkers in fourth with a comfortable cushion over fifth place finisher Darin Odgen. Before the Pro engines could refrain from spewing forth boiling over anti-freeze, the 2005 FMF Extreme Dirt Track ATVA Nationals overall Pro standings had Tim Farr in 1st with 115 points, Darin Ogden in 2nd with 107 points, and Keith Little in 3rd with 105 points. After a bit of bad luck, Harold Goodman found his run for the championship somewhat set back and himself thrown from second in the points to 4th in the overall standings with 101 points. Rounding out the top five of the Pro class in this year's series, Shane Hitt with 88 points.

#111 Jackie Meadows returns from retirement and will be back to racing fulltime in 2006 thanks to Janssen Motorsports More Details..

So, what happened to Harold Goodman? Well, Jackie Meadows came out of retirement to run for Janssen Motorsports at the PIR round and was looking rather strong and competitive on his highly tweaked, race ready Janssen Yamaha the entire weekend. That is, until he and Goodman got locked up in an extremely tight and difficult 90 plus degree turn on the infield during the early going of the Pro Main and both fell to the back of the pack before getting their machines un-wedged. From there on out, it was a futile game of catch up for the two as Goodman wound up finishing 12th overall and Meadows 17th overall, a disappointing evening for not only Meadows and Goodman, but a disappointing evening for the fans who were anticipating these two to be up front and running, making for a tightly contested PIR Pro Main.

Two top Pros highlighted their evening's racing by adding yet more victories to their win column. Daryl Rath posted his third win on the season in the Pro/Am Unlimited class and, after Paducah's Round 5, lead the class by twenty points over second place sitting, Arkansas' Mitch Reynolds and by twenty seven points over North Carolina's Houston Lowder who held down the third place overall. In the Pro/Am Production class, Darin Ogden netted his third victory in a row. The win put Ogden thirty points ahead of the second place position of Brad Covington and a healthy forty six points ahead of Mitch Reynolds in third. Rath and Ogden, by all standards, had their championships wrapped up after the PIR round.

Unlike the two Pro/Am classes, the Pro class was in no way wrapped up by anyone after PIR. Sure, Farr had an 8 point lead over Ogden, a 10 point lead over Little, and, a 14 point lead over Goodman, but...

As they say in the opera houses, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings." And, the fat lady who sings the finale at the DT Nationals, at last rumor, was still sitting at the feasting table, stuffing her chops, gathering the strength and energy to belt out the curtain closer of the 2005 FMF Extreme Dirt Track ATVA Nationals in Texas on September 24th at Bullet Speedway in Brashier, Texas. And, as anyone who knows anything about racing, anything can happen, and will, before the final checkers wave in the Lonestar State. Odds are that all the twist and turns of this season are no where near through twisting and turning.

#4 Tim Farr extends his points lead to 8 pionts with one race to go	#2 Darin Ogden charges from the back to finish 5th and remains 2nd in Points