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Team Epic Racing OMA
Opening Round Race Report
Round 1 - Tuscumbia, Alabama
- February 19-20, 2011
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Team
Epic Racing #1 John Pitts & #2 Bryan
Hulsey - Honda 450R ATVs |
Tuscumbia, AL (2/25/2011) - On
Saturday February 19 th a nice and sunny afternoon
the First round of the 2011 OMA Nationals kicked
off with Richie Brown grabbing the $100.00 FMF Holeshot
award. Richie led the first lap with the trio of
Bryan Hulsey, John Pitts, and Chris Moore in hot
pursuit and distancing themselves from the rest
of the pack. By the end of lap two Epic Racing's
John Pitts had moved his Duncan Racing's/ Bosch
Tools/Vee Rubber/ Moose Racing quad into the lead
with his Epic Racing Teammate Bryan Hulsey on the
identically backed Duncan Racing/Bosch Tools/Vee
Rubber/Moose Racing quad in tow. The two current
were being chased heavily by Richie Brown. Chris
Moore had recovered from a brief early off track
excursion and was still in the hunt for the lead
by mid race.
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Team
Epic Racing #7 Richie Brown - KTM ATV |
The great equalizer in this OMA National first
round was a rock garden section that seemed to
provide a traffic jam every lap for the fierce
four way battle for the lead. This section provided
lead changes and position swaps almost every lap.
On lap 5 the rock garden caught the lead trio
of John Pitts, Bryan Hulsey, and Richie Brown
off guard and Chris Moore snuck by for the lead.
The next rider to emerge was John Pitts on his
EBC/ARSFX/RK Chain's backed quad and just a little
ways back was the duo of Richie Brown and EBC/ARSFX/RK
Chains Bryan Hulsey. Team Epic's John Pitts got
the Hot Cams/Hot Rods bike back into the lead
and as the race was winding down Richie Brown
began to suffer from a mechanical issue that slowed
his charge and allowed Epic Racings Bryan Hulsey
to move his Hot Cams/Hot Rods backed bike back
in the third spot and set sights on catching the
two leaders and to try to make it a 3 way battle
for the lead again
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Team
Epic Racing #5 Chris Moore |
At the end of lap 7 with only about 30 seconds separating
the 2 leaders from 3 rd place, EBC/ARSFX/RK Chain's
Bryan Hulsey's luck would run out with an object
slicing through the rear shock reservoir line and
that would be the end of his day as he limped his
quad to finish the current lap. Luckily for Bryan
only he and the two leaders made it out for the
final lap of the race and he would end up 3 rd for
the day without having to continue. "I had
a great race going. We were never out of contention
for the win because every lap, the rock section
kept us on our toes and no matter what place you
were in, if you were close you still had a shot
at the win. That is all I wanted to do today was
stay close and keep my shot at the win alive. That
didn't happen because something caught my rear shock
line and blew the rear shock, but I am still happy
with the outcome", stated Hulsey.
His Epic Racing teammate John Pitts charged ahead
and had secured the
Overall win with a little, yet not too comfortable
gap over Chris Moore
which is how the finishing order would be for
the end of the race. Overall
winner John Pitts said after the race, "I
got off of the line dead last and
started making passes to try to catch the leaders.
Then we hit the
bottleneck on lap two and Bryan (Hulsey) and I
got into the lead. We were
pushing each other pretty good and that same spot
decided to be a threat
every lap and we all kept swapping the lead. In
the end it worked out great
and I am very happy with the results."
Needless to say without mechanical difficulties,
this was going to be a four
way battle to the finish, and two of these combatants
are "EPIC" teammates.
It seems that there are no rules out on the race
track when it comes to
fighting for the lead and it was proved here once
again at Round 1 of the
OMA Nationals in Tuscumbia Alabama with a super
race that kept the
spectators on their feet the whole time waiting
to see who would emerge in
the lead at the end of every lap.
www.omanationals.com
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