2005 GNC Round #3 Gatorback Amateurs

[RemNS]

"FINALLY" And that has many meanings with this race coverage.
First, We finally had a dry race. Second, We finally got some temps above 70 degrees. Third, We finally got the race report done!:p

I'll start the amateur race coverage for Round #3 of the 2005 GNC series with a great big hello to everyone that made it to the event!

Now for those of you that didnt make it, "Man did you miss out on a great weekend". We have officially renamed "Bike Week" as "Quad Week".

[RemNS]

Before I get into all of the race action from the weekend, I'll point out some interesting facts about the event:

1) It was the second largest race in GNC History with 711 entries. (Second to 2004 Loretta Lynns!

2) It was the first time that we have had that many entries after 2 consecutive mud races.

3) It was a weekend that saw the largest class as Unlimited Pro-Am. That says a lot for the future Pro Class!

4) It was also a weekend that brought out all of the Bike Week Houligans from Daytona!

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Alright! One Last thing I want to mention to everyone before we start into the action. (Of course I have to give my company a plug)

All of the Pictures (Many Pics are not posted in the Race coverage) and DVD's from the event can be seen and ordered from the following website:

http://www.remnsproductions.com

[RemNS]

AAnnnnndddd Here we Go!

"The Gatorback", a national treasure to many of our 2 wheeled counterparts over the past decades, hosted Round #3 of the GNC Nationals. The historical Mid-Floridian track invites the ATV Crowd down south twice a Year. The GNC Nationals in March and the ATV Olympics in December. Too bad this track is not a regular stop on all of the Southern ATV Riders schedules!

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Track View from the "Gator Pit"

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The best part about the weekend was the weather! Well maybe not! It was the 711 Entries! Well maybe not! It was the racing action, Well anyway, there were a lot of best for the weekend at hand! "ESPECIALLY SPRING BREAKERS" Too bad the University of Florida was on Spring Break it's located only 8 miles from the track!
But we had a great time with the ATV family who were there!

[RemNS]

Weather wise, It was Great! Friday 68 Windy! Saturday 75 Breezy! Sunday 80 and Calm! Gotta Love Florida! Especially with NO Rain in Sight and Not a single cloud out the whole weekend!

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OK, so on with the race coverage!
We'll cover 6 classes with photos for Round #3 and those lucky classes will be:

Pro-Am Production
Pro-Am Unlimited
Women
4 Stroke B
265B
Youth Production
and 90 PRODUCTION JUNIOR

Dont worry if we dont have your coverage on here this time, We will be switching up classes from race to race!

With 711 entries, there was a lot of waiting going on in the staging areas on Saturday!

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And More waiting!

We did finish up the race order for the qualifiers at 6:00 on Saturday, but there were 33 LCQ"S that had to be ran so 27 of them got moved over to Sunday Morning!

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So on with the Production Pro-AM Class!

Media All Stars Josh Upperman pulled the holeshots on both Saturday's Qualifier and Sundays motos and left the field in the dust! This guy is so fast that I cant even find a pic of him to post!!!!!! He must of been those blurred shots that I found when we came home!
Anyway, Upperman dominated the field from start to finish without being contested in either moto.
I have to give credit where it is due!
MEDIA ALL STARS have pulled every holeshot in this class so far this year!! Great job! If it's not Upperman grabbing the first turn then Mark Kendall is grabbing the credit! Once again Great Job Guys!

Since Upperman escaped the camera somehow we'll give Kendall the Spotlight!

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Saturdays Production ProAm Qualifiers saw 4 differet heats! Thats right 4! Like I said in the opening the Future Pro class is looking CROWDED!
The Run Down of Qualifiers looked like this:

Heat Winners:
Josh Upperman
Jeremy Lawson
Chad Wienen
Patton Thompson

Second Place: (The first losers)
Rocco Arno (more to come on him a little later)
Cale Downen
Josh Williams
Brandon Stout

A lot of great racing in this class on Saturday!

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The one bit of controversy from Prod Pro AM was when the results were posted and a Flagger said that Sage Baker had passed at a high speed under the yellow flag! This docked Sage 2 positions in the Heat but he still qualified! I do believe this was on the mind of Sage for the rest of the weekend as Sundays Mains were a lot tougher on the Californian!

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The Qualifiers on Saturday were a glimpse of what was to come on Sunday as the top performers were anybody's choice!

Sunday came and they ended up running the main during the Pro Podium celebrations! The wrong time to run a race of this caliber! Many people were watching the pro's on the podium including me getting all of my interviews and photos in! But it was a good race once again,

Finish in the Main:
1)Josh Upperman
2)Bryan Chaler
3)Rocco Arno
4)Cale Downen
5)Bobby Ross
6)Josh Williams
7)Jeremy Lawson
8)Chad Wienen
9)Josh Creamer
10) Patton Thompson

Overall Top 10:
1)Upperman
2)Arno
3)Downen
4)Chaler
5)Williams
6)Lawson
7)Wienen
8)Ross
9)Thompson
10)Creamer

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Rocco Arno Finished a 2-3 to take second Overall!

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4th Overall! #41 Bryan Chaler "The Ragin Cajun"

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Jeremy Lawson #161 "Suzuki's Amateur"

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Bobby Ross #815 Pennsylvania Native
(If this guy ever gets a holeshot, he might be untouchable)
Bobby works his way up from mid pack in almost every moto. He is exciting to watch and whoever is leading always has to keep an eye out for #815!

[RemNS]

OK! Lets move on to the Unlimited Pro Am!
Another great class to watch and probably the most exciting Qualifiers from the whole weekend!
A few facts from this class on the weekend!
1) Every rider that pulled the holeshot in their qualifier wrecked out and gave up the lead or DNF'd
-Jesse Scheaffer Crashed in front of the announcers tower when he hit a deep hole and broke a tie rod (He's fast so expect to see him in the future)
-Bobby Ross Crashed when he was in the lead and dropped back to finish 8th in his qualifier
-Josh Upperman Crashed when he was in the lead and dropped back to finish 7th in his Qualifier.

I guess it was a weekend to give up the holeshot in the Unlimited ProAM Class!

[RemNS]

Another Noteable from The Unlimited Pro Am Class was John Ragon crashing in front of the announcers tower and breaking his collar bone!
We wish him a speedy recovery and the best of wishes to get back on the track ASAP!

[RemNS]

Some other facts from the Unlimited ProAm class:
1)Skylar Stewart pulled a big lead from the holeshot on Saturday but ran out of luck on Sundays main! Skylar had a 1-10 and finished 8th overall!
2)Same story for Chad Wienen Holeshot Saturday then fell back on Sunday 1-12 and finished 10th overall!
3)Same story for Sage Baker Holeshot and win on Saturday but fell off to 18th in the main! We could not confirm what happened but looked like a break! Sage went 1-18 for 16th on the weekend!

[RemNS]

I siad earlier that we would talk about Rocco Arno and that we will!
Rocco (Love the family because my son's name is also Rocco) (I always tell them that they will make the name recognizeable for a top runner so that my son can bring the name back to the top in about ooohhhhh! 14 years) :p

Alright, a little on Mr. Arno!
If you ever make a GNC National this year you have to stop by the Arno's pit area at night! The Family owns a few seafood restaraunts and make a killer seafood pasta spread that will kill any temptations about eating elsewhere!

A Special Thank You to the Arno Family for sharing some great pasta on Friday Night!

A few more notes on the Arno Pits.
Jimmy Nac! Jim Naccaratto was at Gatorback! It's the first time we have seen Jim for a while and the word is he will be a regular at the nationals again this year (coming to over half of them) He's coming back and we welcome him back from the Missing Person Pages!:p

I think that the Arno's will win the Pit Food Cook Off this Year! That is unless anyone else wants to give them a run!

[RemNS]

Results from the Unlimited ProAm

Heat Winners:
-Skylar Stewart
-Chad Wienen
-Sage Baker

Second in heats:
-Bryan Chaler
-John Ragon
-Rocco Arno

#21 Mark Kendall and #815 Bobby Ross Battle on Saturday
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#16 Johnny Hale had a Good weekend running 3-4 for 3rd overall!

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Qualifying ! #1 Chad Lohr comes around 2nd on the first Lap!

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Johnny Hale leading Trent Kandel around the backside on lap #1 Qualifier!

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#72 Skylar Stewart Leads the pack around the back straight in his qualifier!

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#98 John Ragon Qualifying ! Speedy Recovery John!

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#41 Bryan Chaler went 2-9 for a 7th overall!

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#37 Dave Diver is making a come back in the Pro Am classes!
Keep it coming Dave!

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Bobby Ross and # 82 Chris Brian Battle it out in the qualifiers!

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#71 Cody Smith from West Junction Utah did'nt make the trip to Florida for nothing as he tries to make up valuable ground in the Qualifier to go 3-15 for a 13th overall!

I do believe that we are seeing many more entries from West of the Mississippi!

[RemNS]

Top ten Overall for the Unlimited Pro Am Class:

1) Rocco Arno 2-1
2) Jeremy Lawson 4-3
3) Johnny Hale 3-4
4) Bobby Ross 8-2
5) Trent Kandel 5-5
6) Mark Kendall 4-6
7) Bryan CHaler 2-9
8) Skylar Stewart 1-10
9) Chad Lohr 5-8
10) Chad Wienen 1-12

I Just have to show this shot again to show how intense the racing action was!

[RemNS]

Onto the Womens Classes!

The Womens A class saw a repeat of what has been happening all year!

Angela Moore winning the qualifier and Heather Byrd winning the main!
The racing action between 1st and 2nd is always something you have to watch. These two ladies know how to duke it out on the track and do it with the cleanest of passing!

[RemNS]

Angela Moore finishing runner-up for the weekend!

Watch out guys , All of the ladies running ATV's will probably put you to shame on the track then tell you to put your tongues back in your mouth in the pits!

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#113 Miss Maxxis Tires Herself putting some tread down at Gatorback!
Michelle Reiser finished 3-3 to take a 3rd overall for the weekend!
Sweet looking GAL--- I mean ATV!:p

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#23 Jamie Rentz ( JJ's fiance) is looking strong as she went 4-5 for a 4th overall!
She was pressured by #236 Alex Kirchner during the whole Main!
More on her in a minute!

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#236 Alex Kirchner is the Gal who had her Trailer stolen on the way back from the west coast!
She has been riding on borrowed bikes the last few rounds!
She is currently putting another bike together and when she gets back on her own ATV and gets it set up WATCH OUT! She is definately fast!

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Another noteable from the Womens A class is #5 Paula Shank getting back on the track!
Paula has been riding since I can remember and I laugh at the memories I have of her at the local D5 tracks when she was fighting with the little 90 mod !
It's great to have her back at the GNC's after she broke some bones last year! Paula says she needs to remember where the throttle is and shake off some rust! But she plans on coming to as many GNC's as she can!
Great to see you back Paula!

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Now the Womens B/C Class!

#11 Leslie Ragon walked away with another win this weekend!
I cant wait to see her move up and run with Angela and Heather!
Hopefully it will happen before the year is over!

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After Leslie, the battle for the #2 spot was up for grabs!
There were a lot of calculators out in the mechanics area trying to figure out where their riders had to finish in the main!

#13 Amanda Hoback went on to claim the 2nd spot finishing with a 4-3

#696 Jennifer Blauw made up for a mid pack qualifying run to finish 2nd in the main but the math put her at 6-2 for a total of 8 points and finishing 3rd overall

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Misty Hues !
A regular on this site, was tied for the 3rd spot overall by finishing 3-5 but finished 4th overall after the tie breaker!

Here is Misty going for the pass around #25 Jamie Luburgh!

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#141 Chelsea Madl throws it sideways as she battled her way up to the 7th spot after some lap 1 problems.
Chelsea had a great run on Saturday finishing 2nd!

A 2-7 Finish Put her 5th Overall for the weekend!

Great Run!

[RemNS]

#88 Cindi Hart ( Digger Dougs Lady) and #25 Jami Luburgh ( Jason Luburgh's Sister) battle it out for the 5th spot in SUndays main!

Cindi went 5-6 for 6th overall and Jami went 8-4 for 7th overall!

[RemNS]

Now for the B Class Reports!

4 Stroke B!

The front runners in the 4 Stroke B class were consistent all weekend! One slip up and they knew they would drop back not just one position overall but 4 or 5! This made for some great racing action!

Let me set up the main event for you so you can see what I mean!

There were 4 qualifiers! (Always the bigger class every weekend)

First place Finishers:
-Aaron Meyer
-Fred Reiser
-Bruce Wyland
-Lance Lowe

Second Place Finishers:
-Dana Wolf
-Hunter Johnson
-Eric Vaia
-Jordan Bouchie

Out of those 8 riders, 6 would finish in the top 8! Great racing with every inch counting for the win!

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Fred Reiser battled hard in the main but could not get around #47 Aaron Meyer for the win!
Lap after Lap Reiser tapped wheels trying to move Meyer from corner to corner! Definately the best race of the weekend!

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#357 Hunter Johnson Finished 2-4 For a 4th Overall!

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#3 Bruce Wyland won his Qualifier but couldnt put it together in the main as he suffered from a bad holeshot and could only move up to the 5th spot in the main!
Bruce finished with a 1-5 and took 5th overall!
I told you every inch counted in the main!

[RemNS]

#07 Eric Vaia is another Rider that had a good finish in the Qualifier but fell back in the main!
Eric is a local rider for D5 so we wish him the best!
Eric Finished with 2-9 for a 8th Overall!

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# 17 Terry Hale 10th Overall

[RemNS]

Time to call it quits for the night! Getting a little Carpel Tunnel Syndrome!

I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the Amateur coverage!

Rick Frisco
RemNS Productions
ATV INC

[RemNS]

Alright the doctor has cleared me to type again!:p

Here we go with the 265B Class!

Brandon Raymond and Fred Reiser dominated this class for the weekend!
We switched memory cards durig their races so I apologize for not getting photos of them!
I'll make up for it at Macon though!
The 265B Class had 2 qualifiers on Saturday!
#118 Brandon Raymond won his qualifier followed by #181 Fre Reiser
2nd Qualifier was won by #45 LAnce Lowe followed by #34 Jake Anderson

You can see that it was no walk in the park though as Reiser had to work through a little traffic to get to the front!

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#45 Lance Lowe had a good race on Saturday but DNF the Sunday Main! No report on what happened but I believe he would have made a difference in the results had he finished!
He looked good on Saturday!

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#57 Brandon Rabold Finished the weekend with a 3-4 for 4th overall!
The battle for 3rd wasa intense as Rabold and #888 Ryan Sowers flopped spots in the main giving Sowers 3rd overall!

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#49 Matt Wienen finished 7th overall with a 5-8 for the weekend!

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#34 Jake Anderson had some trouble in the Main on Synday letting his 2nd on Saturday slip to the wind!
Jake finished 2-14 giving him 10th for the weekend!

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#17 Wes Smith had some problems all weekend!
He finished a respectable 14th overall even with the problems!

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#22 JARED HOWELL

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#19 Matt Andrew

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OK!
Now for the Ever so Popular Youth Production 200/300 Class!

I should let my daughter write this review! I think she knows more about what happened here than I do and she wasnt even at the race! She 's a Youth Production Groupie! I'll come home from the race and she'll quiz me about who finished where and then make about 10 phone calls to the riders in this class!

But Guess who made it back to the GNC's?

Ricky Stair! I guess you know by now who won!

This Kid is fast and I mean Really fast!
And of course he's from Pennsylvania!

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#3 GARRETT HELMIC took the win on Saturday in his Qualifier but had some mechanical problems which he could not get fixed for Sunday's main!
I would have loved to see him run on Sunday he is another fast kid on the move up in the ranks!

[RemNS]

ANother fast rider that finished good on Saturday with a 2nd in his qualifier that ended up with a DNF in the main was # 191 Eddie Edmonson!
Eddie is another fast rider that could have made a difference witht the results!

I do believe most of these riders are frequent visitors to the site and could let us in on what happened to them this weekend!

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With a few of the top contender from Saturday dropping out, the doors were left open for #89 Chris Mauney. Chris looked good on Sunday not giving up a whole lot of ground to the leader Stair!

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Another rider that looked good on Sunday holding onto the 2nd position until the mid to end of the race was #98 Zack Towery!
Zack held onto the #2 spot until mechanical problems knocked him out of the race!

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#111 Matt Bremer had a consistent weekend finishing 3-3 for the 3rd overall!

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#155 Shawn Wiebelt finished 4th overall with a 2-4

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# 20 Charlie McVay from Pennsylvania took the 5th spot with a 5-6 on the weekend!

Charlie was the top finishing Blaster which says a lot for the young man!

I do believe that the Blaster has a disadvantage in this class so we'll give him the win in the blaster Race from the 200/300 class!

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#21 Colten Moore made the trip from Texas to finish 6th overall!

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And a good friend of ours #55 Jay Corey also had a consistent weekend giving him a 7-7 and the 7th position on the weekend!

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The last post for this class is for a young kid who had a little bad luck on the track on Saturday! # 121 Troy Heath flipped the bike over in front of the camera but did not waste anytime worrying about it as he got it started back up and finished in the 9th spot on Saturday and Sunday taking the #11 spot for the weekend!
Good Job getting it going again Troy!

[RemNS]

GET R DONE!!!!!!!!!!

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ALRIGHT! To end the report from Gatorback I'll post some pics from the 90 Production Junior 8-11 Year Olds and the 70 Modified 6-11 Year Olds!

A little from both classes first:

In the 90 Junior Class, #66 Cody Gibson took the win with a 2-1!
#862 COlby Brake went 2-2 for the runner-up spot!
#28 Jeffray Rastrelli getting some new for 2005 Dinlini trackside support finished in the 3rd spot with a 3-3 on the weekend!

A few notes about some other top runnersin the 90 Junior Class:
#024 Niko Difonzo won his qualifier on Saturday but burned the clutch up in the main on Sunday dropping back to the 5th position which put the rider in the 4th Position for the weekend!

Also, #48 Dallas Tapscott won his Qualifier on Saturday but DNF'd the main on Sunday which dropped him back to the 14th overall position! Dallas is usually a front runner!

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#024 Niko Difonzo

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#00 Jenna Bell! This little Lady rocks!

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The 70 Mod class was handled by the ever so great Karaoke Singer from the races # 36 DJ Spurling! Dj went 1-1 on the weekend!

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70 Modified runner up went to # 7 Robert Leonard with a great run in the main! Robert went 5-2 for the runner up spot!

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#54 Tyler Skipper finished in 3rd for the weekend with a 3-5 and 3rd overall!
#77 "The Green Machine" Lake Kuba finished 5th overall with a 4-6

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#32 Jesse Skvarek finished 6th overall!!!!!!

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That's it for Gatorback 2005!
But dont worry, we'll be back with another tale from the old indian grounds of Echeconnee in a little less than 3 weeks!
Come visit us at macon and sign up for some pics and DVD's from the event!

http://www.remnsproductions.com

[QuadRacer041]

great report.

[ex kid]

did Jesse Scheaffer get hurt when he crashed? if so anybody know how he's doing?

[quadchick3]

dislocated shoulder, broken collar bone and ripped tendions, out for the rest of the season i think.

[ex kid]

that sucks!

[quadmxracer]

Any pics of the 4 Stroke A class?

[RemNS]

For 4 Stroke A Pics visit our website and go to the ATV INC Sideand then Photos and select Gatorback then select the class!

http://www.remnsproductions.com

Rick

[dum391]

Originally posted by ex kid
did Jesse Scheaffer get hurt when he crashed? if so anybody know how he's doing?
hey due to the crash jesse had he has a separated shoulder and a bruised back hel be out 4 to 8 weeks.

[AtvMxRider]

Originally posted by RemNS
ANother fast rider that finished good on Saturday with a 2nd in his qualifier that ended up with a DNF in the main was # 191 Eddie Edmonson!
Eddie is another fast rider that could have made a difference witht the results!

I do believe most of these riders are frequent visitors to the site and could let us in on what happened to them this weekend!


Eddie is one fast kid. He has the potential to turn pro and do very well.

[raceman]

Snapped flywheel key while linning up for gate on sunday


uuuuuuuuuuug