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Without the anticipated rain, the mini ATVs were stirring up a major dust cloud, which was would only be worse for the Morning or Afternoon race without any rain, and the Big Buck would look similar to the Yadkinville, NC race of last year.
Since Mother Nature wasn’t following through with the desperately needed rain, Racer Productions were prepared to atleast emphasize by apply some water on the starting area and spectator sections of the track.
Brandon Boso was able to cut his way through the dust on his Honda 90 this weekend to take another win in the 90 Stock Limited Class, but he wasn’t able to make the Podium as he finished 10th Overall
The Youth Podium belonged once again to Walker Fowler even after an early crash, and he was joined by Sam Parr and Stephen Mcculloch.
Jesi Stracham was on her game this weekend as she just missed the Podium by 3 seconds followed by Seth Mumford only 8 seconds behind her in 5th Overall.
With the Women starting on the first row, whoever could jump out to the front early with the Holeshot could atleast have some clean air while the rest of the class eating dust, and the battle was underway early among the highly competitive women racers with Angel Atwell leading the way followed by Stephanie Patron, Jennifer Fulkerson, and Traci Cecco.
The first lap, I could barely see for most of the race, which made passing very difficult in the wide open sections, but finally the rain arrived which cut the dust and provided the break that I needed to charge my way through the pack.
I caught Gallagher and Vickerd battling for the lead, which were my toughest pair to pass because I didn’t want to risk interfering with their battle, but I received a break several miles into the second lap, when I was able to find lines around them one at a time, which meant that I only had the women to begin to pick off.
The last lap, I put my head down and rode the Raptor like I have been riding it for years because it was extremely easy to adapt too, and I was extremely impressed at the way it handled in the woods and especially through some of the really whooped out sections of the track,. By the end of the lap, I passed several of the women, but I just didn’t have enough time to move my way to the front pack of ladies, but I did narrow the gap, and I had a blast after watching all these races this year through the lens of my camera.
I will be releasing a full story on my Raptor 700 ride in the very near future with videos.
Special Thanks to Fred Mudd and Bonnie Cook for helping with photos of the Morning Race, and Yamaha for making it possible for me to race this weekend on the Raptor 700
In the end, Angel Atwell was finally able to take her first Overall Win of the season over Stephanie Parton followed by the Women’s Champion, Traci Cecco.
Chris Borich was able to squeeze out the win at Steele Creek over Bill Ballance by picking the perfect line just before exiting the woods for the finish line, which extended his points lead. On the other hand, Matt Smiley has had a rough start to his season, which is reminiscent to the start of his race season in 2003, but he was able to get back on his game starting at Big Buck and finished the year in 5th Overall, so he is hoping for the same turn of events this year.
Chris Borich’s early season charge doesn’t seem to have Bill Ballance worried as he feels confident in his Yamaha race prograrm, and he feels consistent finishes on the Podium will be the key this year because everyone is stepping it up.
William Yokley finally returned to the racing the LT-R450 Quad Racer after racing the Suzuki LTZ400 the past two races while he waited on A-arms to pair with his Elka Shocks to narrow down the LTR for the tighter woods. He finally received the Roll Design A-arms a few days before the race along with a custom built dry break system from IMS to speed up the pit stops, which will hopefully be the right combination to get him back on the Podium as he did in Florida with the LT-R450.