2 Stroke C
3rd Wayne Tharp
4th Alvin Schockling
6th Darren Konzelman
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2 Stroke C
3rd Wayne Tharp
4th Alvin Schockling
6th Darren Konzelman
16-24 4 Stroke C Class
Do you think Brandon Sommers was excited about winning the Championship?
Brandon Sommers wrapped up the Championship early in the year with his consistent finishes, but this didn't slow down Michael Howell.
Michael skipped the first two rounds of the season and started his season in Georgia where he finished 4th. He went on to finish in top 10 over the next six races. By Round 11, Brandon moved to the Stock Class, and Michael went on a three win streak and wrapped up 2nd place after St. Clairsville, so he moved up to B Class at the Ironman and finished 4th, so I expect to see him and Brandon back up on the Stage Again next year in the Top Ten.
1st Brandon Sommers
2nd Michael Howell
3rd Erik Haspel
4th Tyson Helton
25-32 4 Stroke C Class
Eric Burton started out the season leading the class, and Gary Kiehl only raced 2 out of the 1st five races of the season, but Gary was determined to not let a late start hamper his season.
Gary went on to win five out of the last seven rounds and wrapped up the championship with one round left over Eric Burton who gave it his best at the Ironman with his third win of the season, but it wasn't enough to catch Gary.
John Howard's 7 top four finishes gave him third place for the year.
1st Gary Kiehl
2nd Eric Burton
3rd John Howard
33+ 4 Stroke C Class
Barry Taylor & Darrell Bozarth raced the entire 14 race series this year battling for the #1 Plate.
Barry and Darrell both started the season on Suzuki's, but Darrell lost his engine died after Big Buck and he made the switch to the Yamaha. Darrell got off to a slow start on the new machine, but once he got comfortable on the YFZ, he started performing extremely well. Darrell went on to finish three consecutive races in 2nd place and finished out the season with two 1st place finishes, but it wasn't enough to catch Barry Taylor who was consistent the entire season with with 10 races in the top 5.
Amazingly, actually the top 4 finishers in the class all started the season on Suzuki's and only Darrell made the switch to the Yamaha.
1st Barry Taylor
2nd Darrell Bozarth
4th Steve Edwards
5th Kenneth Haspel
6th John Saxon
Junior Class
Jared Huffman rode the Honda 450R like it was in his garage for years, and he was able to cash in big on the Honda Contigency program with 6 wins and three 2nd Place finishes. That put $4,200 in Jared Wallet to spend on what ever he wanted. Now if only Honda would pay all the riders the money they deserve before next year.
1st Jared Huffman
4th Chad Wallace
5th Jim Pinkston
7th Bryan Davis
Utility Modified
Mike Chirdon and Jason White chased after Scott Kilby on his Praire all season, and finished consistently in the top five.
2nd Mike Chirdon
3rd Jason White
4th Timothy Olsen
5th Brian Guinter
6th Joseph Jackson
Utility Stock
For the 11th time, Mike Penland has won the Championship in the Utility Stock Class, but it didn't come easy this season with Ken Robey moving from the Utility Mod to Stock this season. Ken came on strong at the end of the season with four wins in the last seven rounds.
The saddest news is that Mike Penland has long been a Kawasaki rider, and has depended on their support to get him to the races, but Kawasaki will be pulling out of ATV racing in 2005, which left Mike Penland with out a major sponsor. Mike Penland told me that unless someone steps up to support him next year that this year may have been the last year of racing for him:(.
Also several of the Kawasaki's top riders weren't in attendance at the Banquet this year(Scott Kilby, Bryan Hulsey, and Ryan Wuebbling) to accept their awards. I hope these great racers aren't giving up racing next season, but only time will tell.
Mike Penland gave special thanks to HMF for all of their support with his program and hopefully things will work out for him to go after his 12th Championship.
1st Mike Penland
2nd Ken Robey
I think Mike Penland is really hoping for HMF's "Backing" next year.
Utility Unlimited
Finally, the last class of the evening was the Utility Unlimited Class. This class could have been named the Vforce Class if it weren't for handleful of Polaris riders that competed in the class.
The top 8 positions went to Vforce riders and Kevin Schmidt was able to work his Polaris to a 9th Place season.
Doug Henke was simply amazing to watch the way he handled these 500lb machines through the woods like he was on a 250R. Doug went on to win 11 races and he did it with time to spare. Many of his wins came with a 5 to 12 minute gap between him and 2nd Place:eek:, which was totally amazing.
Without Kawasaki's support next season, I expect to see Doug on a TRX450R next year in the Afternoon. It will be extremely interesting to see how he does on such a light machine.
1st Doug Henke
2nd Michael Shelley
3rd John Ribley