2006 GNCC Series Round #8 -The Spartan - Sparta, KY - Race Coverage

Amazingly, Jeremy Rice finishes 4th Overall at the Penton on an almost completely stock LT-R450, and three weeks later, no one still hasn't stepped up to provide him with A-arms, shocks, and etc...

I could only imagine how much faster Jeremy Rice could be if he had the race program and backing like many of the other Top Pros.

Back in the Pro Am Row is another extremely fast racer, Billy Good, that just doesn't have the budget to build a full race quad, but atleast Wilson Racing finally took notice and stepped up to the plate and provided him with a Polaris Predator to race for the rest of the season.

Dustin Pigott has made the move to 4 Stroke A this year, and he has been improving all year with his two best finishes of the year the past two rounds.

Thomas Wright dominated last year in the 35+ C Class, so he made the move to Vet for 2006, and he has been up against some stiff competition with Chris Earlywine leading the class, but Thomas is holding his own in second place followed by Kenneth Tincher.

Mark Notman finished in the runners up spot in the Open B Class in 2004 behind Shane Benson, and he moved to 4 Stoke A in 2005 where he finished in 7th, so he is back again this year looking to move up in the ranks. The past two rounds, he has done exactly that by taking the win at the John Penton and finishing a career best 14th Overall, which followed a 4th and 23rd Overall at the Showtime! GNCC. As a result, he has jumped up into 5th place in points and not far out of the top three with Brandon Sommers leading the Class.

Brandon Sommers & his father Laz have a plan and they are sticking too it! Brandon only started riding ATVs just a few years ago, and he finally gave racing a try at Mathew's Farm in 2004 at the end of the season in the first year racer class, and he finished an impressive 7th Place. By his fourth race, he earned his first win and has been hooked ever since.

He has went on to win the C jClass Championship(2004), B Class Championship(2005), and he is enroute to win the A Class Championship in 2006. If he achieves his goal, I believe he will be the first person to ever do it, and he will have done it despite receiving plenty of pressure to jump to Pro Am or even Pro.

If he wins A Class, I will imagine the Pro Am Class will be next on his list, and I wish him the best of luck.

Well, enough history lets get ready to race, and I must say it has to be nice to get a good luck kiss on the starting line, and it must be working for Pro Rookie, Brent Sturdivant because he has been on fire this year and after just missing the Podium with a 4th Overall at Loretta Lynn's he made the switch to Pro and followed it up with a 5th Overall.

Jason Weigandt gets in one last minute interview with Bill Ballance on the line prior to the start of the race, and Bill was pumped to have his entire family with him at the track this weekend including his newborn daughter.

Chris Borich lost the Overall Points lead after a rough race at the Penton, but he remained tied with Bill Ballance in Pro Points, so he needed finish ahead of Bill Ballance this weekend more than ever, and with the playing of the National Anthem, he was about to get his chance in only a few minutes.

I must say Michael & Crystal Houston show they are truly proud to be Americans with the attention they give to the National Anthem, and if it weren't for our freedom, we couldn't be doing what we love to do, but we still need to stick together and be heard by those Anti-ATV groups and tree huggers that feel we are bad people.