2004 GNCC Round #11 "The Penton" AM Race

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Tyler Lenig once again found himself out of the race after the 1st lap due to a throttle cable issue

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by the 2nd lap, Billy Good just checked out on Will Cashion and put two minutes between them in one lap. Meanwhile, Richard Travelena dropped back to 11th and I took over third place with Mark Rhodes working his way up from a poor start to battle with me. We passed each over several times back and forth, but he had the bigger balls heading for the finish line and launced over the double and barely made it and I left off to watch a big wreck, but he saved it and moved into third place and I dropped back to 4th with Brandon Sommers quickly closing in after being back to 9th after the 1st lap.

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By the third lap, Billy Good remained out front with a huge lead of over 2 minutes, but now he had Mark Rhodes closing in with a 6 second faster lap time than Billy Good. Mark took over the 2nd spot, and Will Cashion dropped back to third place. Brandon Sommers made the easy pass on me early in the 3rd lap with a pure power advantage on a straightaway that he walked by me like I was sitting still. Also, I began to become fatigued from man handling the Z through the first two laps. I decided at the last minute to make some changes to the front end of the machine that didn't work like I had expected at all, and the Z wanted to roll over on me on all the offchamber turns. I learned a vital lesson from this experience and that is too NEVER make an change in your machine setup without first practicing with the new setup. Regardless, I was fading fast and dropped back to sixth place after Jarrod McClure made the pass and moved into 5th.

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By the end of the 4th lap, Billy Good remained out front, but it wasn't the end of the race Racer Production decided to run another lap, which caught many riders off guard including Mark Rhodes, who finished the 4th lap and pulled off the track after the finish line. After atleast 30 seconds, he was notified that the race wasn't over, so he put his helmet back on and headed out for the last lap. During the that time, Brandon Sommers was able to slip past him as he reentered the track. Also, Tyler Lenig who had been watching the race on the sidelines since the 1st lap had his machine fixed and jumped out on the track between Mark & Brandon, but Mark was quickly able to pass Tyler on the MX track and began chasing after Brandon Sommers.

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I waved Michael Sroka Jr pass me to take over the 6th spot after being back to 12th after the 1st lap. I was praying the race would be over after 4th lap, but I too was surprised to see the white flag as well and felt like calling it a day, but I am not a quiter, so I gave it all I had for one more lap hoping to hold onto 7th place in a very personally disappointing race.

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By the end of the Race, Billy Good came through the finish line in 2nd Overall behind Stephanie Parton. Amazingly, Brandon Sommers able hold off Mark Rhodes and actually pull away from him and finish 3rd Overall and 2nd in the Class in his 1st stock class race. The unfortunate thing was that he wasn't able to get on the Podium which he rode so hard to earn.

Congratulations Billy Good & Brandon Sommers on finishing on the Podium!!!

Jarrod McClure had the race that I Predicted earlier in the season and finished 4th in the Stock Class and 7th overall in only his third ever GNCC race.

Will Cashion dropped back to finish 5th with Michael Sroka Jr in 6th, and I managed to stay in 7th with Ryan Morphew closing in fast finishing 8th, ahead of Chris Neal and Richard Travalena rounding out the top 10.

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Utility Unlimited

Kevin Orris is one of the riders not on a Vforce in this class, but he definitely has one of the nicest looking machines on the line and is currently in 10th Place.

He definitely knows how to represent his sponsors!!!

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Doug Henke is the "Man" the way he handles the 500+ lb Vforce around the track. He has dominated the Utility Unlimited class all season with eight wins. He has the championship all but wrapped up heading into the last four races of the season.

Doug was having a great ride at Wisp until he flipped his machine and the roll over sensor was damaged which prevented him from winning the race.

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Doug Henke grabbed the holeshot in the field of green

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By the end of the race, Doug Henke left the race of the class in the dust by gathering over a 7 minute lead I let him by in the third lap, and I could tell he was on a mission.

He ended up finishing 5th Overall and was only 8 seconds out of third overall and back on the Podium.

Congrats Doug on another great race!!!