Here's a photo of our quad at tech inspection. As far as I know any width quad is legal for this race. Check out the perforated clear plastic rock guard in front of the headlights.
Each of the Duncan/ATV World teams had their own timing board (powdercoated to match the frame color, of course) which was manned constantly during the race. Each rider's lap times were recorded as backup to the transponder scoring utilized by the promoter. We communicated via pitboards every lap and the information proved vital. Here is Loren Duncan watching out for his riders. Notice the lights over the time sheets for nighttime recording.
I can't thank the guys at ATV World enough for setting up the quad and sponsoring the team. This is Martin Fletcher from ATV World. Martin and Philip Crabtree run the shop, and it is the largest atv parts distributor in Europe. The Nac's of Europe. Martin prepared the Honda 450r for our team and we only had to make minor adjustments during practice.
Chad Lohr was a friendly guy and was always in a great mood. We're old enough that we can talk about tracks in the MD/VA area that don't even exist anymore! It was cool being able to ride with such a talented racer from a different discipline of competition.
Doug Eichner is the man at PDV. He's won it more than anyone else and you can never count him out. This year he was teamed up with John Mitchell on a Laeger's Banshee. Doug is a great guy and really down to earth. He seems really comfortable with his surroundings in the pits, and that translates into awesome performances on the track. What more can you do when you've won championships in MX, SX, WORCS, BAJA? Go overseas and win a handful of PDV's!
Who do you want to be your team manager at the PDV? Stuart Walker. No question. He's been racing this event since the beginning 18 years ago and can plan race strategies as well as "turn the spanners"; because he lives, eats and breathes this event. He reads the weather, lap times, competitors' problems, bike setup, and creates a plan for racing based on the factors. I personally have never seen anyone calculate complex points/time/overall position of a dozen teams so quickly. He goes into a sort of tunnel vision with the score sheets and boom!- next thing you know he's got all your team's stats before the transponders have finished tripping the beam. Big inspiration, big heart, here's to you- Wanker!
Practice Saturday morning was muddy, and everyone was taking their spotless bikes out into the muck. We waited until the practice session was nearly over and then Cale and I cut about 5 or 6 laps to try and set up the quad. All of the practice laps are recorded and the best time from each team determined the start position for each of the three racing sessions. We qualified 28th, which meant we had to do some catchup at the start of each session. The top qualifiers were the Yamaha Motor France YFZ450 of off-road legend Stephen Peterhansel in 1st; in 2nd the winner of the last two PDV's Greg Lassaigne on a Banshee; and Chad and Tavis on their YFZ450 in 3rd. The first racing session was 3 hours on Saturday afternoon. In this photo Paul Rowlands prepares to switch with me.
The first 3 hour session ended with Eichner/Mitchell in front of Lohr/Cain. Lassaigne/Goodman/Novak sat in 3rd place. Our team finished in 6th, just ahead of the KTM powered quad of Mike Walsh and Jeremy Lawson. We did 54 laps of the track in 3 hours! Lassaigne's Banshee had some rear sprocket trouble, and even after a lengthy pit they came back to finish the session very
well. This is a photo taken during their pit stop.
We started the night session on Saturday evening at 8pm. It was a 5 hour session that went until 1am. It was getting dark just as the Duncan teams were pitting. This is Eichner and Mitchell switching during the fuel stop. It was tough to try and catch the action during the race because I was either on the track or ready to hop on the quad at a moment's notice.
Senior Member
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote