Jennifer Albright and Kirsten Atwell file in behind the leaders as they to prepare to start their day.
While Atwell and Cecco grab the spotlight more often then not, there are other stars in the Womens class that are working just hard if not harder to be competitive. At round 1, Albright expressed her goal of having more fun this season, and not letting pressure or difficulties get to her. Well, it must be working because she is riding 3rd in points and is running a pretty consistant season.
Kristen Atwell has shown her speed as well and has found the overall podium twice thus far. She sits just behind Albright, holding 4th in points.
#820, Jesi Stracham has been riding a roller coaster this season as she made the switch to the Womens class. With finishes that were good, but not where she would like to be being shown in the results column, Stracham would have to find her groove her at Snowshoe as she had yet to open up and give us what we all know she is capable of! If she could get a solid run in at this brutal event, maybe it would lead to some confidence and help her finish the first half of her season with some showing of how good a rider she is.
Micheal Swift has been putting together the perfect season and has been flawless in 7 rounds of competition.
Think about that for a minute. 7 rounds, 7 class wins, on a machine that weighs more then 3 times his weight, over some grueling courses. Mechanical failure strikes everyone at some point and that hasnt even reared its ugly head! I try and not single out anyone that I may cheer for as I prefer to cheer for everyone, but to be witness to what is being accomplished this season so far is pretty cool! So I cheer him on even when I wasn't there and I even thought about his results while I was on a MX track in Tennessee the day of this race, hoping for one more win for him.
Clifton Beasley was also off to a perfect season but would find himself finishing 2nd at round #7.
It may seem I give alot of attention to the top riders, and in a sense, we have to cover those that stand out, but when the top riders have some personality and really get into things, it makes it almost impossible to keep going back to them round after round wether they win or not. Several riders have figured out that being on top doesnt always mean winning and it sure seems to be helping them gain support, both from fans and financially. Hell, some of these guys in this series could ride a tricycle and finish dead last and I would still write about them, they are just good folks! My only regret is that I dont have the time to offer something to every rider, because all of you deserve it! I geuss there is a lesson in there somewhere, but at 5 am I cant express it
As much as I dislike shooting at this round, I can still feel the excitement as I look at these pictures. That howling sound for the tires, the sound of hard acceleration as it echos through the tall buildings....it is a cool expierence for sure.
The starts are way different for the racers, and for the fans. The bad part is you only get to see a small portion of it but that really cant be helped. Maybe I need an atvriders.com helicopter
Heck, even the way I have to cover the race is so different And not being there is really taxing me because I cant ID many of the riders on the re-sized images I have been supplied
I do know who this is, BJ Naugle and his unmistakable Yamaha BJ is one of those unsung heros I was refering to earlier in the coverage. Always with a hand out when he greets you, always a smile and even on a bad day he seems to find some good in his race.
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