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Doug Gust
Grabs the Holeshot
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Chino, CA (4/16/2008) - The
Bluegrass ATV National at Kentucky’s Ballance
MX, really had a little of everything. The weather
was all over the map but mostly cold. Sunday it
really went wacky.
Team Manager Kory Ellis described the action
“Dustin got off fourth in the first moto
and caught up with the John Natalie pretty quickly.
John was riding hard but made a slight mistake
and crashed really hard. Fortunately he was
OK and got going again but was way back.”
Chad Wienen got off the gate well, but was
caught up in 1st turn pile-up, ending up around
19th on the first lap. He started charging like
a maniac, moving forward quickly. The track
was on the verge of being muddy - but slowly
started drying out.
As the moto started developing, it settled
in with Wimmer in the lead and Gust a steady
second. Wimmer ended up with the win, Doug second
and Chad came all the way back up to 4th.
“The track was pretty good really.”
Wimmer said after the moto one win. “It
was pretty tacky and I found some pretty good
lines. Once I got out front - I just rode smooth
and pulled away.”
The second moto was a lot different! The track
was really muddy for the start of the second
moto. The rain really started coming down and
it was going to be one of those “survival”
deals. Gust - knowing that the start was all-important
pulled the hole-shot. His clean goggles were
a huge advantage as the race progressed.
Dustin had a lousy start in the muddy mess.
“At the start it was pouring down rain,
I didn’t prep my gate enough and when
the gate dropped, just slithered all over the
place. I got roosted so bad on the first lap,
the mud was so heavy that I couldn’t hardly
hold my head up - my helmet was just kinda rolling
around!”
It got even worse for the series points leader,
“My goggles were wasted and I was going
off jumps blind- it was really scary. With about
four laps to go I had to take my goggles off.
I also started to my bike. There was so much
weight in mud on the thing that I wanted to
be sure and be as smooth as possible. There
were a lot of people who DNF’d out there,
I didn’t want to be one of them.”
The end of the race was true survival according
to Dustin: “Everyone was just more or
less rolling all the jumps. It had become dangerous
to try and jump them, especially with all the
mud weight on the quads.
Meanwhile, back up front, Natalie was riding
hard and Doug was having trouble shifting his
bike as a rock had stuck between his shifter
and the cases. Fortunately the quad was stuck
in second gear and in the muddy conditions that
wasn’t such a bad thing. Natalie passed
Doug for the lead, with about two laps to go,
and about the same time Doug’s rock finally
fell out. “I couldn’t jump the jumps
being stuck in second but no one else was doing
them anyway. Once it fell out and I could shift
again, it really didn’t make that much
of a difference.”
While everyone else was making mistakes or
blowing up their bikes, Doug carefully chose
his lines knowing that he just needed to follow
Natalie home for the overall win. Doug’s
2-2 scores did indeed net him the overall win,
and the top podium step - a place Gust is very
familiar with.
Doug was really excited after the race, “I
had a great weekend. It feels really good -
awesome. I did it today,” the Wisconsin
native said. “The second moto really rained
pretty hard. The track was soupy and very slick.
I knew I had to get a good start and I really
concentrated and got the holeshot. Then I got
a stinkin’ rock stuck in my shifter and
John got by me. But by then, I had the overall
locked up so it was OK.”
The remaining Team Rockstar/MSR/Suzuki/Yoshimura/Pro
Taper rider Chad Wienen bottomed out on a rock
and poked a hole in his engine cases. He was
forced to DNF. Chad has been getting all of
his bad luck out of the way in the beginning
part of the season. He will have to wait for
a top result at the next round in Virginia.
