| ATVA
ITP / Moose Racing
National Motocross Series
Amateur Race Report
Round #7 - Red Bud
May 13-14, 2006
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| ATVA
Motocross Nationals
Round #7 - Links |
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Buchanan, MI – After heavy rain
on Friday, practice was cancelled, which meant for a
short morning practice on Saturday, which left most
of the racers covered in mud that did decide to venture
out on the track for practice. The track remained fairly
sloppy on Saturday, but it could have been much worse
if it weren't for the Red Bud track crew. By Sunday,
the rain clouds finally began to break up and the sun
came out, which provided an incredible day for racing,
and all the amateur racing was finished before the Pro
second Moto, which was a relief for those that had a
long ride home from the Great Lake State.
Pro Am Production & Unlimited
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Josh Upperman ruled the roost this weekend in
both the Pro Am Unlimited & Production |
Webster’s dictionary defines one who dominates
as one who rules or controls by superior power or influence.
Josh Upperman may not possess the ability to have Webster’s
change their definition to include his name but he does
have the power and influence to add his name to those
racers who rule and control in the 2006 ITP/Moose Racing
ATVA National Motocross Series. So far this season with
7 out of 14 rounds in the books, Upperman has taken
home four victories in the Pro/Am Production class and
six in the Pro/Am Unlimited class. This fact alone puts
him in the “Dominator” category and at the
top of the overall standings at mid-season in both classes.
With 166 points accumulated in the Production class,
Upperman has taken advantage of the absence of Matt
White due to injuries and within the last two rounds
has surpassed White to take over the championship lead.
White, a Pro racer backed by McNett Performance, had
tangled with Upperman all season long, making the class
an interesting one to watch on the national MX circuits,
slipped from the front runner to second overall after
missing the Red Bud round.
To say the least, conditions at Red Bud during round
7 of the ’06 MX Nationals were not high and dry.
Rain, rain and more rain made it necessary for the Red
Bud crew to shorten the track, push back piles of mud,
and have staff ready to pull stranded, stuck or toasted
machines from all around the track. Making the best
of not so stellar conditions were Brock Lyons, Tommy
Hager, Clay Holmes and Michael Brown. Categorized as
the cream of the crop in the up and coming Pro contenders
circle, these Pro/Am racers found themselves on the
podium in the Pro/Am classes at “The Bud”.
Lyons, coming off a win in the Unlimited class at Birch
Creek during round 6, may not have been able to whittle
away at Upperman’s ten plus second lead in the
Unlimited class in Michigan, but held off the attack
of Tommy Hagar to finish in the second overall position
with Hager rounding out the podium. This 2nd place finish
by Lyons slotted him just outside the top three in the
overall class standings, trailing Mitch Reynolds who
occupied the third place overall by twenty points. Hagar,
a Vine Grove, Kentucky based Pro/Am, pulled down his
first podium for the year by finishing third at round
7 and had a hold on the fifth place overall.
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| Brock
Lyons picked up where he left off in Birch Creek
with yet another season best finish with a 2nd
place finish Pro Am Production, but his bad luck
returned on Sunday with a Broken Colarbone and
grab bar to go with it, but he was still smiling
and can't wait to race again. |
Before
Red Bud, Mike Brown's best finish of the year
in either Pro Am Classes was 7th place at Budds
Creek, but his weekend he tied his season best
in Pro Am Production with a 7th Place finish and
rounded out the Podium in Pro Am Unlimted on Sunday. |
Clay Holmes, a Joe Byrd Quad Riding School trained
Pro/Am’er, was speechless after gritting his way
around the shorten version of the Red Bud circuit and
climbing to his first podium in either of the Pro/Am
classes this year. Once again Upperman was out front
and running while Holmes and Michael Brown of Bullville,
NY jockeyed for the last two podium positions. When
all was said and done and the mud was wiped from the
front number plates, Holmes had finished second for
the weekend and Brown third. On the podium, Holmes didn’t
quite know what to say but managed to thank his family
and sponsors and smile a lot for the cameras. On the
other hand, Brown, who wasn’t sure he’d
taken the third place overall limped into the winner’s
circle with busted nerfs and oil dripping from his hard
pushed Yamaha. “It was all worth it.” he
commented, “I finally made the top three.”
Age Classes (25 Plus, Vet, Senior)
When he comes he wins or makes the podium. Richard Slayton
of Mansfield, Texas and his Honda have missed two rounds
of this year’s MX National series but as the troops
of the 30 Plus class say “When he’s here…he’s
winning.” Out of five rounds attended, Slayton
has taken back to Texas four wins and one second. This
showing when he’s in attendance has granted him
the top spot in the overall points standings in the
class. But, his lead is not secure at mid-point. Brian
Giles, an Alabama based racer sponsored by Terry Racing,
has used consistency and a win at the Birch Creek hosted
sixth round to keep himself within striking distance
of Slayton. Giles sits in second overall after the first
seven rounds with 133 points, just 12 points away from
slaying Slayton for the championship. Rounding out the
top three in the 30 Plus class, a man who’s also
missed a couple of rounds, Kevin Kern of Lithia, Florida
trails Giles and Slayton by a margin of 70 Plus Points
and hangs on to his third place overall series ranking
by a mere thread of a point over Brad Skelton of South
Carolina.
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Plus Racer, #707 Tom Barry grabbed the Holeshot
on Saturday through the sloppy mud, but he wasn't'
able to maintain the lead and finished in the
runners up spot in his first race this year |
25
Plus Racer, #7 Dane Heilman was at home in the
mud as he was able to work his way past Barry
and take the win on Saturday and again on Sunday
for his 5th Overall win of the season |
He hails from New York and walks, talks and acts like
a “Yank”. His friends call him Tommy; his
race fans call him “Taz”, a shortened nickname
for “Tazmanian”. His name is Tommy Tantillo
and when he’s on the track in the 40 Plus class,
anyone with any race savvy senses at all knows why.
He began the series in California in February and experienced
his only non-winning event at that round. After experiencing
an unscheduled get off which left him injured, he remounted
his ride in Southern California at Glen Helen Raceway,
taking a third place finish, and has since then left
the remainder of the 40 Plus personnel in his wake.
He’s won every consecutive round since then and
has no intentions of backing off. With a huge lead at
Red Bud, Tantillo slowed it down a little, preserving
himself and his machine and had fun with the crowd as
he went on to take the victory. After seven of fourteen
rounds, “Taz” has accumulated a total of
201 points, just 9 shy of a perfect score on the season,
and leads his closest competitor in the 40 Plus class,
James Perry of JPMX out of Adolphus, Kentucky, by 41
points. Perry, a veteran of the MX Nationals and still
racing as competitive as ever, has pretty much been
playing second fiddle to Tantillo all season long but
has almost doubled his lead over the third place overall
points position of Anthony Capuano of Maryland who rounds
out the podium.
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James
Perry has finished in the runners up spot behind
Tommy Tantillo 5 times this season, so he switch
to a new 2006 450R this weekend, which didn't
help as he finished in 3rd with Chris Frye in
2nd |
The
crazy Jack Moore his the track this weekend on
a Kymco, but he found out it couldn't handle a
200+ lb guy flat landing a table top jump on a
stock axle. |
Youth ATV Racing
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Jeffray Rasterilli was on a mission this weekend
as he worked his way to the front to take the
90 Mod Win and end Joe Hetrick's winning streak |
Let him get out front and he’s gone. Let him
get snagged back in the pack and he’s coming to
the front. Joel Hetrick of Hetrick Racing doesn’t
have the word “quit” in his youthful vocabulary.
Coming off of three national championships during the
2005 Nationals, one in 90 Mod in the MX arena, and two,
one in the 90 Mod and another in the 90 Production class,
on the Extreme Dirt Track circuit, he’s poised
and headed for yet another national championship. With
four wins, two seconds and an uncharacteristic fifth
place finish at Round 2 of the ’06 MX Nationals,
Hetrick and his #88 machine are always in the mix for
the podium. At Red Bud, after getting clogged at the
holeshot and having to pick his way trough the pack,
he finished second behind Florida’s Jeffary Rastrelli
who took the Round 7 win. Topping off the podium after
a weekend of racing around the weather shortened version
of the world famous Red Bud facility in the 90 Mod class
was Ethan Straney of Vine Grove, Kentucky.
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| The
Tittle family left Red Bud with smiles on their
faces as both Brandon & Cody Tittle took wins
this weekend. |
Cam
Covil takes his third win in a row in the 70cc
Shifter Class and takes the points lead away from
Tyler Pittman |
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Fighting for your
Rights
All Terrain Vehicle Association
P.O. Box 800
Pickerington, OH 43147-0800 |
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