ATVA ITP Moose Racing National Motocross Series Round #11 - Sunset Ridge July 15-16, 2006

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Josh Upperman has wrapped up the Championship in Both Pro Am Classes, and Unadilla may be his Pro Class debut

Tom Hager had a hard time keeping it on all fours this weekend, which costed him some valuable points in both Pro Am Classes

In the Unlimited class, Holmes’ hopes for a top finish on the series were all but squashed when Upperman posted another win bringing his total points for the season to 302 while Holmes tally showed 170 points. Although he couldn’t overcome Upperman, Holmes with his 170 points sat comfy in second with a 36 point lead over Tommy Hager who held down the third place overall position. Nipping at Hager’s buds, Reynolds, who was only a point behind Hager with 133 points, continued to press his ride in his quest to overtake Reynolds as the series headed into the final three rounds. Down, and not quite out, Cale Downen sat within striking distance of both Reynolds and Hager even though he’d missed six rounds due to an injury. Just to let you know how close the battle for third place in the overall standings sized up after the Sunset Ridge MX round, it was Hager with 134 points, Reynolds with 133 and Downen with 125.

Mark Kendall was back in action after missing four races due to injury, and he came back stronger than ever recording his two best finishes of the year	Cody Harris was on a mission this weekend as he earned his best finish of the year with a third place in Pro Am Unlimited.

Amateur ATV Racing
Turning our attention to those classes that are in their formative years as far as racing skills go, by taking a look at the 265 B class we find that Billy Cottage of Industry, Pennsylvania may not have won the class in Illinois but managed to keep a grip on the first place position in the overall standings. Cottage, a Yamaha mounted B rider finished seventh overall in the sweat soaked climate of Sunset Ridge but it was enough to keep him in first. His accumulated points for the first eleven rounds of 225 points kept him at the top of the standings heap over Doug Lanzer of Ohio with 180 points and Andrew Travis, another Pennsylvania based rider, with 134 points. Travis managed to reel in his first win for the season in the class during the Walnut event with part time competitor Theodore Ammons taking second and Jeffery Akama of Missouri, who was competing in his first national of the year, taking third.

Yamaha's Michelle Reiser was off to one of her best races of the year leading both Bulter and Byrd for the majority of the second Moto, but in the final laps she dropped back to third place	Lonestar Racing's Angela Bulter has been on a roll as he claims her 4th win in a row and 6th of the year, which is one more than Heather Byrd as this points chase really intensifies down the stretch

Regardless of the temperatures, both Russell Shumaker of Wisconsin and Aaron Meyer of Ohio continued to throw gas on the fire of their run for the 4 Stroke A class national championship. Shumaker, with four wins on the season in the class and Meyer with three, had to settle for second behind Meyer at the Sunset Ridge event. This consistent flip flop of finishing first, second or third in the class at the majority of the events had Shumaker and Meyer a mere five points apart as they set their sails in chase of the 4 Stroke A national championship. After round 11, Shumaker had first overall with 220 points with Meyer in second with 215 and Brian King of Pennsylvania in third with 172.

Aaron Meyer was able to hold off Brian King in the 4Stroke A second Moto to claim the Overall win, which allows him to close the gap on Russell Shumaker in the points lead to only 5 points	Casey Martin was on fire as he claimed wins in both the Production A & 265A, and he is now leading the Production A points in the abscense of the injured Nathan Commer

When you’ve raced eleven rounds of a fourteen round series and only three points separate first and second place overall you’ve been in what wrestling fans would call a cage match. Chris Bowen of Florida and Matthew Bremer, also of Florida, have scratched and clawed all across the country in search of a way to the top in the Production B class. When the sun set on Sunset Ridge MX Sunday afternoon and both moto scores were stamped in the books, Bowen had 245 points and Bremer had 242 points. Close is not a word that would describe the competition in the Production B class between the two. Even with throw outs this one will burn a barn or two as the ’06 series heads next to Unadilla in New York, then Loretta’s in Tennessee and Balance MX in Kentucky for the final round.

Youth ATV Racing
Out of the eight youth classes hosted by the ATVA National Motocross Series, only two seemed to be wrapped up and taken. Joel Hetrick of Seneca, Pennsylvania chose to sit out the Illinois round since he’d already stuffed enough points in his Hetrick Racing 90 modified machine to win the 90 Modified (8-15) class national championship. This left the second and third place position sitters Jeffray Rastrelli and Ethan Straney to jostle in the heat among the greenery of the tassling corn to see who could take a point or two over the other as they headed toward the final rounds of the series. Rastrelli took the win with DJ Spurling of Indiana taking second and Straney taking third. This turn of events with Spurling thrown into the mix left Rastrelli with 215 points in the overall standings and Straney with 175. Spurling sat in 5th overall with 152 points just a tad shy of the fourth place position of Glen Massung III who had totaled 163 points after the first eleven rounds.

Jesse Shvarek currently leads the 90cc Production Jr Class over Brandon Tittle, but the championship may come down to the last race of the year	Jeffray Rastrelli will have to settle for second in 90 Mod, but he still has a chance for the title in 90 Prod Sr with Bren Marra currently leading the points

In the 70cc Shifter class, Cam Covil of Webster, Florida put another win notch in his belt to sew up the class national championship. Left to sort out the who’s who of the series overalls was Brett Musick of West Virginia in second overall after the Walnut event with 183 points, followed by Brandon Tittle of Alabama in third with 160 points, Tyler Pittman of Kentucky in fourth with 155 points and David Beer in fifth with 152 points. With Covil putting a cap on the championship, three rounds remaining and some highly, sometimes overly “tweaked” mini machines, the fight for the remaining two top overall series’ podium positions will more than likely come down to a run for the finish line as Musick, Tittle, Pittman and Beer thumb their way through the last three rounds.

Cam Covil has wrapped up the 70cc Shifter Class Championship with Brett Musick in the runners up spot.	Colby Gilchrist has come on strong the past three races with two wins and a 2nd Place finish to Brandon Tittle

They may be small and their machines relatively quiet but there race game is no different than the Pros. In the 50cc Production class Jeremy Ledonne and Alex Szymborski appeared ready, willing and able to carry it down to the nitty gritty as they chased the class national championship. Ledonne of Pennsylvania had penciled 239 points beside his name in the overall standings after the Sunset Ridge round while Szymborski of Michigan had inked 228 points in the official score keepers logs. This battle of mini might more than likely will go down to the last round of the series in Kentucky in early September before Ledonne and Szymborski even think of easing back on their thumb throttles.

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