ATVA
ITP Moose Racing
National Motocross Series
Round #10 - Sunset Ridge
Walnut,
Illinois
July 14-15, 2007
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Joe Byrd Dominates
AMA Pro ATV with Another 1-1 sweep
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ATVA
Motocross Nationals
Round #10 - Links |
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Walnut,
IL (7/15/2007) –
The competition was curiously stacked for Round ten of
the 2007 ITP/Moose Racing ATVA MX Series as Defending
Champion Joe Byrd and contending Jeremy Lawson and Pat
Brown lined up against Suzuki’s Doug Gust and Chad
Wienen together with Japan’s Seiya Sakuma, the reigning
All Japan ATV Championship Race Series champion, for a
total of fifteen AMA Pro ATV competitors on the line at
the Concept Haulers ATV Showdown.
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Hometown
favorite, Chad Wienen, surrounded by family &
friends at the Sunset Ridge AMA Pro ATV National |
As the hometown favorite and winner of the top qualifier
award, Chad Wienen earned sixth gate pick for turning
a 1:47.521 in practice. “I was just trying to find
some good solid lines,” Wienen said. “I believe
that [Sunday] we’ll have something more; the track
will be changing. I’m just trying to keep a good
pace and see where I stand compared to everybody else.
The real racing will be done [Sunday.] Hopefully [I’ll
be] on the middle of the podium. You have to be humble
and respect everybody that’s out there, just go
with what you’re given out there, I guess.”
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Chad
Wienen attended his first ATVA event since switching
to the Suzuki |
Japan's
National Champion, Seiya Sakuma, made his AMA
Pro Racing Debut |
Joe “The Professor” Byrd picked up the ATVRiders.com
holeshot award along with the 1-1, leading the first moto
battle over Brown, followed by Wienen and Gust. “I’d
much rather come out front with those guys chasing me
down,” Byrd said.
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Dasa
Racing's Joe Byrd & Pat Brown were nearly
side by side sprinting toward the red paint with
Byrd edging out Brown for the Holeshot |
Lawson went from fifth to fifteenth after the first lap,
when he “spun out and fell off a little bit,”
Lawson said later.
Meanwhile, by lap two Brown was breathing hard down Byrd’s
neck, less than 0.227 off the leader.
“The bike was working awesome out there,”
Brown said. “We really had it dialed in for this
track, and I could work on my condition a little bit
because Joe pretty much pulled off on me. It was a good
race; good hard-fought battle.”
Wienen passed Gust by lap three, clocking the fastest
lap of the race with a 1:46.246. Gust held fourth over
hometown Illinois’ Cale Downen until, suddenly,
Gust disappeared off the side of a berm. Wienen grabbed
third before passing Brown in second; his sights were
set on Byrd, who was staying clean out front.
Lawson charged through the pack, passing from fifteenth
to tenth in one lap.
“I came back and was feeling great,” Lawson
said. “I passed everybody, and wound up with a
fourth. I was happy; it was fun passing everybody.”
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Suzuki's
Chad Wienen charged his way from 4th place to
battle with Joe Byrd for the lead. The pair swapped
the lead back and forth with Byrd winnning the
battle and claiming the first Moto Win.
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Wienen scored the lead over Byrd on lap nine, and the
crowd went wild. Wienen held first for three laps, until
Byrd found the right opportunity to take back the lead.
With two laps to go, Byrd finalized first over Wienen,
Brown took third over Lawson, and Downen rounded out
the top five
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