| All
Terrain Vehicle Cross Country Series
Round #1 - Mud Creek
Jacksonville, TX
January 29, 2006 |
By:
David Culpepper |
Jacksonville, TX - The track at Mud Creek
was 7.4 miles long. It was mostly wide-open rolling hills
through the piney woods of East Texas. There were whoops
left over from previous events and some newly added wooded
sections to add to the flavor of this track. The dirt
is mostly sandy in texture with a little iron ore mixed
in. The PeeWee track was 1.5 miles long and all of it
was on the side of beautiful rolling pastures. There was
one off camber uphill turn that would prove to challenge
the young racers this weekend. Most of the state of Texas
has been under a burn ban for many months due to the lack
of rain but since it’s race weekend the rain Gods
decided they’d go ahead and bless us with the wet
stuff this weekend. The forcast had rain moving in Friday
and lasting all day Saturday with sunny and mild temps
for Sunday. All of that played out except it didn’t
start raining until Saturday.
First to race this weekend would be the PeeWee classes. At 12:00 noon the
6 under class blasted off the line in pouring down rain.
I bet the kids don’t get to play in the mud like
this at school. As they splashed their way around the
track it was clear that Wesley Pruitt and Gage Smith
had the muddy conditions wired. They ran first and second
for the whole race and lapped several of the other riders.
Pruitt held on for the win followed by Smith, Jace Hardin,
Trey Carrell, and Adalyn Bevill. The 8 under class was
sitting on the starting line in the rain just a shivering,
while waiting for the start of their race. Once they
took off and hit that first puddle of water you could
see the smile on their little faces light up. Braeden
Hardin won the race with Cody Price second and Megan
Daniel third. Next up was the fast 10 under PeeWee class.
Defending 2005 champ Halston Munoz was fighting a cold
but was still eagar to get back racing. His toughest
compeditor from last year, Nathan Clague was also ready
to resume racing after the winter break. When the two
riders took off it was Clague who took the early lead,
closely followed by Munoz. The two rode nose to tail
for the whole race until the final few laps, when Clague
begin to pull away slightly. Finishing a distant third
was first time racer Brian Fugler.
|
|
Larry Gustine in
route to a
victory in 40+ Class
|
In the 40+ class the defending champ Larry Gustine,
showed riders he was going to be tough to beat this
year. Here is a picture of Larry blasting around a nice
sweeping left hander. Check out the roost in that prime
red dirt. In the background you can see another part
of the track about ½ mile back from where Larry
was. Not only did Larry win his class but he overall
the B program that had a total of 88 riders. His speed
average was 26.88 mph, which shows just how fast this
track is. Austen Gustine just barely missed out on a
win in the Open Amateur class. Dan King took the victory
by just 6 second over Austen. Also, runner up in the
B program went to another one of the older riders. Gary
Davis, who smoked the 45+ class by more than 5 minutes
also finished 2nd overall behind Larry by 1 minute and
13 seconds. Other winners in the B program were, Ron
Allen in the Utility class, Kyle Fannin in the Youth
class, and Brian Felts in the 4-ST Amateur class.
Lexie Coulter returns to her winning ways by taking
the victory in the Lady Open class. Miranda Green was
keeping Larry Gustine in route to a victory in 40+.
Lexie honest until a kicker bump pitched her off the
machine and Sent her machine ghost running down hill
right into a deep creek. Luckly there was some other
racers spectating close by who were able to recover
her machine. This mistake pushed Miranda back in the
class but she was able to re-mount and finish the race.
Lexie won, Heather Best finished second and Morgan Nichols
third. Other winners in the C program were, Sarah Sellers
in the Lady 30+, Dennis Wilson in the 50+, and Lacey
Tincher in the Youth Beginner.
How does a speed average of 30.29 mph sound to you?
Well if your Shawn Hess it’s just another day
at the race track. The A program races for 90 minutes
plus one lap and that was enough time for the number
one Pro Rider from last year to complete seven laps
on the the 7.4 mile course. Shawn Hess got off to a
poor start but quickly made his move to the front runners
by the end of the first lap. Josh Hahne, who just moved
up from the Open class showed some good speed early
in the race and should make the Pro class a little more
interesting this year.
Shawn has been dominating the Pro class for the past
couple of years and is need of talented riders to give
him a push. Today would be Shawn’s day for the
win and scond would go to Chris Robinson. In the Open
class it was Kyle Porter who was really setting a blistering
pace. He pulled out a 3 minute lead on the riders in
his class which also was enough to place him 2nd overall
in the A program. Kyle was just under 2 minutes off
Shawn’s winning time in the Pro Class. I was not
sure Kyle’s machine was going to make it to the
finish line because his transmission was making some
really wicked noises when he exited the scoring chute.
After the race he said he’d lost 2nd gear and
was fearfull the trany was not going to make the checkered
flag.
| |
Garrett Oliver
took the win
in the Junior Class
|
Gaylon Knowlton took the win in the 30+ class even though
he’d stopped on the first lap to check on a downed
rider. What great sportsmanship from a very classy rider.
Runner up in the 30+ class went to last years champion
Glenn Hess. By the way, last year these two riders finished
the season in a dead on tie. The tie could not be broken
until we took lap times from all the races and even then
it just came down to less than a minute to determine the
winner. Third went to Brad Dunn, aka “Carlos”.
This was the first race of the 2006 season for ATVCCS
and the rider turn out was great in spite of the rain.
I think the last count I got was 190 racers. Not bad
for a series just in their 4th season. Keep it on all
fours and we’ll see you in West Texas on February
19th for Round 2.
www.atvccs.com
ATVriders.com
Forum Discussion
|
