| All
Terrain Vehicle Cross Country Series
Round #7 - MUD BUDDY’S
Hallettsville, Texas
May 28th, 2006 |
By:
David Culpepper |
 |
Shawn
Hess |
Hello everyone and welcome to round 7 of ATVCCS. This
is Memorial weekend, which will give racers an extra day
to relax after the races. After the rain that fell on
Sunday a lot of folks may be using Monday as a “wash
the mud off my quad, motor home, kids, dog and everything
else day”. Due to me breaking my ankle at an Enduro
the weekend before, I decided not to come to the track
until Saturday morning. It was sunny Saturday but the
wind was blowing like heck. Several nice people stepped
up to help out this weekend, which enabled us to run the
event on time. A special thanks to Chuck Clague who really
put in lot time doing many of the chores that I normally
have to do. The PeeWee track was 1.0 miles in length and
the main track was 5.8 miles in length. The terrain here
is mostly sand as the property has a small river the borders
the property line.
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Youth
Beginner Class |
The first race on Saturday was the PeeWee 6 under class.
There were 8 riders lined up on the starting line for
this race. The riders were told on the starting line that
they all needed to go around the orange cone for the first
turn. Well not everybody fully understood the message
and as a result they were stopped after the first lap
and held up until the rest of the class rode by. Wesley
Pruitt has been on a tear in this class and he didn’t
let up this weekend. Second in class went to Jace Hardin
followed by Gage Smith, Terry Bohanon, and Trey Carrell.
Back in the back Melanie Dunn and Kenzi Potteiger were
both having a blast riding around this nice and easy track.
The turn at the finish line was very hard packed dirt
and some the young riders were pitching it sideways. It
was pretty cool you could hear the tires skid just like
you would when on concrete. PeeWee 8 under class blasted
off next and it was Megan Daniel who busted off to the
lead of the pack. Daniel held the lead for 4 laps until
a hard charging Kaden Walters took it away from her. Walters
held on for the win and Daniel held on for second. Third
went to Broc Watkins followed by Braden Hardin, and Braden
Mize. PeeWee 10 under was a wire to wire win by Nathan
Clague who was turning 2-minute laps around the track
from start to finish. Finishing in second and in the same
minute as the winner was Wyatt Day. Third was Hart Bassanna,
and fourth was Dakota Davis.
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Lexie
Coulter of the Lady Open Class |
At 3pm it was time to start the Lady Open class. Becca
Stanley got a good jump off the line and led the ladies
to the first turn. Lexie Coulter quickly took over the
lead and pretty much left the rest of the class. Coulter
managed to have a speed average of more than 24 mph
for this race. For those who haven’t race off
road, anytime you can bust 24 mph, you’re hauling.
Porscha Knowlton also worked her way pass Becca Stanley
to take over second by the end of the first lap. At
the finish line the ladies above finished first, second
and third while Crystal Perry and Candice Lively rounded
out the top five. The 50+ guys are going to have to
figure out a new plan if they are planning on putting
a stop to the “D” train. Dennis Wilson has
just been unstoppable this year and this race was no
exception. David Maholick finished second after having
a major get off. When he came through the scoring chute
his bars were bent down around his gas tank, ouch! Sarah
Sellers picked up were she left off in the Lady 30+
class by scoring another victory. Dorothy Rogers was
second followed by Tina Burkett, and Ruth Coffey. In
the Youth Beginner class Travis Brown showed the class
he might be a force to be reckoned with. Brown has started
off this season with some problems but defiantly has
the speed to be a front runner in class. Jarod Roberts
took second followed by Tori Oliver, Aaryn Giles, and
Lacey Tincher.
Sunday morning I wake up and turn the TV on to check
out the weather and the radar showed a shower had moved
through the area just a few minutes ago. Behind this
line the radar didn’t show any other lines of
storms so I thought the track was going to be perfect.
As Gayle is driving us from the town of Hallettsville
to the track the sky in front of us is putting on a
pretty good lightning show. I’m thinking to myself
the darn weatherman has got it all wrong again. Sure
enough we get to the track and back the truck up next
to the canopy and open the door to get out right as
the bottom begins to fall out. Wind, lightning, and
sheets of rain. It’s about 6:35 am and look up
to see Primetime and Lexie running around their camp
trying to gather up all their riding gear they left
sitting out over night. Just had to laugh at that. As
riders meeting begin the lightning decided to stop but
the rain did not. The owner of the property, Kelly came
up and told me he was going to check out the water level
of the river to make sure we didn’t have to re-route
the track. Ten minutes later Kelly reported everything
was just fine and we were good to start the race. Mike
Rogers held the morning church service for us followed
by a short riders meeting and it was off to the starting
line. The weather report now said rain for the entire
day so there was no since in postponing the start.
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Gayle
Flagging the Start |
Gayle was a little nervous because she was going to work
the flags for the start instead of me. No worries, all
the starts went off without a hitch. First line off was
the Pro class. Shawn Hess and Josh Hahne were jockeying
for position on the first lap. Conditions were very muddy
and within the first 3 miles you could find riders with
their goggles pulled down. Halfway around the first lap
Hess had about a 5-second lead on Hahne who had about
10 seconds on Gerald Dowden. When riders came through
scoring it was Hahne in the lead followed by Dowden who
had dropped back several minutes. Hahne stopped in scoring
to advise Hess was out of the race with a broken ball
joint. At the halfway point Dowden retired from the race
leaving Hahne all by himself for the win. Even though
no one out there to contest him Hahne put in some hard
fast laps that saw his speed average reach 23 mph. Very
good considering the muddy conditions. Things are heating
up in the Open class win a different winner this weekend.
Austin Aldridge got faster as the race went on to move
himself into second overall and first in class. The current
point’s leader Kyle Porter put in a strong smart
ride to finish the day in second. Third was Douglas Latham,
fourth Lexie Coulter (who by the way missed the start
by 30 seconds) and fifth was James Blackwood. Brian Firth
and Trent Hardin both had machine problems on the first
lap that took them both out of the race. In the 30+ class
Glenn Hess made his return to racing after suffering a
fractured femur while practicing near home several months
ago. According to Collier Hicks, Hess has not lost any
of his speed. Collier said he’d slowed down to ride
the edge of a waterhole when all the sudden Hess came
flying by a gear taller right through the middle. At first
Collier was thinking “holly cow”, but then
when Hess’s quad went sideways and spit him off,
all he could think was “that’s more like it”.
At the time Hicks did not realize this was Glenn, had
he’d know he would have stopped to make sure Glenn
didn’t hurt his leg again. As luck would have it
Glenn dropped out of the race on the next lap with the
same mechanical break down his son had encountered. Hick
too was out of the race as water got into the air box
and silenced the motor. Meanwhile Gaylon Knowlton was
running out front on challenged and by the end of the
race he wasn’t to far away from lapping second place
in his class. This ride also put Knowlton in fourth place
overall in the morning program. Eddie Coffey was runner
up followed by Randy Burkett, and Jimmy Walters. Brad
Dunn joined Collier on the DNF list. The Junior class
was won by Garrett Oliver followed by Chad Tempel, Derek
Dickerson, and Tyler Lively. We were hoping the
rain would quit but no such luck today. It’s 12:30
and it’s time to start the B Program. In the 40+
race Kris Brown got off to a fast start followed by
Larry Gustine and Greg Galloway. Not to far into the
race Galloway found water and that put an end to his
day. Gustine was searching for a way to get around Brown
and in the process missed one of the jumps in the MX
track part of the track. At riders meeting all riders
were told they had to go over all the jumps on the MX
track or they’d be docked a lap. Gustine crossed
the finish line in first but after the lap deduction
he was dropped to fourth. Larry had gotten to the track
late and no one told him about the information given
at riders meeting. Anyway this moved Kris Brown up for
the win followed by Fred Stanford, Sammy Spencer, Larry
Gustine, and Steve Day. Oh yea, just in case anyone
is wondering who ran the over the antenna in the scoring
chute, just talk to Mike Womack. I just couldn’t
 |
One
rider had an encounter with the antenna in the
scoring chute and it looks like he won |
pass this up Mike. Even though Jimmy Walters tried to
cripple the poor thing the race before you finished
it off. Check out the picture that shows the pile of
rubble that used to be the e-scoring chute. I’m
kinda making fun of this ordeal this time but next time
there will be a heavy penalty given to the rider that
hits the antenna. In the 45+ class it looked like Primetime
was going to be handed his first defeat of the year
by Scott Robinson. After leading just about the entire
race Robinson made a mistake on the MX track and Gary
Davis was there to capitalize. Davis took the win Robinson
second and Dennis Wilson third. Open Amt class top five
was as follows: Anthony Perry, Dan King, Steve Culli,
Micah Ames, and Randy Johnson. Yo Adrian, Randy got
a bone! In the 4-ST Amt class the top five were, Phil
Enis, Marty Stone, Roman Solarczyk, David Maholick,
Jr., and Marty Buchanan. The Utility class, Ron Allen,
Chris Schmidt, Mike Rogers, Mike Kowis, and Tom Jordan.
And the Youth Class, Clint Yount, Tyler Davis, Josh
Womack, Travis Brown, and Logan Elwood.
See ya’ll at the next race in Crafton on June
18th.
www.atvccs.com
200 Sharon Kay Drive
Longview, Texas 75604
903 295-0761
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