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All Terrain Vehicle Cross Country Series
Round #11
- Diamond S Ranch XC
Graham, Texas
Octover 22nd, 2006


By: David Culpepper

Amy Lee
What a great weekend for racing, the temperatures have finally cooled off and on Friday night the smell of campfires filled the air. Nothing like hanging out at the campfire talking some pre race trash. I must start off by saying thanks to the Swetnam Family for hosting this event. The park has been shut down for more than 8 months due to health problems within the family but thanks to a lot of hard work and effort; from the Swetnam men, a great track was born. The main track was 8.5 miles long and had everything from fast sweeping turns to tight rock gardens. The PeeWee track was laid out over a mild motocross track with a small section of woods added in. There had been some good rain showers the weekend prior to this race so dust issues were not going to be to bad, especially when you factored in a 15 mph wind on Sunday.

Heather Best
Saturday 12 noon it’s time to start the PeeWee 6 under race. We had 7 young riders lined up the starting line eager to drop the hammer. Wesley Pruitt jumps out to the early lead followed by Terry Bohanon, Jace Hardin, Tyler McShane, and Melanie Dunn. As this race progressed it was clear that first place was going to be between Bohanon and Pruitt. Each of these riders lapped the rest of the field by the halfway point. Pruitt held the lead for the entire race until 5 turns before the checkered flag. As the two riders exited the woods Bohanon made a hard charging pass on Pruitt to over take the lead. Once in the lead Bohanon was focused on the checkered flag and could not be beat. Pruitt finished second followed by McShane, Hardin, Dunn, Kenzi Potteiger, and McKinley Lee. Next up were the PeeWee 8 under race. Kaden Walters took the lead and stayed out front for the entire race to take the victory. Braden Hardin and Cody Price duked it out for most of the race with Price coming in with second and Hardin in third. We only had one rider in the PeeWee 10 under race and the winner was Broc Watkins.

Saturday 3pm, where is Porscha? The C Program race was on the starting line waiting for me to get back from doing some course marking back in the back section of the track. When I got back it was about 5 minutes after 3pm and for those who don’t know me I’m a little anal when it comes to starting the race on time. I quickly made a pass through the campground with the siren to notify riders the start will happen in 10 minutes. When I got up to the starting line my wife had told me that Porscha Knowlton had not made it to the track yet. I told Gayle that I hated to hear that but I couldn’t hold up starting the race for just one rider. As I reached down to grab the flags to start the race Porscha pulled up to the starting line. Talk about just making it in time. Heather Best starting off fast and showed her class the fast way around the track. Best was the “Best” of the ladies today and pulled away with a victory by more than four minutes. Back in second was Knowlton, who had not ridden the track until now. I had to stop and hold Porscha for going too fast in the scoring chute after her first lap but she put her head down and charged forward to move into second place. Becca Stanley was only 20 seconds behind Knowlton at the finish and took home third in class. Another 30 second back was Crystal Perry followed by Ashley Robinson, and Morgan Nichols. In the 50+ class it was Dennis Wilson taking another victory in commanding fashion. David Maholick was runner up followed by Mike Nolan, Butch Troquille, and Jeff Blackwood. Mr. Blackwood had the early lead until he decided to move a tree with the rear wheel of his son’s quad. The contact sent Jeff over the bars and mortally wounded the machine. I’m glad your ok Jeff and don’t worry about the machine, it’s not like James hasn’t torn up any of your toys before. Lady 30+ class had a first time winner this weekend. Amy Lee, who has been riding better and better each race, was able to notch her first win. Lee started off in first and pulled out a little distance each lap to win by more than 3 minutes. Sarah Sellers, who is leading the series in this class, was able to finish a solid second. Third place went to Annette Price followed by Lynne Whitehead, Dorothy Rogers, and Mandy Jenkins. Things are getting hot in the Youth Beginner class. Jarod Roberts and Lacey Tincher are going to take it down to the wire for the series championship. While those two riders are worrying about each other Kyle Potteiger showed them both that he has what it takes to win a race. Potteiger won this race by 2:20 over Roberts who finished second. Third went to Tincher who was only 20 down and fourth went to Tori Oliver. Rounding out the top five was Trevor Enis who was only 6 second behind Oliver at the line.

Lacey Tincher
Sunday afternoon the B Program raced and the first class on the starting grid was the 40+ class. Larry Gustine got the holeshot and pulled away from the rest of the class to win by over 11 minutes. This was also fast enough to net him 3rd overall in the B Program. This was an outstanding ride by it’s self, but when you consider Larry could be racing in the 50+ class it really stands out even that much more. Way to go Larry! With Larry out front in clean air the Open Amateur riders were fighting through traffic trying to keep pace. By the third lap Austen Gustine and Micah Ames had passed all the 40+ riders and had caught up to Larry. On the final lap Ames and Austen got pass Larry and began to duke it out for the win. Unfortunately for Austen another rider got upside down in a creek bottom and while rolling their quad back over they held up Austen long enough for Ames to pull away. Ames pulled out the win and has set himself in position to have a chance at the series championship in this class if everything goes well at the final race at Caddo Point. Dan King is the current point’s leader in class and he finished third in this race leaving him atop the point’s lead going into the last race. Fourth was Tim Clanton, and fifth was Eddie Tincher. I believe this was the first race on a quad for Eddie. In the 4-Stroke Amateur class it was Big P. Enis who pulled off the win. Things didn’t look so good on the start for Phil but he managed to work his way through the field to take over the lead and the victory on the last lap of the race. Taylor Pierce looked to be off to great start but had problems in the middle of the race and dropped back to 5th with only one lap to go. Somehow Pierce managed to move all the way back up to second by time he caught the checkered flag. Things didn’t go as well for Marty Buchanan who lead the entire race until the last lap when bad luck forced him back to fifth. David Maholick finished third and Erik Strange fourth. In the 45+ class Gary Davis made a showing to nail down the championship in winning fashion. Ken Watkins finished second for the day followed by Scott “Goggles” Robinson, and Dennis Wilson. Seems like there was a story floating around camp about Davis and Phil’s dog but I’m not sure if I’ve got all the facts straight. Maybe more on this topic later? Clint Yount went wire to wire with a win in the Youth class. Garrett Day kept Yount honest but didn’t have enough to challenge for the lead. Third went to Cody Ames, fourth Travis Brown and fifth Jeremy Best. These guys have been racing hard all year and as a result there has been a big improvement in their racing abilities. The UTE class saw the return of Ron Allen, which was good for Ron but not so good for the rest of the class. Allen was the only 4x4 that got 4 laps in, the overall winner in the B Program Micah Ames lapped all the rest of the class. Mike Roger who normally races in this class had to sit this one out after doing a little Prairie 4x4 surgery on Saturday during practice. Something about a creek and going in way to hot and hitting the eject button etc etc etc sending Mike to the ER room for a laceration to the leg. On a better note, how about Gabe Jones, second place in class. I guess your brother is not the only one who brings home the hardware! Danny Price finished third followed by David Dillard, and David Lee.

Sunday morning top 10 in the A Program Overall was as follows: Shawn Hess, Garrett Oliver, Austin Aldridge, Kyle Porter, Ethan Jones, Josh Robinson, Chase Honeycutt, Gaylon Knowlton, Glenn Hess, and Josh Hahne. Just a little reminder, there were several riders in the A Program that were stopped and held by scoring for traveling through the scorring chute too fast.

The final race of the 2006 Series will be held Nov 12 at Caddo Point in Greenville Texas. This is the same location that the 12 Hours of ATV America was held and we will be racing the same course. See ya there………….


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