Over the last few months, the Pro Production
class has seen a shrinking number of riders
on its starting gate, with many Pro Production
class riders switching to the less competitive
Open Pro class, which is both disheartening
and rather boring for the rest of the pros
who are willing to stick it out. With only
eight racers on the line in the Pro Production
class, Dustin Nelson and Beau Baron decided
to take matters into their own hands to try
to bring up the numbers in Pro Production
and prove a point.
“A lot of guys have dropped out of
the Pro Production class and made the switch
to the Open Pro class because they don’t
want to race against any one faster like Baron,
Dunk, Noss and myself because they feel it’s
too competitive…If you’re a Pro
racer, you should be racing the Pro Production
class. The point of the Open Pro class was
for guys who are on bikes like the Raptor
700, KTM 525 and other big bore type of quads,
but it has turned out not to be like that,
so Beau and I decided if those guys don’t
want to race against us in Pro Production,
we’ll make them race us in Open Pro,”
said Dustin Nelson.
To keep things on the more competitive side,
Nelson and Baron also decided to run their
practice quads instead of full blown race
quads in the Open Pro class, which did make
things a bit more interesting.
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Dustin Nelson was greatly down on power
in the Open Pro Class going up against
big-bore ATV's on his nearly stock practice
YFZ450R but would still pull out the
win in both motos to take the overall |
In moto one of the Open pro class, Dustin
Nelson was in third off the start and had
to work his way past Keith Tebeau and Kody
Evans before he was able to take over the
lead in lap four. Moto two went well for Nelson
as he grabbed the holeshot and led from start
to finish, taking the moto two win and the
Open Pro overall win.
Beau Baron was in fourth off the start and
had to battle his way through traffic before
reaching the number two spot, where he was
unable to close the gap on Nelson before crossing
the finish line. Moto two would go much the
same way for Baron as he came off the start
in fourth and worked his way into the number
two position before reaching the checkered
flag. “It was fun to race the Open Pro
class, especially on my practice bike. It
kept things more even and it was pretty competitive,”
said Baron, who, like Nelson, will be racing
in the Open Pro class for the rest of the
season.
Jason Dunkelberger looked good as he worked
his way up from a sixth place start in mot
one to finish in a respectable fourth. In
moto two Dunk came off the line in third and
held his position from start to finish claiming
third overall for the day.
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Kody
Evans had hi work cut out for him in
the Open Pro class for round 6 as he
had some company in the form of race
winner, Dustin Nelson, & fellow
Honda mounted Beau Baron - Evans would
finish the day going 3-4 for 4th place
overall |
Kody Evans grabbed the moto one holeshot
and held his lead for three laps before Dustin
Nelson came calling and the young rider would
fall back for a third place finish. In moto
two, Evans started out in second but fell
back for a fourth place finish, giving him
fourth overall in the Open Pro class.
MCR/Maxxis Tire’s Josh Row got off
to a slower start in moto one and worked his
way up from ninth place to the number six
spot before crossing the finish line. In moto
two, Row would claim a fifth place finish,
allowing him to round out the top five overall.
Keith Tebeau would hang on with 5-6 finishes
to take sixth overall, while Darrell Patton
would go 7-7 for seventh overall. Francisco
Ruano hung on to claim eighth overall, with
Dean Pierce taking ninth place and Rafael
Guzman rounded out the top ten in the Open
Pro class.
Round seven of the 2010 ITP Quadcross series
will head to the desert on Saturday, September
18th where Speed World MX in Surprise, AZ
will play host to the second night race of
the season, where things could get interesting
in both the Pro and Open Pro classes.
