| Powersports
ATV Tour
Round #10 - Links |
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Boswell, PA (9/17/2007) - Chris Bithell
and Chad Wienen put exclamation points on their
respective 2007 seasons Sunday, winning the Pro
portions of the Grand Championship National WPSA
PowerSports ATV Tour event at Field of Dreams.
With a runner-up finish, John Natalie, Jr. won
the SuperQuad Pro 450 Riders' Championship, while
a fifth-place effort netted Jesse West the QuadTerrain
Pro Stock title.
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| WPSA
SuperQuad Pro 450 Champion
Honda's John Natalie Jr |
WPSA
QuadTerrain Pro Stock Champion
Arctic Cat's Jesse West |
The race, which represented the season finale
of the 2007 Tour, will be telecast on ESPN2
on Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. EDT.
SuperQuad Pro 450
Natalie (No. 13 Elka, Maxxis/Honda) took the
lead at the start of the 14-lap SuperQuad Pro
450 final and appeared to be poised to run away
with the event. However, Wienen (No. 44 Team
Rockstar, MSR, Pro Taper, Yoshimura/Suzuki)
had other plans, moving to within striking distance
late in the event, and then taking the lead
on the final lap. It was Wienen's fifth victory
this season, the most of any rider on the Tour.
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| Rage
ATV's John Natalie Jr grabbed the Quad
Magazine $1,000 Holeshot Award |
"I started pretty deep," said Wienen.
"This is why I put in all of those hours
of training and it really paid off. I couldn't
thank everyone enough. We're getting ready for
next season. We're going to win the championship
in 2008."
Natalie, with his Houtzdale, Pa. hometown crowd
cheering him from the sidelines, finished second
to net his first WPSA Riders' Championship.
Dustin Wimmer (No. 191 MSR, Pro Taper, Yoshimura/Suzuki)
was third.
Natalie overcame injuries sustained in a crash
during practice earlier in the season to earn
the title. He won four races this season, and
put up an impressive seven podium finishes.
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| John
Natalie Jr lead the entire race with Kawasaki's
Josh Creamer applying pressure for several
laps |
In
the final lap of the race, Chad Wienen
made the pass to take over the lead and
claim his fifth win of the year |
"This goes back to the old philosophy
of never giving up," said Natalie. "We
never gave up this season. We worked hard as
a team. We kept plugging away at it, took the
points lead a couple races ago and never looked
back. I'm really excited and I think our team
did a great job.
"We're already looking forward to next
year," added Natalie. "We're ready
to do this again at the end of the 2008 season."
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| Dustin
Wimmer made the pass on Josh Creamer to
claim the final Podium spot, but fell
short of claiming the Championship from
John Natalie Jr. |
Honda's
Keith Little watched the final WPSA race
of the season from the infield after crashing
during practice on Saturday, which sent
him to the hospital with a broken nose. |
Suzuki clinched its second consecutive Manufacturers'
Championship on Sunday. Suzuki quads won six
out of 10 races this season.
"We've had a tremendous year," said
Pat Alexander, Team Suzuki's Race Director.
"Chad Wienen won a number of events. Dustin
Wimmer battled right down to the end for the
championship. Then, of course, Doug Gust did
a great job for us. He did all of the work developing
this new quad over the last couple of years.
I have a great bunch of guys."
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| Rockstar
Energy, MSR, ProTaper, Suzuki, Yoshimura
Race Team |
