2005 12 Hours of ATV America
Valley View, PA - Rausch Creek
October 29,2005
Valley View, PA (10/29/05) –
With all 2005 ATV Nationals concluded, it was finally
time for one of the most anticipated ATV events of
the year, the fourth annual 12 Hours of ATV America.
For 2005, the location was moved from its central
Fort Dodge, IA back east to Rausch Creek Motorsports
Park in Valley View, PA in an attempt to boost attendance
since a majority of the teams in the past were from
the East Coast region, but with fuel prices exceeding
two dollars a gallon, attendance went down instead
of up with only sixty eight teams signing up this
year compared to the nearly one hundred last year.
The Rausch Creek facility in the Pennsylvania Mountains
served as a perfect location with its extensive woods
trail system and multiple motocross tracks, which
were combined to form six mile long course with a
mixture of tight woods, jumps, and high speed straight-aways.
The 12 hour event was split into two six-hour sessions
with a two hour intermission in-between, and even
with an early morning start at 8AM, the race wouldn’t
end till several hours after dark at 10PM, which meant
a lighting system was required, and stock lights would
be adequate at best, but to achieve true racing speeds
after dark, many teams went with aftermarket lighting
systems available from Trail Tech and Baja Designs.
Each six hour session was started Le Mans Style with
68 riders and quads lined up separate ends of the
pits and approximately a fifty foot gap separating
man from machine. With a brisk breeze out of the north
and temps in the forties, the first of the two session
was kicked off with a sound of a gun shot signaling
the racers to sprint to their quads. Team Honda’s
John Natalie Jr lead the foot race and grabbed the
Holeshot from the pole position aboard his electric
start 2006 Honda TRX450R with only a HRC Kit and Curtis
Sparks exhaust installed for performance enhancements
to preserve the engines reliablilty.
By the end lap one, Natalie Jr already created a
several second lead over GT Thunder’s, Greg
Trew in second. Lost Creek Cycle’s Jason Luburgh
running in fifth immediately headed into the pits
with an A-arm ripped out of the frame from hitting
a rock, which sent them three laps down having the
frame welded. Several laps later, GT Thunder’s
carrier bearings would fail which sent them into the
pits for a complete rear end replacement, which was
quicker than just replacing the carrier.
Three hours into the race, Team Honda’s lead
would come to an end when Natalie Jr would clip a
rock on a high speed section of the track sending
him sailing over the bar. "The rock wasn't their
earlier and I came through on the gas and couldn't
react in time to avoid it, and I flew over the bars,"
said Natalie Jr. The wreck resulting in a broke off
rear grab bar, damaged seat latch, and crushed light
switch. An extended pit stop to access and fix the
damage sent Team Honda back to the third spot with
Team Polaris taking over the lead followed by Wahl
Racing as these two battled back and forth.
Chris Borich took over for Team Honda with the seat
held on by bungee cords and regained the lead when
both Team Polaris and Wahl Racing were forced into
the pits with issues. Team Polaris experienced issues
with their transmission and a whole in the engine
case forced them to replace the entire engine, and
Wahl Racing’s 450R subframe bolt bracket would
break, which required them to remove the airbox and
have the frame welded by JB Racing’s Jody Bateman.
By the end of session one, Team Honda held a seven
minute lead over Hertz Racing in second overall position
followed by, A Class Team, Alba Action (Traci Cecco,
Angela Bulter (Moore), Tyler Lenig) in the third overall
position. Both Team Polaris and Team Wahl were both
back in the race, but were several laps down.
In the final six hour session, Natalie Jr would once
again start for Team Honda and grab yet another Holeshot.
As day turned to night, Team Honda was forced into
the pits to replace the light switch destroyed in
Natalie Jr crash in the first session. Joe Borich
and John Rowling made quick work of the repair and
mounted their Trail Tech Lightning system for the
final hours of the race. Even with the extended pit
stop, Team Honda never lost the lead and with Cyle
Chislock turning impressive laptimes after dark as
he continued to launch over the large doubles, which
many wouldn’t even attempt during the day. With
Natalie Jr onboard for the final lap of the race,
Team Honda took the win with just shy of fourteen
minutes gap between them and Hertz Racing in the second
overall position.
Hertz Racing’s Honda 450R held together the
entire race without any issues to contend with the
entire race, and they only had one extended to do
a quick look over, adjust the chain, and replace the
air filter.
Amazingly, Lost Creek Cycles Team was able to recover
from an early three lap deficit to finish out the
race only one lap down for the final podium position.
“We knew it was a 12 hour race, and other teams
were bound to have problems, so we kept riding hard
the entire race,” said Jason Dunkelberger from
Lost Creek Cycles.
With only ten Pro Teams in attendance this year,
the Pro Purse was $19,000, which was a fraction of
$36,000 possible for a complete field of thirty Pro
Teams. Team Honda still took home an impressive prize
of $10,200 for the win with $5,800 and $3,000 going
to the second and third place finishers.
