Jarrod McClure Pro ATV Race Report:
GNCC Round 5 - Loretta Lynn’s - April 26th

Jarrod McClure at the starting line along with his father.

Hurricane Mills, TNC (4/28/2008) - During the week off between the Big Buck and Loretta’s I found some time to get some suspension testing done with Scott Samuel from Leumas Enterprise. He met up with me over the weekend, and we went riding and got the bike set up awesome. I also started a new training program I got from Marc with MotoPro Training, which was really kicking my but! I was really looking forward to the race this weekend at The Ranch, and I was feeling super-confident in myself.

My dad decided to go to the race with me this time, and we were going to carpool with Matt Smiley and Wes Stone, to save on some fuel, like we did at the previous race. We left on Thursday night planning to arrive at the track around noon, but we ended up blowing out a trailer tire in the early morning, which set us back about an hour. We got to the track around 3:00pm, at least we gained an hour on the way!

As it turned out they forgot to reserve Matt his earned spot on pro row so we had to cram the trailer between Can-Am and Chris Borich. With all that out of the way we dropped the trailer and took a quick look around. The track appeared dry, but with rain in the forecast I was sure it would end up wet like usual. We then headed to grab a good dinner, and get a good night’s sleep after a rough trip.

Jarrod McClure started off in 4th place behind Chris Borich

Saturday morning was cool and damp, and it looked like we got some rain overnight, however, the rain was done for the day, and it looked like the sun was going to show. The youth race was exciting with my buddy Derrec Robinson getting his first podium finish. Great job Derrec! I made my way over to the morning race to see the start, and it seemed muddy and slick in the first couple turns. The sun was out though, and the track was drying as the race progressed, and by the time I was ready to go the track was perfect!

The checkered flag waved, and I was off to my best start ever, running in fourth place behind Chris Borich. Smiley made a quick inside pass on me, but unfortunately crashed off one of the one double jumps. He went down hard, and hurt his thumb badly, forcing him to drop out after two laps. He had a rough weekend!

Jarrod McClure had a great race finishing 5th

I checked in the first lap in third place right behind Chris, and was feeling great, just trying to learn something from #2. McGill passed me on the second lap and was moving! I just kept a steady pace and rode smooth. The track was awesome, and had some very challenging uphills that would cause problems for some riders. As the race went on, I ended up getting passed by Cook on one of those challenging uphills.

By the last lap I was in 6th place with Yokely right behind me. I ended up getting stuck behind a lapper, and William got by me and I couldn’t get him back. Around the eleven mile marker I seen McGill sitting with his KTM, and then about a half mile Kiser was also trying to get his fired up. Tough luck for these two after putting in a great ride all day.

I crossed the line in fifth, which is my best Pro class finish ever. I was happy with that, but I would have liked to stay up front. It was just a great experience running with the top guys for a change, and I will be ready to do it again in two weeks at “The Penton”.

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