|
The
Ironman GNCC ATV Race Report
Round 13: Crawfordsville, IN -
October 27, 2007
Crawfordsville, IN (10/29/2007)
- William Yokley finished 11th overall, 11th
XC1 Pro today at the Ironman GNCC race in Crawfordsville,
IN. There were 214 competitors in this race including
27 XC1 Pro riders.
Summary:
 |
#5
William Yokley |
It’s been a long season which began in
Florida in March and ended today in Crawfordsville,
IN. First, I want to congratulate fellow Kentuckian
Bill Ballance for winning his 8th straight GNCC
Title. That is an incredible accomplishment and
my hats off to him.
The Ironman course has a lot of fast open fields
and some technical woods with some steep hills.
I have always liked competing here and have had
some good results over the years. It rained all
night on Friday and I prepared for a mud run.
I found that although the parking areas were mud
bogs, the track was in reasonably good shape;
it was going to be fast and tacky. The weather
was great for racing with the temp in the low
60’s. I made my final tire selection, suited
up, and headed for the starting line.
I had been getting some good starts recently,
but my bike did not fire on the first kick. A
one second delay in starting can move you from
a top 5 start to practically last. I worked my
way up to 14th on the first lap and felt pretty
good. The second lap, I was up to 11th, and on
the 3rd lap, I was in the top ten. I got held
up somewhat in a bottleneck on one of the longer
hill climbs, and took awhile to get unstuck and
back up to speed.
 |
William
Yokley on his Kawasaki KFX450R ATV |
I noticed that something was not quite right
with my steering during the last hour. There was
a lot of free play before the steering would respond,
and it was getting progressively worse. The last
lap was pretty brutal with me not being able to
have precise steering. I was hitting most of the
ruts wrong and was having a hard time making steering
corrections. When I crossed the finish line, the
bike would barely turn.
Back in the pits, we found the problem. The steering
stem had broken loose from the support and was
causing more and more free movement. I was lucky
to finish the last lap. This has kind of been
my luck for most of the season. The bike is very
much improved since the first race, and overall
is working well. I feel really good about my prospects
for next season.
I would like to sincerely thank all my sponsors
who have stuck with me through this season. I
finished the season point standings in 11th overall
and 9th XC1 Pro. I will be working hard this off-season
to get things improved to where I can be back
competing for wins and podiums. I’ll be
back strong in 2008!
2007 Yokley Racing Sponsors:
Kawasaki, National Guard, Monster Energy,
Elka, ITP, Roll Design, IMS-Roll, Hinson, Moose
Racing, Douglas Wheel, Parts Unlimited, Pro Circuit,
Shoei, Smith Optics, Renthal, N Style, Gaerne,
317 Graphics, RK Chains, and Maxima
Thank You
www.YokleyRacing.com
Discuss
this in ATVriders.com Forum
|
