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AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals
Mill Creek Raceway
Pell
City, Alabama
March 29-30, 2008
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AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals Pro ATV Race Report
| AMA
ATV Motocross Nationals
Mill Creek Links |
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Pell
City, AL (4/1/2008) –
Round number two of the AMA ATV Motocross Nationals
saw back-to-back moto wins from Suzuki/Yoshimura/ProTaper’s
Dustin Wimmer, giving him his second 1-1 victory
of the season. Wimmer’s win was not the only
thing that was impressive this weekend at the Mill
Creek motocross track as the facility boasted a
record 770 racers in attendance.
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| Mill
Creek Raceway was filled to near capacity
with a huge rider and spectator turn-out
for the Amateur ATV National Motocross opening
round and also round 2 for the Pro AMA ATV
Motocross racers
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| #44
Chad Wienen had the fastest qualifying laptime
on Saturday |
For Saturday’s qualifiers, the weather
was nice and track conditions were good. There
were 28 Pro’s in attendance with only the
top six in seated positions. Chad Wienen once
again scored the fastest lap time during qualifiers,
earning him a position in Sunday’s events
along with 16 others. Later that afternoon rain
began to fall just before the LCQ round was about
to take place. Despite a muddy, slippery track,
Yamaha’s Pat Brown who did not qualify during
timed qualifers, ended up in the LCQ round and
took the holeshot and the win to secure his spot
in the finals. Unfortunately there were eight
Pro’s who did not make it in the LCQ, including
Sage Baker, Hunter Miller, and Nate Morello who
both did fairly well during the season opener
at Glen Helen just a couple of weeks prior.
The rain that had fallen on Saturday eliminated
the need for watering the track on Sunday and
made for good conditions for the racers. As the
gate dropped for the first Pro moto, it was privateer
Josh Upperman who took the holeshot with Dustin
Wimmer, Harold Goodman and Chad Wienen right on
his tail. Upperman was leading for a short time
until the pressure from Wimmer became too much
and Upperman blew a berm sending him back to 11th
place. Upperman’s misfortune allowed Wimmer
to take over the lead and check out on the rest
of the pack and also made room for Wienen and
Natalie to get past Goodman.
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| Baldwin
/ Honda's Josh Upperman grabbed the Moto
One Holeshot over #708 Harold Goodman |
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| Suzuki's
Dustin Wimmer took over the lead before
the end of lap one and immediately pulled
away from John Natalie & Joe Byrd battling
for the 2nd spot |
As the race continued, Wienen was running comfortably
in 2nd place while an intense battle began to
brew for third between current National champ,
Joe Byrd, and WPSA champ, John Natalie. Byrd,
who had worked himself up from 6th off the gate,
and past Gust, and Goodman, kept applying pressure,
hoping for Natalie to slip up, but Natalie wasn’t
about to give up his position. “John was
holding his line really well. I couldn’t
get a clean pass on him and I didn’t want
to risk it and end up injuring him or myself or
taking us both out,” said Byrd who kept
the pressure on Natalie for the entire moto. At
the checkered flag, it was Wimmer (with an eight
second lead) in 1st, Wienen 2nd, Natalie 3rd,
Byrd 4th and Can-Am’s Jeremy Lawson, who
had a terrible start, climbed his way back up
to round out the top five for moto one.
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