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AMA ATV Motocross Nationals
Ballance Moto X
Bowling Green, Kentucky
April 13-14, 2008
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AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals Pro ATV Race Report
| AMA
ATV Motocross Nationals
Ballance Moto X Links |
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Bowling
Green, KY –
The Pro ATV racing action at Round 3 of the AMA
ATV Motocross Nationals proved to be even more unpredictable
than the first two rounds of the season. John Natalie,
Joe Byrd, Greg Gee, and Jeremy Lawson all suffered
from big crashes while Doug Gust took his first
AMA overall win since the season finale in 2006
at Ballance Moto X.
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| Despite
the fridig temps and rain, Ballance Moto
X attracted record crowds with the parking
lot filled to capacity and a bundled up
crowd of spectators watching the racing
action
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Ballance Moto X saw a record attendance, despite
the prediction of inclement weather for Sunday’s
races, with over 740 racers signed up to participate.
The facility usually averages around 400 racers
for Nationals, so the 60% increase in attendance
was quite significant for this event. As always,
the track set-up was excellent; it had its share
of technical sections, whoops, lots of jumps, and
sweeping turns, which makes it one of the most technical
tracks of the season.
With heavy rains on Friday, and scattered showers
through out the weekend, the track was slick and
muddy, by the time the Pros headed to the line
for the start of the first Pro Moto. Once the
gate dropped, it was Can-Am/Warnert Racing’s
John Natalie who grabbed the holeshot followed
closely by Dustin Wimmer, Joe Byrd, Doug Gust,
Josh Upperman and Jeremy Lawson. Coming out of
the second turn, Byrd was edged off the track,
which sent him skimming across a small pond and
flipping into the woods. Despite being shaken
up, Byrd was ok and returned to the race.
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| #13
John Natalie Jr grabbed his third Holeshot
of the season on the Can-Am DS450 ATV |
Joe
Byrd ended up well off the track in a dramatic
crash across a pond and into the woods,
but fortunately, he was ok |
Meanwhile, Natalie held the lead for the first
half of the race, but would come to an end when
he came into a sweeping turn at high speed and
caught a huge rut, which sent him and his quad
cartwheeling into the fence. “I got my bell
rung pretty good, but I got back on and finished
the race,” stated Natalie. Uninjured, but
a little worse for wear, John finished the first
moto in 17th place right behind Byrd. Fellow Can-Am
rider, Jeremy Lawson did not fair as well as Natalie.
Lawson was taking a big double when his bike accidentally
kicked out of gear in mid air causing him to nose
dive and cartwheel. “I was a little banged
up and soar, but other than that I wasn’t
hurt,” said Lawson. Unfortunately, his quad
wasn’t as lucky and Jeremy was forced to
DNF for the first moto.
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| John
Natalie remounts his Can-Am DS450 after
wrecking into the fence, which cost him
a shot at a Moto One Win |
Can-Am
Epic Racing's Jeremy Lawson also wrecked
into the fence on the big table top, which
left his quad disabled |
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