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AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals
Sunset Ridge
Walnut,
Illinois
May 10-11, 2008
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AMA ATV Motocross
Nationals Pro ATV Race Report
::Continued::
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| 2nd
Turn bottleneck |
The second turn on the track proved to be particularly
muddy and caused a huge pile up that claimed Can-Am
racers Sage Baker, Richard Pelchat, Jeremy Lawson,
and Greg Gee along with Josh Creamer, Russell Shumaker
and Cale Downen. It took Cale Downen the better
part of one lap before he was able to get back into
the race.
The pile up in the second corner allowed Wimmer,
Brown, Natalie, Doug Gust, Cody Miller, and Rocco
Arno to put a good-sized lead on everyone else.
Wimmer began pulling away, but Brown could not
shake Natalie who was right on his grab bar waiting
for Brown to make a mistake or get caught up in
the mud.
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| John
Natalie held the 2nd Spot till he won't
off the track through the whoops, which
slowed down Brown and allowed Doug Gust
to take over the 2nd Spot behind Wimmer |
By
the 3rd lap, Pat Brown had worked his way
back up into the 2nd spot with Gust dropping
back to 4th behind John Natalie Jr |
While the mud was a hindrance for most racers,
Natalie believes it actually worked to his advantage
in a way. “My vision is still only at about
20/50, but since it was so muddy, no one else
could see either,” the Can-Am/Warnert racer
said with a laugh. John also had something else
that was working to his advantage. He and the
Warnert team made slight modification to the plastics
on is quad. They took the rear fenders of another
DS 450 and cut them in half and attached them
to the front fenders of John’s quad, shielding
him from mud coming off his front tires.
Natalie waited patiently for Brown to mess up, but
on the last lap, John still found himself in 3rd
place. Natalie decided it was time to make his move
and went for the pass taking over 2nd place. “It
was really hard to pass out there. It was pretty
much just a single line because of the mud,”
stated John.
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| Jason
Dunkelberger held the 7th spot for most
of the race ahead of Joe Byrd after the
pair both spun around backwards at the start
of the race |
Harold
Goodman charged his way through the mud
up into the top 10, which secured him a
spot in the top 5 in points |
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