New Berlin, NY - It was difficult for the 749 entries comprised of just over 500 individual racers to find anything wrong with the first ever ATVA MX National at Unadilla Valley Sports Center. Just two weeks after their AMA MX Championship National, the Robinson family shifted into high gear to pull together their first attempt at an ATV only motocross event. The consensus? Success, as this marks the second largest rider count event for the 2005 season.

Unadilla Valley is somewhere in the middle of the triangle that Syracuse, Albany and Binghamton, New York create on a map. The town of New Berlin is roughly five miles away and boasts a Stewart’s Pop shop and an amazing Italian diner called the New York Pizzeria that is so racer friendly that they even gave the JPMX crew three cases of water to take back to the track. New York definitely has some die-hard racing fans and it was apparent when many came to see what ATV racing was all about on Sunday. The track could be quoted by riders as being one of the knarliest tracks on the circuit. The start faces downhill and raises back up and goes on to greet riders with many steep downhill jumps and equally steep uphill ascents. Ruts and deep, sharp berms brought out many versions of lines riders didn’t see earlier in the day. It was definitely not a track that was easy for man or machine and picking lines carefully was a must.

Mother nature just allowed the sun to peek back and forth behind the puffy, white clouds and dishing out temperatures in the mid-80’s. The weekend weather was downright perfect for racing. With the rider count being so high Saturday was a long day of first motos and qualifying. A portion of the amateur LCQs had to be moved to Sunday to help accommodate the schedule. By noon on Saturday, the Pro class saw 24 entries meaning a 3pm qualifier and 5pm last chance qualifier were in store for the day. Duncan Racing’s Tavis Cain would lead and amazing ride, while Lost Creek Cycle’s Jason Dunkelberger and Jason Luburgh of Lonestar Racing would be the ones playing catch up even though they received first and second gate picks for the qualifier. Both killed it on the start. Luburgh showed dominance as he caught everyone except Cain to take second followed by Harold Goodman, Jeremy Lawson, Joe Haavisto, Gil Attix, Dunkelberger who made his way back to seventh and Matt White rounding out the last spot into Sunday’s Pro motos from the first qualifier.

A couple of new faces to the Pro crowd were reigning Canadian champion Richard Pelchat of St. Romuald, Quebec, John Mitchell making the trip over the pond from Scotland and Pro-Am graduate Trent Kandel of Millersburg, Ohio. All would join Chad Wienen of Galena, Illinois, Donald Lysinger and Don Lamborn in the Pro LCQ. An unfortunate tie up at the second turn would send Lamborn, Mitchell and Lysinger to the fence on Sunday as spectators. This would be the first time this season Lysinger would not qualify. Chad Wienen would take the win followed by Canadian Richard Pelchat setting the stage for the Pro class mains the following day.

3 Time Canadian Champion, Richard Pelchat		2004 Ponte De Vaux Champion, Scotland's John Mitchell

Leading into the pro class at noon, fans were given a few stunning runs by Kenny Murphy on his snowmobile racer leaping out of “gravity cavity” straight up and away to 100+ feet landing safely. Two runs and it needed a cool down of ice, cold, anti-freeze since there was, for obvious reasons, no snow in site which is what helps keep these 160+ HP machines cool. The third jump did the snowmobile in and it was time to get the Pro class started.

Moto One
East Coast ATV Honda rider and newly crowned National Champion, John Natalie would earn the leap out front with his fourth gate pick while pulling in tow behind him would be Travis Spader back on a Yamaha followed by Yoshimura Suzuki rider Jeremiah Jones, Joe Byrd and the number one gate pick of Lost Creek Cycle’s Jason Dunkelberger. Natalie continued an increasing lead putting on a show for not only the crowd but also the Honda agency filming for a commercial. All this as he suffers from a severely bruised and battered bicep and forearm from a crash filming for Honda in Oregon.

After having such an amazing season, John Natalie’s luck ran out when he came to a halt due to a broken ground wire with less than a lap to the checkered. He would instead take a DNF. Travis Spader having held off all attempts to let Jeremiah Jones by would go on to win his first moto since his return to racing. Jones would falter slightly which was just enough for Joe Byrd to sneak by to take second pushing Jones back to third. Lots of action further back with Lonestar Racing’s Keith Little gaining on Jason Dunkelberger to eventually make the pass for fourth late in the moto, while Doug Gust rides consistent still healing from the horrible crash at the round nine national at High Point. Gust would eventually loose two more positions to both Dustin Wimmer and Kory Ellis settling in eighth for the moto. Jason Luburgh crept up behind Gust to finish ninth ahead of Honda’s Tim Farr and Tavis Cain of Duncan Racing who had such an amazing ride in the qualifier the day before.

Rounding out the rest of the class was Harold Goodman with 12th, followed by Jeremy Lawson, Matt White, Joe Haavisto, the Canadian Richard Pelchat and Chad Wienen who took 17th. Two additional DNFs would be given to Pat Brown due to electrical problems and Gil Attix who broke his axle.

Moto Two

#7 Joe Byrd 2nd Moto Holeshot

Moto two started out just as exciting only this time more commonly seen in the back working up found two unique ATVs up front with the number 2 of Jeremiah Jones and number 7 of Joe Byrd dishing out blows to get the holeshot and the lead. Jeremiah would eventually rub his way into the lead but not without a dog fight from Byrd to keep up. Jason Dunkelberger probably shocked himself as he settled into third but not without pressure from Natalie. Another blow to Natalie’s weekend would be a hard crash in the second lap rocketing him to the back and forcing him to cruise around the track just to be scored as it was apparent his hurt arm received even more trauma. Jones, Byrd and Dunkelberger began to pull not only a little ground on the rest of the group but also on each other as Jones pulled away from Byrd and Byrd pulled away from Dunk. It was apparent however that Dunk was being zeroed in on by several riders including Jason Luburgh and Kory Ellis.

Jones began to take his first commanding lead in quite a long time and looked as though the excitement could have been devastating a few times until his mechanic drew pit board comments to help calm the rider down and finish on all four wheels. Joe Byrd would not be successful with his advances on Jones and settle yet again for second. Kory Ellis who admittedly loved this track would work his way up from a fairly bad start to earn fourth behind Jason Luburgh. A possible podium for the young Dunkelberger fizzled when Doug Gust and Tim Farr also got around him sending him to seventh. Regardless, Dunk rode one of his best weekends to date and demonstrated he’s definitely a force in this class. K&K rider Pat Brown on his Yamaha would earn 8th behind Dunk followed by Keith Little and Dustin Wimmer rounding out the top 10. Tavis Cain earned another 11th, followed in order of finish Joe Haavisto, Travis Spader who crashed on the first lap, Harold Goodman, Jeremy Lawson, Matt White, Gil Attix, Richard Pelchat, John Natalie and Chad Wienen to finish the top 20.

Yoshimura Suzuki finally earned their first win of the season with Jeremiah Jones’ 3-1 moto finishes after having so many close ones throughout the season. Joe Bryd takes runner-up for the third time in a row and after the confusion of who got third was settled Kory Ellis with his 7-4 moto finishes gave him a high score for third overall.

	Joe Byrd, Jeremiah Jones, Kory Ellis Celebrate

National Champion

2005 National Champion, John Natalie Jr

After the podium celebration, another celebration was to be had as John Natalie would finally be awarded his number one plate from the Director of the ATVA, Doug Morris. For a moment, it looked as though Natalie could have been choked up as he was handed the plate but he hoisted the National Number one plate up with both arms to seal in the moment he’d long been working for.

Congratulations, Jeremiah Jones on your first 2005 National win and John Natalie yet again for your 2005 National Championship title.