All Terrain Vehicle Cross Country Series Round #2- Barnell Mountain Gilmer , Texas September 13th, 2009

By: David Culpepper

Gilmer, TX (9/25/2009) - Barnwell Mountain is located very close to where I live and I’ve ridden at this place many, many times over the past several years. Rain normally does not affect the riding unless it rains large amounts in a short period of time. The iron ore and the sand soaks in the water very quickly but when it dumps large amounts of rain the runoff from the mountain can create roaring rapids at the base. Well, me and my big mouth just had to put a post on the website before the race informing everyone that this race would not be adversely affected by rain.

Friday at 6pm when the entire state of Louisiana and Texas were covered in green on the radar map it was still dusty at Barnwell Mountain and not a drop of rain had fallen. That would not be the case one hour later. The bottom fell out and 1.5 inches fell in only 20 minutes. Thankfully the rain ended after only 20 minutes and we just had minor sprinkles during the night and on Saturday. The track was wet but was holding up just fine. Saturday night, Sunday morning from 1:30am until 3:30am, the rain Gods returned, and dumped another 2-3 inches on the mountain. Needless to say, I was lying awake in bed thinking to myself that my big mouth as overloaded my, you know what, again. Sunday morning at 5am I’m awake wondering if the track had been washed away and finally at 6:30am I just had to go for a lap and see. It was dark until 6:50am but as I traversed the track everything was looking good. I guess from 3:30am until 6am was enough time for the runoff to drain off. Ok, so the race is on.

Justin Underwood	Justin Underwood and Matt Horton

Without any more rain on Sunday the Experts were blessed with a wonderful race track. Clint Yount blasted off the line quickly to grab the holeshot in the Pro class. After the first lap Yount had moved out to a 48 second lead over Micah Ames. The second lap was not so kind to the front two runners. Yount found a rock with his front tire that punctured it, and Ames found a rock that wanted his skid plate. Yount decided to make another lap event though he had a front flat but Ames decided to go to the pit and have his skid plate removed. Not sure if that was a good move or not since the course has a few very rocky sections. Josh Carlson who is running in third is exercising a little bit more caution on the brutal race track and is closing on the leaders. By the fourth lap Younts 2:17 minute lead has shrunk to only 51 seconds and now with a second flat tire things were going south in a hurry. Ames’s pit stop put him over 6 minutes back from the leaders but he was back in the race. On the fifth lap Yount had to pull in and get another wheel put on which allowed Carlson to take over the lead. Younts fifth lap pit stop proved to be costly as it would not allow him time to get through scoring before time expired. Carlson made it through and was the only rider in the Pro class to get in 6 laps. Carlson won, Ames got second and Yount was only 1 second behind in third.

The A Program Overall came from the Open class this weekend. Nick Kristek was able to hold off a hard charging Dan King to take the victory and the Overall. King got off to a fast start and held the lead for the first 2 ½ laps until he decided to let Kristek by and follow him for a few laps. Costly mistake as once Kristek got in the lead he began to inch away from King. By the end of the race Kristek had pull out 37 second in front of King. King held on for second followed by Conner Sebesta in third.

Marshall Jeffries and Sonny Amos