All
Terrain Vehicle Cross Country Series
Round #1 -
Red River Park
Bulcher, Texas
February 24th-25th |
By:
David Culpepper |
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The
Red Bull Barn |
Bulcher, TX - ATVCCS started the 2007
series with a very demanding track that tested riders
conditioning and skills right off the bat. Red River Park
was the home of the Red Bull Last Man Standing event that
was held in 2006. After riding the ATV course laid out
by Glenn Hess and Company I know how it is Red River Park
can host such an event. The property is located near Illinois
Bend on the red river in North Texas. The terrain is mostly
sandy with a little clay mixed in here and there. Water
run off from rain creates large gullies throughout the
property which makes for some very technical trail. The
main course was 8.5 miles long with 5 different splits
for the Ladies and B riders. The Pee Wee track was much
more wide open and was approx. 2 miles in length. The
Pro Purse ended up being $1,250.00 for this event with
the winner taking home $500.00. This brought in 15 Pro
riders out of the 185 racers this weekend. There probably
would have been more than 200 racers had the track not
been quite as difficult.
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|
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Hunter
Miller |
|
Josh
Robinson |
Saturday morning arrives and the wind is blowing 30
to 50 mph all day long. If you didn’t have it
tied down then it got blown away. On the starting line
for the Pee Wee 6 under class we had 6 riders. Maxim
Motor Sport was passing out $20 gift certificates to
all Holeshot winners for every class this weekend and
Tyler McShane was the first rider to cash in on the
Holeshot prize. Not only did McShane holeshot the class
he also went on to lead every lap and take the win in
class. Pierre Lopez recovered from a poor start to finish
2nd and Melanie Dunn crossed the line in 3rd. Madison
Pepper and Waylan Dunn were first time racers and each
made it 3 laps to finish 4th and 5th respectively. Next
up was Pee Wee 8 under and Braden Mize took the victory.
Early in the race Terry Bohanon looked to be on his
way to a victory but after taking a soil sample he later
pulled out of the race. Gage Smith managed to finish
2nd even though he had to put his chain back on several
times during the race. Third went to Alexandria Dimberg
who also is a first time racer in this series.
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|
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Lexie
Coulter |
|
Austen
Gustine |
After a little break it was time to line up the C Program
riders which includes the following classes: Lady Open,
50+, Lady 30+, and the Youth Beginner. The 2006 Lady’s
Champ Lexie Coulter began were she left off last year
by taking a convincing win in the first round of 2007.
Coulter invited one of her GNCC competitors, Kim Muzzarelli,
down from Illinois so that she could escape the blistering
cold and enjoy some racing before the GNCC series starts.
Muzzarelli was able to stay around 1 minute back from
Coulter for the first lap but then dropped back to a
3 minute deficit by the end of the race. Heather Best
put in a strong ride to finish 3rd in class followed
by Morgan Nichols and Ashley Robinson. In the 50+ class
Dennis Wilson, last years champ, has some fresh meat
to chase. Jeff Porter started the race off behind Wilson
but quickly took over the lead before the riders entered
the woods. When they entered the scoring chute there
was only 10 seconds separating the riders. Wilson kept
the heat on for the second lap and was still only 10
seconds off the pace but on the third and final lap
Porter found some extra energy and managed to pull out
a 1 minute lead when he crossed the checkered flag.
I hear rumors of a Okie rider who is planning on joining
the series and adding his 2 cents to the mix too. Who
knows this old fart class might be something to watch
this year. Mike Rogers, Bruce Dickey and Butch Troquille
rounded out the top five. Since the track was so hard
we only had one 30+ Lady who was brave enough to race,
and that was new comer Melissa Dimberg. The Youth Beginner
class consist of lady riders 15 under and men riders
12 and under all on 400 cc stock machines or 90cc modified
machines. There were the Enis brother in this class
that showed the rest of the field how to get it done.
Trevor and Jacob Enis went one and two for the whole
race. Trevor pretty much had the race covered while
Jacob had Shelby Spencer and Tori Oliver riding right
on his rear bumper. As the race went on Spencer and
Oliver switched positions a few time until Spencer took
over the third position for good on the final lap.
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