| 2008
GBC Heartland Challenge
10 Hour ATV Endurance Race
Carlisle, Iowa
November 7-8, 2008
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GBC
Heartland Challenge 10 Hour ATV Race Report -
Continued
In the Pro Utility Class, the PIAA/Can-Am team was
showing everyone that they meant business, running
the fastest lap time of any Pro Utility team with
a time of 00:17:28 in the second lap. By the midway
point, they had an impressive one lap lead over
the second place Polaris/Rath team, and were the
only Pro Utility team to break into the overall
top ten. FD Racing was holding down a respectable
third place with Stack Racing in fourth and West
Racing rounded out the top five in the Pro utility
class.
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The
Can-Am Challenge proved to be a challenge
not only to sport ATVs, but also Utilities
with the FD
Racing team losing some time trying
to get free from the grips of the Can-Am
Challenge , which could save alot of time
or cost you time |
The
Can-Am Challenge by-pass also had its share
of obstacles as well with tires, rocks,
and dirt piles, which many decided to take
despite it adding about 45 seconds to the
laptime, which played into the strategy
of the race for many teams |
In the Women’s class, the Kwik Powermadd
Chix team, consisting of GNCC Women’s champ,
Traci Cecco, Kristin Atwell and Jesi Stracham
were on fire. At the halfway point, they were
leading the Women’s class by five laps and
were holding down an impressive 7th overall. Pro-Am
team, Shrum Racing were on top of their game as
well. They had about an eight-minute lead over
the Tucker Rocky team in their 15th lap, and were
a lap up on team Quad Dogs. The Never Forgotten
team of the 30+ class gave a very impressive performance.
The three man team of Shawn Hohneke, Jerry Costello
and Nate Wentland were keeping pace with some
of the best and laying down lap times that were
consistent with the Pro-Am teams. At the three
hour mark, Never Forgotten was holding on to 6th
place overall and after eight hours had worked
up to an incredible 5th place overall.
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Never
Forgotten's Team dominated the C&D
Racing's 30+ Class by grabbing the early
lead, and by the 6th lap they were 5 minutes
ahead of 2nd place |
Mule Train's Walker Fowler, Kendall
Webb, and Wyatt Reed were running up front
early until a series of issues sent them
down a lap in the Precision
Racing A Class |
As darkness fell, the temperatures began to drop
and the snow began to fall again. Many racers
began to feel the effects of the cold, but it
didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits.
“We are having a good time out here. This
is a good competition for our team. The track
is great and the people behind this have done
a great job,” said Daryl Rath.
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Can-Am
dropped out of the lead with a mechanical
failure and light issues, which allowed
Rath Racing to take over the lead at 22
laps into the race |
For the most part, there were surprisingly few
mechanical breakdowns over the first several hours
of the race, but the eighth hour seemed to pose
problems for several teams. The PIAA/Can-Am Pro
utility team was the first to run into issues.
Rick Cecco was out on the track when he broke
down and had to be towed in, Cecco was back out
in a flash, keeping the lead ahead of the Polaris/Rath
team but Cecco was only out a few minutes when
he came racing back to the pits when his lights
quit working. The second trip to the pits was
enough for the Polaris/Rath team to close the
gap and after some pressure, take over the lead.
“Things got a little exciting when we fell
back,” said PIAA/Can-Am racer Cliff Beasley.
The PIAA/Can-Am team wasn’t about to settle
for second place and soon re-took the Pro Utility
lead.
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In
the
All Balls Racing B Class, the lead was
changed 3 times during the 1st half of th
race, but at lap 19, Iowa's own "Thunder
Monkey Racing" Team took over the
lead and pulled a one lap lead on the rest
of the field in the final hours of the race |
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The
powerhouse team of Brandon Sommers, Johnny
Gallagher, Taylor Kiser built a huge lead
into the night, but a bad wreck by Taylor
Kiser brought him in early with a cracked
in half chest protector, but luckily his
KTM survived so no major time was lost |
In the eighth hour, the Pro class Dirtworks team,
who was running in a strong second place, was also
towed back to the pits to change out their quad,
which cost them time and allowed the GBC/ATVriders
team to take over second place. Also in the eight
hour, Powermadd/GT Thunder Pro racer Taylor Kiser
ended up hitting a tree. “I was going a little
too fast and just slid into a tree,” Kiser
said calmly. The impact was so hard it cracked his
chest protector in half, but fortunately, Kiser
was not injured and the Powermadd/GT Thunder team
never lost their lead.
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