On Sat. Aug 12th the Adirondack ATV Riders in Harrisville, NY hosted their 4th annual rodeo. With over 200 participants competing in the MX Race, Mud Bog,

The gates opened at 7:00am and Mother Nature was actually cooperating with the sun peaking through the rain clouds that have covered Northern NY for most of the summer. The participants started filtering in sporadically at first then at a steady pace once it appeared that the sun was going to stay for the day. The location of the Rodeo is at the Harrisville Rod and Gun Club and you have access to it by both paved roads and ATV trails. I would have to say that the majority of the people in attendance rode their ATV’s there. What better way to spend a Saturday then to be able to take a nice trail ride with family or friends to an event that features ATV’s. Then when it is over with, hop back on your ATV and ride home. Being on the web and in the ATV Source Chatroom as much as I am I know for a fact this is a dream come true for most people.

At 10:00 the registration closed for the MX race and the racers met at the start/finish line for a riders meeting . We were informed that this year due to the increasing participants that most classes would have to run qualifying heats to make it to the Feature for their class. After this meeting we had practice and after a couple of laps my previous thoughts of the track from when I walked it earlier were confirmed. This track was in excellent condition. Basically the only change to the track was a table top jump that was added on the fast back section. The jump was added to slow the speeds and to make it safer through the 180 degree 1st turn.

Although I have the winners for the Heat races and the Feature I was not able to take in the details for all the classes as I was doing last minute preparations on my quad to get it ready for the Feature race.

Chris Hodkinson

Scott Moser

The weather for the Heat races was perfect for the racers, spectators, and the track. It was a beautiful sunny day with the temps in the high 70’s to low 80’s and with all the rain that we had in the last week there was no dust on the track. Little did we know that was all going to change.

• Heat 1 Cliff Taylor, Ken Vaadi, Dan Jones, Shawn Woods

• Heat 2 Neal Moser, Mike Villeneuve, Rob Rucker, Stuart Greenhill

• Heat 3 Rick Reandeau, Jim Smith Jr, Todd Martin, Walt Cheney

• Heat 1 Chris Hodkinson, Bill Gray, Adam Zehr, Ray Bechler

• Heat 2 Cliff Taylor, Eric Kloster, Rob Rucker, Bill Juby

• Heat 1 Gregg Gonyeau, Jay Benson, Chris Hall, Jason Bowhall

• Heat 2 Clancey O’Donnell, Richard Laplatney, Nesco, Jason Akins

• Heat 1 Jason Roes, Terry O’Shaughnessy, Rich Beehm, Jim Eaton

• Heat 2 Josh Roes, Travis Clemons, Mark Bush

• Heat 1 Jason Roes, Josh Whitford, Josh Roes

• Heat 2 Jason Bowhall, Mike O’Shaughnessy, Shane Dudo, Dan Laing

After the Heat races were finished the organizers scheduled the Water Carry to give the racers a chance to rest (some of us needed it a whole lot more then others) and to go over their ATV’s to make sure nothing was broken.

The "Water Carry" is a family oriented event in which younger ATV enthusiast can participate. This event requires 2 people, a driver and a carrier. The pair would drive to the water vat and fill their small bucket, hop back on the ATV and drive around a small obstacle course and then dump what water was left into a 5 gallon bucket. The team with the most water in their 5 gallon bucket when time was up, wins!

Mother Nature must of mistook what the participants of the Water Carry were doing by carrying all that water around the track and thought that they were watering the track to keep the dust down so she decided to give them a hand and opened her skies to a couple of very hard downpours.

Everything that we learned about the track in the Heat races we could throw right out the window now as the track was now very muddy and slick. The fans in attendance are the greatest fans in the world. Even through all the downpours most of them stayed to show their support for the racers.

In the 250R/400EX Feature the fans got to see the closest racing of the day between Rob Rucker and Eric Kloster both on 400EX’s battled it out right from the start after Chris Hodkinson (JC-TRX250R) took the holeshot only to have his day ruined 20ft. into the race when a fuel problem caused his quad to coast to a stop allowing the rest of the field to go around. (Rumor has it in the pits that he forgot to turn the petcock on in the haste of getting his rain coat off at the start line.) Rob took the lead over then on the 1st lap and held it the entire race until being passed by Eric coming down the back stretch to the finish line.

Neal Moser

Daniel Jones

The last class to race for the day was the Open class. This class was loaded with hot Banshees, 400EX’s and even a couple of the Bombardiers DS650’s. Reporting on this class is quite simple and can be described in a few words. It was a Neal Moser walk away. He got the holeshot and just kept putting distance between himself and the rest of the field. Try as they might the Track Officials cannot seem 

Neal Moser The Winner

to slow this kid down as this is the 3rd year in a row that he has dominated this class. Maybe next year they should unplug one of his spark plug wires on his Halls ATV/TBN Racing Banshee. We already know that a blown tire does not do it. The 2nd place winner in this class was Stuart Greenhill.
More Racing Pics

Next up was the Mud Bog. The rules for this event are real simple: The person that goes the farthest wins. The pit was about 150-200ft long with depths varying from 2-3 feet of mud and water. After watching them mix up the mud that morning the pit looked very sloppy and sticky. But it continued to rain and made the pit even harder to pass through. The rain did offer some benefits though as it did help clean off the riders and their machines afterwards.

Jerry Caron The Winner - More muddy pics

During the Mud Bog was also the Grand Prize drawing for the raffle featuring a 2000 Yamaha Grizzly donated by Nesco Yamaha, equipped with an ITP Blackwater Big Foot Package. The winner of this fabulous machine was Tony Rishe.

Even though it rained I would say that this years Rodeo was an even bigger success then the previous years. The volunteers should be complimented and proud of themselves for what they have achieved. They had every aspect of putting on an event of this size covered from food, (chicken, hamburgers, hotdogs, salt potatoes) drink, (soda and water) to properly positioned Restrooms. (yes this is important) They set up a nice vendors row and the ladies doing the registrations were very patient, polite, and helpful. Plus every aspect of security and safety were covered with 2 ambulances with EMT’s and the local sheriff department on hand. A special thanks also goes out to the Harrisville Fire Dept. for their help.

A special Thanks from ATV Source goes out to the Adirondack ATV Riders Club for their hard work, dedication, enthusiasm, and hospitality for making this Rodeo a HUGE Success.