There were many national pro riders on hand with the extremely cool rigs. Most of the I.T.P. Racer are local and don’t have the need for a huge rig as some of this national racer have. John Natalie was there with his fiancé Michelle Reiser as well as Pat Brown of Team Yamaha, and Dustin Wimmer. All Sporting very nice equipment for the new year.

There were riders from all over, even a few International riders. There were two riders from across the border in Mexico and a rider from across the Atlantic in Ireland. The rider is an Irish Champ as well as a Champ in the UK. He also is planning on running the GNC race the following weekend as well. We have to see if we can get a few minutes with this racer for an interview. Justin Reid has been racing ATVs over seas and thought he would come over here and see what it was like to race in the states. He does have some American sponsors like Bling Star, PEP, and CT Racing.

This season starts with a few changes. Though they may be minor and they are mostly to the pro class. The Top 5 of last years riders are automatically transfer to the main with no qualifying race. They also get first chance at a gate choice. With these few changes, the consensus on the track is this was in a positive direction. It may not have been the opinion of all, but was the majority.

This round the Pro class turn out was so great that they had to run two full gates. The two heats would determine who might continue to Pro race A and which racers would run Pro race B. The Top eight qualifiers from each heat would continue to Pro main A and the rest would race Pro race B. They started things off with an open practice and let everyone get use to the new shorter layout.

Pro Heat 1
The first full gate of pros launched into the first turn for the first time of the 2006 season. John Natalie pulled the holeshot with Pat Brown in tow. Pat brown would chase Natalie down for most of the first lap, trying to pass him any chance he would get. Brown was looking strong on his new Factory Yamaha ride and kept the pressure on Natalie till he finally got the break he was waiting for in the front sweeper right before the finish. Brown would make a clean pass and the battle with Natalie would continue thru out the race, bar to bar. Meanwhile in third place Donald Lysinger was trying to hold of Yamaha’s Kory Ellis. Ellis was running down the third place position as well as the forth place rider of Brock Lyons. Both Kory and Brock would eventually pass Lysinger for third. Where they all finished out the heat in the top five, Kory in third, Lyons in fourth, and Lysinger in fifth. Pat Brown continued to battle off Natalie the rest of the race. Natalie would have to settle for second in the heat and wait to battle with Brown in the pro main A.

Pro Heat 2
The second gate dropped, filled full of talented pro rider, the racers charged the huge first sweeper turn. Logan Holladay would pull the holeshot to lead the pack up and over Mt. St. Helens. Later Joe Haavisto would get around Holliday and would steal the lead in the race. Holliday would run a strong race to only later break a chain and DNF, so he would then have to run the B race. With Holliday out of the picture, Tavis Cain would take the second spot and try to catch Haavisto. Cody Miller running in third would later be passed by Jason Dunkleberger. Haavisto with a comfortable lead would take the checkers for the second heat with Tavis Cain following. Dunkleberger would round out the top three, followed by Cody Miller.

Pro Main A
The best of the best line up for what would be prove to be some great racing action. Now remember the top 5 from last year advance to the main without qualifying. Jeremy Schell, with a broken foot and a few toes from an accident last year wasn’t going to keep him out of the race. Jeremy would ride the start, around the first turn and then pull off the track. He then sat in the infield till the end of the race and crossed the finish to collect what points he could. He is going to be back in 4-5 weeks to racing the series in top condition. The other top 5 pros from last year would join him on the line Dana Creech, Doug Eichner, Dustin Nelson, and Mike Machado along with eight qualifiers from the two heats. To form a full pro gate that would sling shot down the straight away into the huge front sweeper. As the riders came out of the sweeper Natalie was leading the pack, followed by Pat Brown once again. It was almost like déjà vu from the first heat race. With Natalie leading the race with Brown on his tail, unrelenting chasing him down. As the race continued Natalie would begin to stretch his lead out more and more. Brown would eventually fall victim to bad luck and break an axle. He would snap his axle clean off and have to pull off the track. All he could do is just stand track side to watch the rest of the race unfold. Doug Eichner would also have a bit of bad luck with some sort of electrical problem and DNF as well. Dustin Nelson was running third till Browns unfortunate luck, now in second Nelson would be challenged Jason Dunkleberger and Dana Creech. Creech one of last year’s contenders was having a good race and was trying to make a podium position. Dunk would make his way around Nelson to steal the second position. Natalie just relaxed as he was miles ahead of the field. He would take the top box on the podium and the lead in points in the series. Dunk would finish second, followed by Nelson, Creech, and Haavisto the second heat top finisher.

John Natalie Dominating the main race after pat brown had some bad luck and snapped an axle.

Justin Reid over from the UK running in the pro class and finishing in mid pack

Pro Main B
The forth and final gate full of pros would line up once again for the last pro race to thunder up and around the first turn. Cale Downen would take the holeshot just ahead of Dustin Wimmer. Wimmer was charging hard and just waiting for the right time to strike. Before the first lap was over Wimmer had made the pass on Downen. Downen was running a good race and Wimmer just in his sights. John Shafe was running third, being chased down by Jesse Goss and TJ Dietrich. The rider to keep you eye on is Josh Frederick. Josh was working his way thru the pack; he is the current WORCS point’s leader and was making his own charge to the front. As Shafe would fade back into mid pack Frederick would work his way up to second. There, he would ride out the race. Wimmer had a commanding lead over the rest of the pack. TJ Dietrich would finish out third followed by Jesse Gross, then Cale Downen. We later found out that John Shafe had suffered some major engine trouble, a crack case being one of the problems.

Overall it was a great way to start the year off; having such a larger turn out made it some really good racing.

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