By: Ray Larez

ITP Quadcross Round 6, TJ Dietrich Takes Home His First Pro Moto Win

The first turn in the pro start, with Jeff Spooner taking the lead.

Round 6 of the 2006 I.T.P./Yamaha Quad Cross was held at Glen Helen Raceway.  Weeks prior to this weeks race were plagued with triple digit temps, and high humidity.  Everyone was coming expecting this to be one of the hottest races of the season literally.  Days before the race a storm blew in off the coast of California and drastically lowered the temps to the mid 60’s.  This had to be some of the craziest weather California’s have seen in a long time.  Then to top it all off, it not only got cloudy with thunder storms the morning of the race it also started to rain.  This made track conditions lousy and turned some spots into a soup bowl.  As the racers came out for practice most of them rode back to there trailers to sit out the rest of practice, stating that it was not worth chancing damaging their motors by sucking in some water or mud.  This would prove to be a good strategy, with typical California weather.  By the third race the track was drying out and the rain had stopped.  For some sections it was too late the damage was done.  The track crew tried to repair the track and fix some of the real big mud holes.

Dustin Nelson leading in the first moto and current point’s leader

Pro Moto
As the field of pro’s lined up for the first moto the rain had stopped and the track had begun to dry out some.  Once the gate was dropped and the racer rocketed into the first huge sweeping turn TJ Dietrich aboard his Yamaha YFZ snag the holeshot.  The Motoworld rider and current point’s leader Dustin Nelson was in a close second.  By the second Nelson had made quick work of Dietrich and made his pass.  The #222 of Kyle Chislock in third would have some sort of engine trouble; he would be out for the rest of the moto.  Chasing down third was #58 Jeff Spooner followed by Doug Echiner.

By the second lap Dustin Nelson was widening his lead on the Dietrich, as was TJ Dietrich on the rest of the pack.  John Shafe was making his push to the front and tries to salvage a bad start in the mud.  Speaking of mud, the track was in pretty bad shape and was still really muddy.  Which created problems for riders behind the leader by just covering them in mud, not to mention making the track really slick.  In the third of fourth lap the leader Dustin Nelson would have a bit of bad luck with the mud and get of the track and loose a couple spots.  Now with TJ Dietrich out front with a comfortable lead would take home his first moto win of the season.  Followed by Jeff Spooner in second, Doug Echiner in third and John Shafe in fourth.

Dustin Nelson here a after his little tumble.

Pro Main
The start of the main proved to be intense, as they launched off the starting line again and through the first Talladega style turn.  Dustin Nelson would get a mid-pack start and as he exited the first turn he went wide into the loamy dirt.  He some how high sided and broke a tie rod.  He flipped his machine over and tried to ride away then noticed the broken tie rod.  He was pretty upset and verbal about the matter.  Jeff Spooner would take the holeshot and continued with his early lead.  His was followed by Kyle Chislock the new addition to the Duncan race team.  The #98 of John Shafe was running a strong third right behind Chislock.  Earlier in the day Shafe took the Open Pro moto win by taking the holeshot and holding of the charging pack.  Then followed Chislock’s Duncan team mate Doug Echiner.

Flying over the jumps Team Duncan’s Kyle Chislock.

By the third lap it was looking like it was going to be a very tight race.  As they rounded the second turn and headed up Mt. Shoei Kyle Chislock would again have some sort of issue with his machine.  He staled on the face of the hill in the front of the pack! As riders tried to maneuver around him, luckily nobody got hung up with him and made it up the hill.  John Shafe now in second was on the hunt for Spooner, but he had already checked out and had a commanding lead.  Doug Echiner would then start to apply the pressure on Shafe.  Lap after lap Doug was right there on Shafe’s tires till finally on the last lap, Shafe bobbled and Doug made his pass.  Spooner would walk away with the win, as Doug Echiner finished second followed by John Shafe.  Spooner took home the overall with Echiner in second and Shafe in the third overall.

The winning rhino catching some air.

Rhino Class
These Rhinos seem to be popping up every where.  So this class continues to grow.  The Rhinos that where on the line where just unreal and most probably cost a fortune.  Most are just mini pre-runners on steroids.  The suspension designs are very similar to the big brother the trophy truck.  It was a blast to watch this class go around the course.  The best part was the mud; these things are perfect for the mud and performed great.  It was sort of a down fall for the larger hills through; some of the rhinos with the larger tires had a hard time making it up the mud steep hills.  The Rhino Mafia machine won both motos and the overall for the day.