Subject: Team Am-Pro Yamaha Race Report

Round 7 of the GNCC series took place this weekend and it was another great event put on by the Racer Productions crew. The course feature a lot of "fresh" cut motorcycle trails, grass track, rocky creek sections, and open woods sections. The weather was a hot 80 degrees with not much humidity. The track was perfectly tacky in the woods, but extremely dry and dusty on the open grass track portions of the track.
 
Here is how are boys did after the dust settled.
 
Jason Raines:
Jason made his GNCC return in the 12-35 year old sportsman class that runs Sunday Morning before the pro race. Jason's YZF 450 fired on the first kick and he rounded the first turn in 3rd and took over the lead in the second turn. "I got into the lead at by the time I got into the woods and it was weird being out in the lead and having to set the pace, the trails were fresh cut and it was really tough to go hard because you could hardly see the ground!" Jason continued to lead his class and by the end of the first lap he had over a minute on the field, the next lap he continued to stretch his lead on the riders in his class. On the last lap he had a 2 minute lead on the nearest competitor in his class but his pit crew didn't remember to take into account that the riders in the second row had past into second and on adjusted time the other rider was in the overall lead. "On the last lap I saw my pit crew yelling and screaming to go, go someone's coming! I had no idea how someone could make up that time on me!' On the last lap Raines charged hard to try and gain the minute (adjusted time) up but fell short by 20 seconds. "I wish I would have known earlier, I was being told I had a big lead the entire race and I wasn't pushing hard and I was taking my time getting around the lapped riders, and by the time they figured it out that I was not in the overall lead it was too late, I tried but fell a bit short." Jason finished 1st in his class and 2nd overall to Duane Conner.
 
Barry Hawk:
Barry's day started on a decent note and he rounded the first turn in the middle of the pack. He stayed smart and picked off rider one by one and by the end of the first lap he was running a solid 6th place. Te next lap he picked off a few more and moved up to a heated battle for 3rd. The battle waged on and for a bit it looked as if Barry and Jimmy Jarret were pushing each other enough to reel in the lead pack of Knight and Mullins, but they never did. The entire last half of the race it was either Jimmy on Barry or Barry on Jimmy. They went back and forth numerous times. Heading into the start of the last lap Jimmy was leading and Barry was searching for a way around and about the halfway mark of the last lap Barry found his opening to make his move. Jimmy went wide in a turn and missed the inside line and Barry darted through the line and made a clean pass that stuck. Jimmy fought back but Barry never made any mistakes and never left the door open again. Barry held off Jimmy until the finish and crossed the line with a well-deserved 3rd place for the day.
 
Charlie Mullins
Charlie's YZ 250 lit on the first kick and he rounded the first turn about 5th. He moved up into second very quickly and on the start of the second lap he took over the lead and tried to break away from the pack. Charlie pulled about 10 seconds on the pack, but when Knight made his way into second position he started to make up time on Charlie. By the end of the second lap Knight had caught up to the back tire of Charlie and they were pushing each other pretty hard and put a 40 second gap on the field. Knight made his move into the lead at the start of the 3rd lap and Charlie tried to rebound. "When he past me it was right before the grass track and I wanted to see his lines and key off of him but it was just too dusty and I had to back it down so I could see, and he pulled a little gap on me." That little gap allowed Knight to get just out of sight of Charlie and he struggled to fight back into contention. "I felt a little un-comfortable in the rocks today, I wasn't pushing as hard as I should have because I felt on the edge in the rocky sections of the track." Charlie hung tough and although he never was able to catch up to Knight again, he kept charging and was still putting time on the rest of the pack the rest of the race. He never stopped trying which shows a lot for his drive and motivation. He finished a strong 2nd place on the day, and is heading to the rocks to get some more time in them to help build his confidence before the next round in West Virginia, which will be an extremely rocky race!
 
Thad Duvall:
The week leading up to the race Thad was struck by a virus that put him down and in bed all week. He was able to ride one day before the race and was a question mark as to if he would even be able to finish the race at all, but being the young soldier that he is, he gave it a shot. His WR 250F fired up and he rounded the first turn in the lead group and continued in the top three for the entire first lap. The second lap saw him stay steady and was still maintaining a good top 3 position, but you could tell he had no charge in him and he was just trying to maintain his position. The third lap he fell back to 5th and he had to stop because he was feeling so sick. He felt that he may not be able to make it, the heat and rough track were taking their toll on him, but he decided to continue on and try to salvage as many points as he could. He really surprised a lot of people including himself and rode hard the rest of the race and battled with a few riders before crossing the finish line 5th place in the XC2 class. After the race he was feeling really sick and drained but he really proved his staying power by toughing it out even though his health was so bad.
 
Randy Hawkins
Randy Hawkins made his return to racing after almost two years off after a broken humorous (upper arm). He is not looking to make a "comeback" into full time competition, but just wants to ride and enjoy riding and focus more on running the team. He rode the sportsman 36+ class Sunday morning before the pro race. His WR 450 didn't fire right off and he was the last rider to leave the starting line. He charged back very quickly and actually caught the leader halfway through the first lap! But after that Randy's arms pumped up like rocks and he was left trying to just survive until his arms calmed down. "I felt good the first lap considering I only have ridden 3 times since my arm injury, but man when my harms pumped I was totally useless!" He kept riding trying to hold on and finally at the beginning of the last lap his arms loosened up and he put in a good, solid lap to finish out the day. We weren't too sure exactly where he finished, but he finished strong, had fun and enjoyed the day riding his motorcycle for the first time in a long time.
 
Thank you to all of our fans and sponsors who support us week in and week out, hope to see you at the races!
 

Jason Raines
Team Am-Pro Yamaha