Team ITP ATV and side-by-side racers competed in both the 2013 AMA Mtn. Dew ATV Motocross National Championship Series and the World Off-Road Championship Series last weekend. At the final round of the ATV MX series in Tennessee, ITP-supported racers won four classes, earned more than a dozen podiums and wrapped up eight individual amateur national championships. ITP side-by-side pilots earned two podiums at Glen Helen Raceway in southern California.
"We're very pleased about winning eight amateur AMA ATV motocross national championships," said ITP public relations specialist Pat McGuire. "We could have had more titles, as we had 15 runner-up finishes and seven third-place finishes as well, but that's racing. Our riders battled to the very end with their ITP tires and we're proud of all their efforts and the titles. Our racers had a bit of bad luck at the WORCS event in California, but we still came away with a couple podium finishes, including John Pacheco's third-place run in the challenging SxS Pro Production class."
ATV MX-Loretta's
The 2013 ATV Motocross series wrapped up its ten-round schedule at the famed Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch MX track outside of Hurricane Mills, TN. The annual Dirt Days National is always a popular event and the 2013 event had almost 750 racing entries. Loretta's is also important because it usually serves as the season finale and determines the national champions. ITP racers earned eight AMA amateur national MX championships as well as 15 runner-up finishes and several respectable third-place finishes.
Pro class racer Josh Creamer (BCS Performance/ITP) ended his 2013 campaign with a fourth-place finish at Round 10. He recorded two top-five finishes in both Pro class motos to earn fourth and, more importantly, secure an impressive third-place finish in the highly competitive Pro class. Fellow ITP Pro Jeffrey Rastrelli finished a career-best sixth overall to conclude his rookie season. He ended up eighth overall in the final Pro class points standings, just two points out of seventh. Root River Racing/ITP Pro Sean Taylor equaled his best finish of the season, earning 11th at Loretta's. He also finished 12th in the Pro class points standings.
Taylor fared much better in the Pro-Am ranks, as he finished third overall for the season. Rastrelli (JB Racing/ITP) took second place at Loretta's, but did not compete in enough events to compete for the Pro-Am title. Brent Sellers (RRR/ITP) finished fifth at Round 10 to earn sixth overall in the Pro-Am class and also earned a second-place podium finish in the Production A for third overall in that class.
ITP racers had a lot of success in the amateur classes. ITP-supported William "Duck" Lloyd, who won the Junior 25 Plus class championship, finished seventh in the Pro-Am class rankings despite missing the final three events due to a broken ankle. Randy Hurst Sr. (Senior 40+), Dalton Hicks (450A), Samuel Rowe (College 16-24), Blake Sarver (Schoolboy Jr. 13-15), Maddison Guyer (Girls), Sam Steckly (90 Open 12-15) and Westley Wolfe (Super Mini 13-15) each earned individual class championships in 2013.
Dylan Tremellen earned two national runner-up finishes in the Production A and 4-Stroke A classes for 2013. Alex Gillette also recorded two second-place finishes on the season in both the Production C and 450 C classes, and fellow C class racer Kyle Haynes earned second in both the Open C and 4-Stroke C classes while finishing third in the 450 C class. Mike Barnhart wound up second in the Veteran 30+ class while Megan Manshack took second in the Women's class. Senior 40+ class racer Lane Coile finished second overall in 2013.
Three Schoolboy and Youth class racers also earned runner-up finishes in 2013. Haedyn Mickelson took second in the Schoolboy Jr. 14-17 and Schoolboy Jr. 13-15 Open. With a third-place podium run at Loretta's, Super-Mini (13-15) racer Noah Mickelson secured second overall for the season. ITP-sponsored racer Brogan Guyer ended up second in both the 90 Auto Sr. (12-15) and 90 CVT (8-15) classes.
ITP-backed racers earning third-place finishes for 2013 were Jordan Digby-who won the 125 12-15 at Loretta's-Ricky Deering (Veteran 30+), Randy Hurst Jr. (4-Stroke A) and Chloe Buerster (Women's).
WORCS
Glen Helen Raceway in Devore, CA, hosted Round 7 of WORCS. ITP-supported racers earned two podium finishes in two different classes. John Pacheco (Team IMG/ITP) scored the most impressive podium finish as he earned third overall in the SxS Pro Production ranks. The most elite side-by-side class in WORCS, the SxS Pro Production class, had 23 entrants. However, six racers either failed to start or took a DNF in the final race. In fact, of the remaining 17 entries, only seven racers were on the lead lap at the end of the race. Pacheco was in ninth place after the first lap, but was in the top five by Lap 4. Two laps later he was battling for the podium and second overall. In the end, he settled for a season-best third-place finish.
ITP-backed racer Cody Rahders took eighth in the SxS Pro Production class but also competed in the SxS Production 700 class. Rahders rode his ITP-clad SxS to a second-place finish. It was his fourth runner-up finish of the season and he's currently third in the class points standings.
Sara Price, Justin Lambert and Brice Ginn finished fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively in the SxS Production 850 class at Glen Helen. Lambert (Cognito Motorsports/ITP), who won Round 5, is currently third in the class points standings heading into Round 8. Price, who missed the opener and has one DNF, is currently fifth in points.
Justin Imhof competed in the SxS Production 1000 class for Team ITP and took seventh place. Round 8 of WORCS will be held Sept. 13-15 at Honey Lake MX in Milford, CA.
