Blountville, TN — The tacky track at Muddy Creek Raceway came together best for defending champion Joe Byrd, who grabbed both holeshots en route to his 1-1 sweep at Round nine of the 2007 ITP/Moose Racing ATVA MX Series Championship. Jeremy Lawson went 2-2, and Patrick Brown finished 3-3.

The crew at Victory Sports became friends with ATVs, re-facing the jumps and widening out the turns, but the track tightened back up after the steady rain rolled in Friday and again on Saturday.

“Victory Sports did an awesome job considering what they had to work with,” Byrd said from the podium. “Mother Nature narrowed up the track quite a bit for us. The holeshot was very important this weekend, and I just got lucky and pulled a couple of them.”

Byrd opted out of the Saturday morning practice. Come race day, Byrd had first gate pick as the series point’s leader. (The AMA is working on revamping the rule so that the fastest practice time picks first.)

In Moto 1, Byrd led Brown and Lawson through the first turn rhythm section, with Byrd pulling a look-back over the downhill table. The top two tightened the gap as Lawson held off momentarily. Brown was battling hard to get around Byrd, while Lawson waited it out. On lap two, Brown was 0.26 seconds off Byrd’s pace, the closest recorded.

Once Brown had backed off behind the leader, Lawson turned on the charge, taking the inside away from Brown over the downhill double. Inspired, Lawson leapt on, closing on Byrd for another attack. Lawson made contact with the leader going into the horseshoe. The two riders came to a halt when Byrd was knocked sideways.

“[Lawson] just went in hard into the turn,” Byrd said. “Rubbing’s racing. You’re going to do that. You’re not going to be out there with a tape measure saying, ‘Oh, that’s two inches too close.’ I overturned—well, braked too hard in the turn. He went in deep and that’s just racing. I just looked at him, and waited for him to back up, so I could go on. Nothing was said. That’s just part of racing and I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Right away, Brown caught the leader’s pace, and the top three checked out from Justin Bres and Travis Spader inside top 5.

“When you come to the race, everybody picks it up a notch,” Brown said. “Even I beat my own fastest lap time by two seconds when it came to the main. The Pro class out here, we’re all going to ride on that edge and we’re going to be following each other close because every millisecond’s the difference. If he makes a mistake, and he’s that much closer, it’s that much easier to go around.”

In Moto 2, Byrd nailed the holeshot through the first section, and Lawson found first by the green flag, but Byrd had the lead on lap 2, leaving Lawson 0.277 seconds off. The next lap, Byrd turned the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:57.

“Well, practice is practice,” Byrd said. “Some people go hard in practice and some don’t, but when the gate drops, that’s when the race is on.”

Lawson admitted that training stymied his efforts for the overall. “In the double-doubles over there, [Byrd] just went a little wide and I took the inside, that’s about all I had,” Lawson said. “I don’t know what happened in the second moto. I wasn’t riding over the edge; I wasn’t making too many mistakes or crashing or whatever. I just didn’t feel it—I just couldn’t get my breath, I guess, so we’ll go back and try harder. You can only go for so long, and it is motocross and you peak, and you try to peak again and it just happens. You get tired of training and you just have to take it and go again.”

Brown prized the only Yamaha on the podium. “Yeah, it really worked in by the end of the day here. It got real, real slick, and it was just a good, hard racetrack. Third place isn’t that bad. The bike just came in, and it was working great. It was all just coming to at the end of the moto. I wish I could have been up a little higher on the box, but third place, I will take it. It’s not one of my favorite tracks out there, but I gotta race all of them—we all have our favorites.”

“It doesn’t mean everything,” Brown said after practice. “We made some tire changes, and the Yamaha is hooking up good—it’s just awesome in this slick stuff.”


Round 9 Pro Overall Points Standings
1. Joe Byrd 1-1

2. Jeremy Lawson 2-2

3. Pat Brown 3-3

4. Travis Spader 6-4

5. Justin Bres 4-6

6. Michael Brown 5-5

7. Justin Bush 8-7

8. Christopher Tait 7-8



AMA Pro ATV MX Series Standings
Joe Byrd (398/5 wins)
Jeremy Lawson (380/3 wins)
Pat Brown (299)
Michael Brown (212)
Justin Bres (204/1)
Christopher Tat (144)
Dustin Wimmer (141)
Doug Gust (136)
Justin Bush (134)
Alex Trompen (122)


AMA Pro ATV Manufacturer Cup Standings
Honda
Yamaha
Suzuki
Kawasaki



Heather Byrd finished 1-1 to take the Pro Women win. Her strategy of keeping it in-between the mud paid off as she looks toward the championship overall. The Joe Byrd Riding School must be paying off!

Clay Holmes went 2-1 for the overall in Pro Am, working the track conditions to his favor. “The track was better today; it was horrible yesterday,” Holmes said. “I got a real good start [in the second moto.] I had a pretty good-sized lead at the finish, I guess it was a few second lead. It was a real good race.”

Justin Norman swept the Open A class with a 1-1, turning his fastest lap over 2:07 on Sunday. “I got to be stoked after the mud race on Saturday and coming out and having good track conditions today,” Norman said. “I’m really happy how my bike performed. My PEP shocks work great, but we had to make them work better for this track. Nate McNett from McNett performance really helped me out. I did pretty well in the mud yesterday on my stock tires. The track was kind of tight, but I’m actually more stoked about this win because it took a lot of bike setup, so I’m pretty happy with this one.”

Catch the AMA Pro ATV riders as the series heads to Walnut, IL on July 14-15 for the Concept Haulers ATV Showdown at Sunset Ridge MX.


About the AMA ITP/Moose ATV National Motocross Championship Series Presented by Parts Unlimited:

Sanctioned by the AMA and ATVA, the nation’s premier amateur and professional ATV motocross series is hosted by many of America’s premier motocross facilities. The 12-round series approaches its 21st season with the Pro class newly under the wing of AMA Pro Racing. The 2006 series hosted over 8,000 entrants, making it America ’s largest, as well as its longest running, ATV National Motocross series. Series sponsors include title sponsors ITP Tires and Moose, and presenting sponsor Parts Unlimited. Premiere and Feature sponsors include ATV Sport, Moto Tees, Scott USA, Maxxis Tires, Elka Suspension and H-Bomb Films/Division Four. Associate sponsors include Weekend Warrior Trailers, Denton Racing, and Hinson Racing. Media partners include ATV Insider, ATV Rider and ATVRiders.com.



About AMA Racing:

AMA Racing is the competition arm of the American Motorcyclist Association and is the leading sanctioning body for motorcycle sport in the United States . Its professional properties include the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series, the AMA Toyota Motocross Championship presented by FMF, the AMA Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited, the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship, the AMA Supermoto Championship and the AMA Pro ATV Championship. In amateur and pro-am competition, AMA Racing sanctions over 4000 events in 24 different disciplines and supports over 110 thousand active members. For more information about professional racing, visit www.amaproracing.com. Accredited media outlets can also access an on line Press Room at www.amaproracing.com/pressroom. For amateur racing information visit www.amadirectlink.com/amrace/amasports.asp.



About the ATVA:

The ATV Association (“ATVA”) is the official sanctioning body of the amateur divisions of the ATVA ITP/Moose ATV National Motocross Championship Series Presented by Parts Unlimited. The 9,000 member ATVA is the sister organization of the 260,000 member American Motorcyclist Association (“AMA”). ATV racing has experienced phenomenal growth at the rate of 25% in the past two years alone, and continues to gain momentum and support, outselling off-road motorcycles annually. Each round attracts 600-700 racers who compete for bragging rights to one of 31 amateur national titles. For more information about ATVA, visit www.atvaonline.com.



About the ATVPG:

The ATVPG is comprised of the 12 individual promoters that host the AMA ITP/Moose ATV National Motocross Championships, presented by Parts Unlimited. The goal of the ATVPG is to raise awareness of ATV motocross through the production of professional and amateur championship racing events. For more information on the ATVPG and the ATV National events they produce, go to www.atvmotocross.com.