One would think that things would be slowing down and coming to a near standstill with the completion of the amateur racing season for the ProX ATV Motocross National Championship presented by CST Tires, an AMA National Championship. However, it seems to be the complete opposite… Folks seem to be busy all around the ATV Racin’ Nation and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down for a little while longer. I have to say it is likely the busiest I have seen ATV racing in a while and there is still more to go.

The Edge of Summer Motocross at Soaring Eagle will play host to the AMA Pro ATV Finale’ where Chad Wienen is set to claim his fifth consecutive title. A very impressive feat to say the least, but remember it is not over till the final checker flag is waving. For Chad and his challenger, Joel Hetrick, it may seem like an eternity at this point, but it will be over soon and we will know for sure if Chad Wienen can seal the deal on this one.

The Edge of Summer is not a points paying event for amateurs, but it will host some amateur support classes, which will be similar to the Daytona ATVSX earlier this season. This is the first time the championship for the Pros are included in this race but it is the second time ATV racing has been at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. It should prove to be a memorable backdrop and exciting event that you don’t want to miss if possible.  If you want to know more click here for more information on the classes, times and links for lodging and other general information. Last year’s winner Jeffery Rastrelli will be looking for the repeat and with recent successes he may be a huge threat.

Then we are scheduled for October 8^th to host our 2016 Annual ATVMX Awards Celebration at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. That is the final round of the season, I suppose, and it really seems kind of early for the awards banquet than normal and it is but due to scheduling and such it worked out best. So make sure you make your plans for that as well. Click HERE to find out more information on the 2016 Awards Celebration.

Another big affair taking place will be on September 16-18 at Oak Hill MX Park near Decatur, Texas. This will be the fourth annual event for the Caleb Moore Memorial Race and will feature a $50,000.00 purse for the event. It will include gift cards and more for all classes and could very well be a great way to wrap your race season up. It is hosted once again by the TQRA and last year’s winner Thomas Brown will return with a host of other top pros including AMA Pro ATV Champ Chad Wienen. So this should be real good. More information can be found on their Facebook page .

As far as the season wrap at Loretta’s goes, I feel it will live for a while in the memories of many as there were a lot of great things taking place. Among all the championships that were decided the tradition of the 88 Live to Ride Auction and Spaghetti dinner continued with another successful fundraising gala. There was a lot of great support from the masses and as mentioned last week Stan “Big Daddy” Digby made an appearance as co-auctioneer with Digital Dave from RaceDayPix.com. The donations made totaled over $33,000.00.

Debi Bartosek from 88 Live to Ride sent this message detailing the event and all the monies raised:

Hi, Rodney:

Hard to believe that Loretta’s has come and gone for another year.  What a wonderful turnout we had for the spaghetti dinner, silent and live auction!  88 Live to Ride is blessed to receive all the support it does.

Brian and Connie O’Neill did an awesome job organizing and hosting this year’s dinner.  Their suggestion to move the dinner to the pavilion worked out great.  The Root River and JB Racing team members have the cooking and serving down to a science.  Of course, having Sandridge Food donate the cooked noodles and marinara sauce helps the process a lot! At one point, I think I looked over and some of the Nine6Nine boys were experiencing the fun of serving too.  Rich Gillette provided the drinks for the dinner and the cooler was kept filled to the end of the auction.  JoHannah Vossman, with her pretty smile, was in charge of the donation jar. At the end of the dinner, including the sponsorship from Corrosion Specialties, it was filled with $2,473.

New to our Friday night activities this year were a silent auction and 50/50 raffle.  Amanda Kimmy and her crew got us started off with the raffle by selling tickets in the amateur pits.  Her comment when handing in the sold tickets, “You need to find someone with a golf cart to go out and sell tickets. Everyone wants to buy them”.  Brandon O’Neill and Tyler Mack did just that and, WOW, did they do an awesome job bringing in over $700!  Wayne Eller worked the table in the pavilion and had no qualms about calling out to people to get their 50/50 tickets.  Kathy and Matt Orr were separating tickets as fast as they could to put in the drum.  The winner of the raffle, and $901 richer, was Linda McFarland!  And how awesome was that that Linda, who for the past two years has made the event t-shirt quilt for the auction, and raised over $7,300 for 88 Live to Ride, won.   

I can’t say thank you enough to Missy Guyer.  Once we got all the auction items brought up to the pavilion she went to work organizing and numbering everything.  John Orr and I were in charge of registering everyone for the auction. But, once the auction started, Missy manned the table and kept track of who bought what and for how much…not an easy task.  Thankfully, she had great help as Robin Ford stepped up to help out at the table and Michele Hetrick was a godsend in helping to keep everything straight (did I mention how blessed we are?!).

Stan Digby and David Smith worked their magic as our auctioneers. Watching them is entertainment in itself. Brogan Guyer, Logan Stanfield and Alan Myers did an outstanding job of helping them by making sure items were ready to go and then moved to the sold table.  The final tally for the silent and live auction was $30,283….absolutely amazing!

A HUGH thank you to everyone who donated items:

Fierce Powersports; Bortnick Tractor; Amped; Baldwin Motorsports; Rath Racing; Becky’s Flower Basket; PEP; JB Racing; All 4 Racing; Maxxis; Rage Racing; Fly Racing; Kame’s Sport Center; DWT; The Program; Janssen Motorsports; ATVMX; SSi Decals; Houser; Nine6Nine; SSR; Koster Racing; Maxxis/Liquid Wrench/Elka/Honda; Root River Racing; Brandy Cottage; Colton Moore; Tammy King; Cindy Hull; Linda McFarland; Amanda Kimmy; Karla Perry; Ron Laurine;  Nanci Beer; Tim Farr; Scott VanFossen; Bethany Cox; Kathy Orr; Troy Tremellen; Harlen Foley; Jeremiah Jones; Rodney Tomblin; Denise and Carli Moser; Ken Hill; George and Gelsa Sydow; Freida Rozelle; Megan Shepherd and Bailey Shea.  And of course, Pro riders Jeffrey Rastrelli; Joel Hetrick; Thomas Brown; David Haagsman; Nick Gennusa; Silas Lamons; Sam Rowe and Josh Upperman.

All in all, the evening raised $33,657.00 for the mission of 88 Live to Ride….thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support and most importantly, your friendship!

Thanks again and I sincerely apologize if I have forgotten someone that helped or donated.  Thank you, Rodney, for having the PA system ready to go and taking the time to do interviews prior to the start of the auction!

Debi

88-4Ever

That’s it for me for now. Let’s check in with Gloop’s Loop and with Ken “The Mad Harvester” Hill. Till next time, God Bless Your Heart and All Your Vital Organs.

In The Loop with Gloop:

Best of luck to Nico and his team at Pont De Vaux 2016.

Hopefully we get to see Thomas Brown mix up some points at Soaring Eagle.

Keeping up with Ken Hill:

This time of the season is always bittersweet for me especially with social media as the season wraps up and the outpouring of emotion tends to find its way around. The majority of it is good, thankful riders giving credit to the companies and people that make their seasons possible. Then there are of course, the negatives, which we all face whether, it stems from a bad season or an injury. These posts kind of put me in a sorrowful mood as the realization sets in that the season has ended. Sure I don’t miss the driving or being away from home, but that is just part of it. It for me is like loosing half of my friends for most of the year! I know, Soaring Eagle will be the official end of the season, but we still have the banquet so we get to shoot the breeze one more time. 

Now back to Loretta Lynn’s, no not literally, but back to an awesome round of racing that still has a buzz surrounding it! For several seasons now, they have bunked me with a fellow, Shawn Bradford, who is in charge of the EMS crew that keeps you all safe as he and his team handle things at Loretta’s for the 2 week period that we turn the ranch into a small city. Shawn is a motorsports fan, but doesn’t really know any of you nor those that attend the amateur national for the most part but he had nothing but good things to say as this year he was right in the middle of things as our series took over the ranch. Comments regarding how friendly and nice everyone is, how everyone always asked if he needed anything or the countless offers of drinks and food came from just about everyone he encountered. 

We were housed in one of the cabins and surrounded by members of the TQRA series who compete each round of the ATVMX series as a group. They really went above and beyond, as they made sure they stopped by often to chat in the evenings and they sure fed us well! Robert Salinas from Harlingen Texas has my seal of approval when it comes to cooking a mean steak and chicken and we left his table stuffed! Robert was a bit nervous as he was in the running to win the Senior 40+ championship and I am happy to report he managed to do that as he wrapped his class up taking back to Texas the championship! It was really cool keeping tabs on Robert as the weekend rolled on and making new friends but more importantly, the side of racing that we all love so much, the friendships and family were imparted on Shawn who left very impressed by the Salinas family and their crew. 

Others had mixed results on the weekend and again, always looking towards next year and the ever present kudos to those who help them shine through in their post race posts!  Jason Jackson dug deep at Loretta’s and posted:

“Loretta's is always a fun time. Broke my header pipe on my bike so my buddy Ronnie Higgerson let me ride one of his. It was not set up for me but I made the best of it and ended up with a 4th and 5th overall in my classes which put me at 3rd overall in points in both classes. Thanks to all my sponsors and everybody that has helped throughout the year. Can't wait till next season. New bike, new people to train with, hopefully I'll be faster than ever.” 

Trevor Thatcher has been in the thick of championship hunts all season and at the ranch, things would be decided in several classes! Trevor will be a rider you watch climb through the ranks as he is very talented and has a positive attitude no matter what is thrown at him! That’s right, 6x national champion, great job Trevor! 

“Had an awesome weekend in Super Mini at the ranch went 1-2 for a first overall so that means I win the 2016 Super Mini national championship and am now currently a 6 time national champion wouldn't of been able to do it without all of the awesome people that stand behind me I appreciate every bit of it... @fiercepowersports @345motorsports @maxxistires @elkasuspension @worksconnection @crankworksinc @kosteratvracing @hinsonracing @dwtracing @xbrandgoggles and all the people behind the scenes are awesome thank you all.” 

Huge on social media and a fan and racer favorite is the Tremellen family. Dylan, Logan and Troy all partake in being interactive with fans and friends all across the World Wide Web and are one of the shining families that make this series tick. The news broke from the podium that Dylan will be making the step into the pro ranks for the 2017 season and we wish him the very best in his endeavors! Logan was pushing hard at Loretta’s and summed his weekend up in the following posts:

“The season has finally come to an end. I finished off consistent with two second places overall, but it wasn't enough for a championship. I ended up with second place in both my classes only 5 points behind. I'm bummed about that, but happy to have finished the season safe. I need to give a huge thanks to Rich Gillette and the entire Root River Racing team for all the continued support. Also, I need to thank everyone who has allowed Dylan Tremellen and I to stay and/or ride with you this year. Thank you to all of my friends, family, and sponsors for all of the support.”

The common thread is the thankfulness of support from friends and family and that is indeed what it takes to race season after season. It is what keeps people digging deep to compete and when success is found it is all that much sweeter! That is all from me this week as I face two weekends in a row away from racing and get to spend some family time with my own people celebrating two big milestones! My youngest son Ryan turns 18 today so a huge “Happy Birthday” to him. Ryan has been trackside many times helping me captures the ATVMX and GNCC series and I always appreciate his efforts when it comes to making our own family press on. This weekend won’t be filled with roost and action, just a small private get together as my oldest son gets ready for his wedding the following weekend! So two very big weekends coming up for us!

Please keep tagging me, emailing me or messaging me info so I can share it each week in Site Lap! Be safe in your travels and may God bless you all!