As far as the racing this past weekend it held some great battles in all the classes. As expected there were a few surprises that in the end may have not been as big of a surprise as one may think. Joel Hetrick rose to the occasion in front of the home town crowd capturing his first win of the season. Hetrick rode with a true confidence that could show some threat to Chad Wienen’s third championship. The major advantage Chad has is consistency and knowing when to push and when not to push. It is an edge Chad has and uses wisely to his advantage.

The Pro Am class produced another epic battle for two solid motos. “Almost Evil” #665 Ronnie Higgerson’s ultra-consistency weighs in heavy once more as he pulls ahead now by 9 points over Pro Am rookie Cam Covil. Covil was able to pull out a 4^th after a couple of dramatic motos that found him struggling from way back both motos. Consistency is also good friends so far with Tyler Hamrick. Hamrick pulled off his best overall finish of the season and now sits in 4^th place of points only 17 away from point leader and the championship lead. Jeffery Rastrelli took the overall win on Sunday’s Pro Am race and actually put himself in 3^rd in points in the class.

450C class point leader and three time winner Logan Dusenberry has been making his mark in that class. Dusenberry you may recall was a somewhat competitive youth rider but has really spread his wings on the big bikes this season.  Logan has won every overall in this class and could be a hard one to stop on his mission to win the national title. Logan actually belongs currently to a short list of riders that have won every round so far this season.

Another rider who holds the honor of being undefeated in his bid for the title so far this season includes Junior 25 Plus and Vet 30 Plus point leader “Air-Plane” Dane Heilman. Heilman has had some struggles in a couple first motos but seems to pull it all together for the second motos. Along with Logan and Dane include Women’s class leader Megan Manshack. Manshack seen more competition out of Katie Mette this past weekend and Megan and everyone else were not surprised when Katie came back firing on all cylinders so to speak and this championship battle may end up being one of those don’t miss battles each round.

Keeping things in true form for the female class battles, the Girls Sr. Shifter 12-15 class leader Niamh Shaw and Girls 6-11 class leader Emily Bowyer are also both undefeated in the overall this season. The girl’s classes have gotten a lot more demanding over the past few years and seeing what is taking place in these ranks makes any race fan excited about what is to come in only a few short years.

On the boys side of things on the youth machines, 90 Automatic Jr. 8-11 class leader Jake Visnic is another in the small club of undefeated riders. Then Trevor Thatcher is another in the 90 Shifter  8-11 class who has seen a perfect season so far. Neither of these circumstances is at all surprising considering the level we have seen these riders rise to over the last couple of seasons. Bryce Ford is three for three in the 90 CVT 8-15 class while Max Lindquist does the same in the 70 Open 6-11class.The big question now is to see what happens after round 4 and can anyone of the contenders pull off the perfect season.

Next week we head to Walnut, IL at the ATV Showdown at Sunset Ridge. I unfortunately will not be making this one this year but will be there in heart. I have to go to the 2^nd round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Nationals at the Hangtown Classic near Sacramento, CA.  I do admit it will be fun but my heart as I told the big wigs will be in Illinois with the ATV Racin’ Nation.

Let’s check in with Ken, “I have another cool hat” Hill:

Well, it is all over now. The first live broadcast is done and over with. Was it a success? Well it wasn't a disaster! I know equipment problems always affect anything of this nature and the RacerTV crew did a great job handling the things that did pop up. Overall I would say it was indeed a success. Feedback has for the most part been very positive with a few exceptions.

The battle upfront spread out and that sucks no matter what type of racing is being filmed. This is live reality not scripted so we all get what we are given via the racing action. For the most part, I think many people got to see live how hardcore you all are even though we all know video and photographs just never seem to capture how fast things are happening.

Then there was the feedback on the negative side. "They stayed on the leaders and not on the other racers."  You know I was taking pictures of some serious battles back in the ranks and was hoping they had been caught for the live broadcast so I feel your pain. Even those with this sentiment were not being critical, just relaying their observations. The crew takes this stuff incredibly seriously and I know they will or have already addressed things for future episodes be it quads or bikes etc.

The positives ranged from a simple awesome job to expressions of thanks from other countries around the world. Yes, world, not just local TV or one market segment, the world was watching. That has some serious meaning in my opinion. From a marketing standpoint, the series sponsors received global reach and recognition and for those who sell globally, that was value added advertising that can be marketed and tracked, basically, good stuff.  From a riders perspective, that same global reach can be used to help promote product awareness or branding and should be eagerly used in any dealings with current and future sponsors. If you fail to capitalize on this deal then you need to rethink how you market yourself! The episode is available 24/7 on www.racertv.com and should have been included in every press release sent out by the teams. If it wasn't, you missed a grand opportunity however you can still be promoting yourself via the broadcast as it remains available online.

I was pretty stoked to hear the many "I was on TV" or "did you see me" comments that popped up all over the internet. It was a big deal and could be the future of promotion in the future. I am just as excited to know we all pulled together and got the job done and a huge kudos to Danica Wienen, Rodney Tomblin and Casey Greek who all did an excellent job of hosting the show. Rodney is used to being "Live" but for Danica and Casey it was a new deal and they were nervous but man did they do great!