With many riders looking to the 2007 race season I noticed colors and machines I had not seen before. Ken Robey was the first rider to present his changes to the public. Ken has long been associated with the green machines of Kawasaki. Ken has ridden his Prairie to a championship and several first place positions. Robey tells us that his Rath Racing Artic Cat has a few better features over the Prairie but still lacks in the engine compartment. With the bright orange plastic one thing is for sure ken wouldn’t go unnoticed!

Friday’s preparation would find many riders wondering what type of conditions they would be faced with in the morning. The ground around the track was already full of water and with the threat of rain everyone wondered if the track wouldn’t just turn into a 9-mile swamp.

The morning came and the rain had been falling all night. The track was absolutely drowned and soon the spectators would be also. The best racers in the country lined up to wait for Ricky Towrey to make the ten second call and into the woods they went one class at a time one minute apart. Traci Cecco would lead the women’s class out of site and into the hills of New Berlin. Stephanie Parton filled the second spot as the rest of the 14 ladies filed in for what was to be one tough morning race. In the middle of the pack was a very determined Texan named Lexie Coulter. Lexie has been traveling all the way from Tyler Texas, following the GNCC series, to show the front-runners how a Texas State ATV champion could ride. Coulter has been very consistent and adds another second place plaque to her first one she took home in Missouri. With any luck this Texan could be a viable threat come March of 2007.

Rumors had surfaced that Stefanie Verkade had been hit in the face by a tree branch and had suffered a broken nose. We would later find out that this was only half true. The Asbury New Jersey racer had only gotten a good whack and was just in extreme pain.” The branch almost launched me off the bike but I was determined to hold on”says Verkade. After returning home Stefanie had everything checked out and had just suffered a busted nose along with many scrapes. This is the same racer who just last race got stung in the face by several hornets. Talk about a bad race..

Well it would turn out to be another great day for the Team Yamaha rider Traci Cecco as she scored another first place which along with Lexie Coulter and Angel Atwell made yamaha the top ATV for the womens class.

The self proclaimed Oldest Factory Racer in the series wasn’t on the “A” game today though as John Gallagher let old rival Ken Vickerd take the first place trophy home. Ken and John have been racing against each other for a long while and I guess John wanted to let someone else get the glory for a while. John will be telling us all his trick’s in an up coming interview with the veteran racer. Gallagher says he will make his racing finale in the 2007 season. The super senior class will miss him!

The most surprising news came out of the Back rows as Nathan Beyers of Cumberland Indiana rode his heart out and took the overall from the women. The row just behind him had a weapon also in the form of Doug Hunter who captured third overall. All I can say is wow! Now I have heard guys in one class cry because they never get a shot at getting on the podium. Let me tell you boys, and you know who you are,

You had better just admit that YOU cannot beat he girls. It can be done and from a few rows behind you so no more cry baby’s..OK

I’ll move on…..

Rumor has it that the series production crew has decided to change a class name from utility to 4x4 class. Don’t ask me why but I just happened to hear Jason Weigandt talking to Mike Penland about this and it seems they think it is more fitting. What ever, just don’t call them “Amateurs”. These guys race as good as the Pro’s on the front row in our evening race and they deserve more respect. Anyway, I guess I need to push my soapbox back under the desk and leave it there for now.

The 4x4 stock class start was furious as always with Mike Penland powering through the first turn on his CAN-AM Outlander 800 with teammate Micheal Swift right beside him. A younger more agile Swift broke out in front before the second turn and away he went. There was another familiar face in the field of stock 4x4’s also. Rick Cecco had brought out his trusty Honda Rincon to do battle and battle he did. Mike Penland even commented on how good Rick was picking lines out there. Micheal Swift would go on to win the stock class and Rick Cecco tailed along for second. Penland would end up fifth behind Lon peters.

The 4x4 Modified class has been turned upside down by the Cherokee Indian nation. Brock Parker, the full blooded Cherokee Indian, has almost secured the class championship from six time champ Scott Kilby. Brock won the race but Kilby is determined that he has not won the war. Stats show that Scott must win the last two races of this season to keep his streak of six straight titles going on to seven.

Moving into the afternoon classes the rain finally lifted to a slight drizzle and there it would stay for at least a few hours. The famous “Unadilla Gorilla” was waiting on the two hundred twenty three entry’s to come full circle so it could try to destroy each one. I really don’t remember the Screw you Loop being such a huge drop off and there was a fence to go through at the bottom of the big drop that seemed to be wider for the evening classes. I think some of the morning racers took out the fence posts and part of the fence while trying to get stopped. Its really hard to take it all in when your struggling to just walk from place to place but I could feel the energy that the history of this track gave off. Many racers from all over the world have come here with dreams of beating the beast and many careers have been developed from just adding Unadilla wins to their resumes. With a series like the GNCC series its fitting that Racer Productions would bring with it the best woods racers on the planet to challenge this historical old dirt.

There was a famous Desert racer in attendence with the Elka shock crew. Mike Cafro from Baja 1000 race fame had made a trip up to see the guys at Elka suspension and decided to ride a loaner quad in the evening race. It seems everyone wants to try our series and I welcome that. Mike finished 16 th in the Pro-Am class and I am sure he was missing those wide open ten mile dirt roads out west. Cafro wasn’t our only celebrity though as John Natalie and Pat Brown from the GNC motocross series came in for their chance at Unadilla also.

Its almost 1:15 and the evening racers are getting anxious to roll out so with help from Rodney Tomblin the ten second call was made.

Bill Balance made his classic hole shot and probably thought he had another race wrapped up. He couldn’t have been farther from the truth though as Chris Borich was wanting the 07 number one plate really bad. Chris would charge so hard that it finally cost him his motor and as he watched in disgust Bill ran around only a few miles from the finish and took the number one spot anyway. Chris Jenks has always been a hard charger in the mud but today wouldn’t be his day as he settled for second and I guess that was ok with Chris as he finally overcame the bad luck streak he had been having. Adam Mcgill rode hard and like Jenks he to loves the muddy stuff. Adam has just been racing from the front row for one season but has already proven that he can be found on the podium at any time. The only good thing for the riders of the evening class was that the ground had been pushed aside in the morning races and some spots had actually became forgiving and exposed good dry dirt to provide grip in the corners.

Adam Mcgill made the comment that you really do not have to be the fastest rider out there but more like the smoothest. Adam is on his way to becoming a top rider along with Chris Jenks and all the other new rookie pro’s but one thing is for sure if you get into the number one spot you had better be careful because you have just gone from hunter to the hunted and there is one man that is not going down easy. Bill balance is on a phenomenal run with almost seven titles and as long as he can breathe god’s air and walk god’s earth he will be waiting for anyone good enough to challenge his historical record.

The next event is in Stclairsville Ohio on October 7 th and 8th so I hope you will all meet me there.