Natalie and West Win 2007 WPSA Powersports ATV Tour Titles
Bithell and Wienen win at Pennsylvania's Field of Dreams
BOSWELL, Pa. (Sept. 16, 2007) -- Chris Bithell and Chad Wienen put exclamation points on their respective 2007 seasons Sunday, winning the Pro portions of the Grand Championship National WPSA PowerSports ATV Tour event at Field of Dreams. With a runner-up finish, John Natalie, Jr. won the SuperQuad Pro 450 Riders' Championship, while a fifth-place effort netted Jesse West the QuadTerrain Pro Stock title. The race, which represented the season finale of the 2007 Tour, will be telecast on ESPN2 on Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. EDT. SuperQuad Pro 450 "I started pretty deep," said Wienen. "This is why I put in all of those hours of training and it really paid off. I couldn't thank everyone enough. We're getting ready for next season. We're going to win the championship in 2008." Natalie, with his Houtzdale, Pa. hometown crowd cheering him from the sidelines, finished second to net his first WPSA Riders' Championship. Dustin Wimmer (No. 191 MSR, Pro Taper, Yoshimura/Suzuki) was third. Natalie overcame injuries sustained in a crash during practice earlier in the season to earn the title. He won four races this season, and put up an impressive seven podium finishes. "This goes back to the old philosophy of never giving up," said Natalie. "We never gave up this season. We worked hard as a team. We kept plugging away at it, took the points lead a couple races ago and never looked back. I'm really excited and I think our team did a great job. "We're already looking forward to next year," added Natalie. "We're ready to do this again at the end of the 2008 season." Suzuki clinched its second consecutive Manufacturers' Championship on Sunday. Suzuki quads won six out of 10 races this season. "We've had a tremendous year," said Pat Alexander, Team Suzuki's Race Director. "Chad Wienen won a number of events. Dustin Wimmer battled right down to the end for the championship. Then, of course, Doug Gust did a great job for us. He did all of the work developing this new quad over the last couple of years. I have a great bunch of guys." QuadTerrain Challenge "I'm about ready to pass out," said Bithell, who also competed yesterday in a cross country race at Unadilla MX in New York, and then made the 400-mile trip here. "I raced all day yesterday, and then had to go home. I was running on almost no sleep, so it feels really good to win." West (No. 888 West Racing/Arctic Cat), dubbed the "Working Man" this season for his hard work on and off the track, fought his own battle with adversity and injuries, but won one race, and visited the podium five times. "This season has been unbelievable," said West. "I have never worked so hard for something in my life and it feels great. This is just an amazing thing to accomplish. "We had some bad luck this year, but luckily, so did some of my fellow competitors," added West. "It really came down to the wire. We had to have a good finish here, and we accomplished that." West recovered from a last-place finish in Round 5 to earn the title. West suffered two offs that weekend, and ended up nursing his ATV to the finish. However, he didn't give up. "We set out to win this thing," said West. "My results in Kentucky really got me thinking. But I wiped the slate thing and made it clear to myself that I was going to win this thing. Kentucky was really a re-birth for me." Can-Am earned its second straight Manufacturers' Championship on the merit of eight wins in ten races. "It's been an outstanding season," said Jeff Gruhlke, Can-Am's Race Director. "Warnert Racing, the riders; everyone out there contributed. We're proud to come to the WPSA and showcase the power, handling and innovation of the Can-Am four wheelers." Special award winners were: QuadTerrain Pro Stock Other winners during the weekend were:
Complete results are available at www.PowerSportsTour.com. The 2007 Champions are:
The PowerSports Tour begins its national Snocross Tour beginning Nov. 23 with the AMSOIL Duluth National at Spirit Mountain in Duluth, Minn. Notebook: TRAVELING MEN...Can-Am Riders Chris Bithell and Chris Borich racked up nearly 400 miles over the weekend. The pair, who competed in a cross country race at Unadilla Motocross Park in New Berlin, N.Y. on Saturday, then drove through the night to compete in the QuadTerrain Pro Stock race here on Sunday. About the PowerSports ATV Tour ### |