Alvord, Texas (February 12, 2006) -- It was a repeat in more ways than one, with several surprises in the mix. Not only did Joe Byrd of Union City, Tenn., earn Honda its second win in just two rounds of the 2006 ATVA ITP Moose National Motocross Series, but Honda rider John Natalie, Jr. from Houtzdale, Penn., put his TRX450R on the second podium spot again as well. Similar to round one, riders had to figure out how to deal with the high winds and dust making jumping tough and following another rider incredibly difficult. Racer Productions hosted this round at the Oak Hill Motocross Park in Alvord, Texas called “The Wrangler.” The track provided loamy dirt, plenty of high-speed berms, option lanes and a very technical ‘bakers dozen’ whoops section to challenge the riders.

A rare site up front was privateer, Donald Lysinger of Atco, New Jersey who grabbed the holeshot in moto one over the rest of the field and held off John Natalie, Jr. for nearly half a lap before he succumbed to much of the competition on his Yamaha YFZ450. Natalie put some early ground over Suzuki’s Doug Gust who was working his new QuadRacer LT-R 450 hard in an effort to reel him in. As seen at round one, Keith Little of Russellville, Ala., and Joe Byrd had a repeat performance as Little held off Byrd the entire moto. Arm pump was the culprit that forced Natalie’s lead to Doug Gust. He nearly lost his second spot to Little and Byrd in the final lap, but managed to cross the line in second before they could reach him.

“Everything was working good; the only thing that wasn’t up to par this weekend was me. I got some arm pump out there and just got tired.” Said Natalie of his race.

Working his way up from a bad start to finish fifth for the moto was East Coast ATV rider Dustin Wimmer of Center Valley, Penn. followed by New Hampshire’s Joe Haavisto. Tavis Cain, Kory Ellis, Jason Luburgh and Jeremiah Jones rounded out the top ten. Honda rider Tim Farr of Massillion, Ohio qualified on Saturday but due to his back injury growing worse it proved too painful to consider racing.

Demonstrating that you can never place bets on who is going to earn the next holeshot, Yamaha’s Pat Brown of Pittstown, New Jersey came out of the gate quickest followed by teammate Kory Ellis. Suzuki’s Jeremiah Jones was up front as well battling with Joe Byrd and John Natalie but mechanical difficulties on the first lap had him parked at the finish line waiting to push his ATV across the line. Brown continued his lead until his ATV also surrendered leaving teammate Kory Ellis in the lead over the attacking Byrd and Natalie with Jason Luburgh closing in.

Another train of riders Tavis Cain, Jason Dunkelberger, Keith Little, Harold Goodman, Chad Wienen, Matt White, Jeremy Lawson, Donald Lysinger, rookie Rocco Arno, Jr. were all dicing for position for much of the moto.

After great first moto finishes both Doug Gust and Dustin Wimmer tagged each other on the start which took a lot of time to free the ATVs from each other. Although Gust was able to reach tenth for the moto, no Suzuki’s would be on the podium for Oak Hill. Wimmer would only reach 13 th for the moto. Joe Haavisto and Yamaha’s Travis Spader collided tying up their machines as well, forcing both to try and salvage the moto.

The drama continued in the closing laps when Kory Ellis’ lead was lost after a mistake in the whoops which resulted in dislodging his kill switch, stalling his Yamaha. Byrd would take that lead to the checkers which was needed to earn him the win over Natalie. Even the finish line pass that Jason Luburgh made earning third over Natalie didn’t change the overall outcome, but made for an exciting finale.

“I was kind of calculating in my head about the overall.” recalls Natalie. “Kory [Ellis] was out front, Joe [Byrd] was in second and I was running third. If it would have stayed that way, it would have given me the overall so I kind of backed off. Then Kory ended up going over the bars and stalled out, and Joe got by and from there on out it was war trying to catch them, but it was too late and I couldn’t catch up to Kory after that, so I had to settle for second.”

“Kory just gave it to me,” joked Byrd. “He just turned his blinker on and said, ‘Come on Joe, I don’t want to win’.”

All kidding aside, Kory said of his stall, “I was trying to get a win and I probably should’ve backed off a little and be more cautious. I was basically charging to hard through it [the whoops] skimming them and went in a little hard and went over one into the next one, fell into my handlebars and pulled my kill switch out.”

Regardless, the finish was enough to net Ellis the last spot on the podium behind Byrd and Natalie. Lost Creek Cycles, Jason Dunkelberger was able to make moto two a step up over the first reaching fifth ahead of Tavis Cain, Keith Little, Harold Goodman, Matt White and Doug Gust rounding out the top ten for the second moto.

The series heads to the southeast for round three as part of the closing weekend during Daytona Bike Week on March 11-12 in Gainesville, Florida at Gatorback Cycle Park hosted by Unlimited Sports.

Top Ten Results from round 2 “The Wrangler” at Oak Hill

1. Joe Byrd, Union City, TN (Hon) 4-1
2. John Natalie, Houtzdale, PA (Hon) 2-4
3. Kory Ellis, Murrieta, CA (YAM) 8-2
4. Keith Little, Russellville, AL (HON) 3-7
5. Doug Gust, Salem, WI (SUZ) 1-10
6. Jason Luburgh, Zanesville, OH (YAM) 9-3
7. Tavis Cain, McKinleyville, CA (HON) 7-6
8. Joe Haavisto, New Ipswich, NH (HON) 6-12
9. Dustin Wimmer, Center Valley, PA (HON) 5-13
10. Jason Dunkelberger, Trevorton, PA (YAM) 16-5

Top Ten points after Round 2 of 14

1. Joe Byrd, Union City, TN (Hon) - 60
2. John Natalie, Houtzdale, PA (Hon) - 50
3. Doug Gust, Salem, WI (SUZ) - 37
4. Keith Little, Russellville, AL (HON) – 36
5. Kory Ellis, Murrieta, CA (YAM) – 30
6. Joe Haavisto, New Ipswich, NH (HON) – 29
7. Jason Luburgh, Zanesville, OH (YAM) – 29
8. Tavis Cain, McKinleyville, CA (HON) - 29
9. Jason Dunkelberger, Trevorton, PA (YAM) - 24
10. Chad Wienen, Galena, IL (HON) - 21
    

For official results, go to www.atvaonline.com

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