2009 AMA District 17 Banquet Wrap up!

Photos by www.muddywatercreations.net Andrea & Brian Goodin

        2009 wasn't anything like some of the years past, it wasn't the biggest turnouts, it wasn't the best weather.  This nights banquet was fun, bigger then some of the most recent years, but not the biggest at just under 600 people.  The snow piles that were strewn all around the parking lot were melted off by midnight as the temp. rose from freezing to a balmy 43 to give everyone a foggy ride home. 

This years racing was full of mud being one of the wettest years since 1993 floods with a few races canceled and few that should have been. But the thing was riders keep coming and looking forward to the next weekend. The heart and spirit of the off road Hare-Scramble rider and their families are strong and they all love the challenges.

This year’s awards banquet was a huge success with the largest turn out of Hare-Scrambles families since we have had the banquets. With that being said, the ones that did not attend you missed a very good time and I might say there were very few not making the trip. With only coming home with sixteen jackets to mail out after the banquet, and we gave one hundred and sixteen jackets this year.

The evening started with the Mark Cain Memorial Sportsmen Award being handed out this year’s recipient being Clint Pherigo. This award is given to someone that goes above being just a good rider, but one that show good sportsmanship to their fellow riders.

We had so many winners this year, there are two many to list, but Tammy “my wife” and I  liked seeing all the kids they are very special to us. They are our future, and with out them our sport will go to the way side when we all of us are in our rockers. With this being our tenth year as Hare-Scramble director we have seen these kids grow up into adults and become a part of the Hare-Scramble family and ours. How times have changed, some of these kids are taller then me and using me for traction, how times have changed!

Tammy and I hope to see all at the track this year and hope you all the best of luck in 2010. Let’s hope for spring green grass and a little dryer year.     Jay.                     

           Kids!  Yep with all the stirring commotion going on and the fun they were having no one knew about the re-introduction of that flawed law proposal Ms Flowers submitted again on Friday morning the 22nd of Jan 2010. One thing for sure we all missed an opportunity to talk to people in the rank and file which this would affect the most!  The hurdle was set last year and everyone rose up to voice their opinions.  This year we are afraid the bar may be higher, but no doubt one can bet this challenge can be met and conquered.

        On to the nights festivities, with a little scrambling we located a few extra tables and secured seats for everyone,  Electric Blue was on hand with the nights entertainment. AJ introduced the D-17 Board, and newly elected AMA Board of Director James Viverito spent a few minutes and spoke to the crowd with his ideas and plans going forward in helping AMA be a better place.

George Barrington displayed his new toy for setting up the handing out of door prizes. The screen display on the wall was excellent and keep that age old problem of dispersing over 2000.00 worth of prizes in a timely fashion.  Great job George you made that work like a winner.

  Most of the Motocross and Stadium Motocross riders on hand were under the age of 14. The night was filled with those "little people" coming up to get a sneak peek of those "giant" first place Champion plaques. Some of the "old" guys were there and some that never made it to a banquet like this before. Comments like "wow" you get that many people for this every year?

   In Dirt Track, 2009 D17 banquet was another success. Weather was nicer than past years. Would still liked to see more dirt track riders present. Those that showed up had a good time. It is always fun to see people you haven't seen since fall and find out plans for the up coming season. we have good schedule for 2010. Everyone I talked to is exited for the beginning of a new season. We have a real good base of people in the dirt track community everyone helps each other. I had a couple of technical difficulties without Holly there to help, but with the help of fellow riders Mike Caves, and Matt Yoho we made it through the awards presentations just fine. Look forward to seeing everyone at the season opener at Pekin in April.

     In the Hill Climb division, Matt Peters was the big winner as he claimed three class titles, (250cc, 450cc, and 600cc) as well as the Amateur Fast Time award and the Amateur Raw Points award. The Peters family really had reason to celebrate, as Matt’s son, ‘Lightning’ Levi Peters, won the 50cc and 65cc youth titles, and also claimed the Youth Raw Points award.  Levi is also the 2009 National Champion in the 50cc youth class.

          Kyle Galloway, Mike Pulver and Paul Hillard were double class winners. Galloway took his titles in the 200cc and 400cc Stock classes, Pulver won his in the Senior (+40) and Open Stock classes, while Hillard claimed the 750cc and Two Stroke Quad titles. 

          Other special award winners included D.J. Watson, Becky Lawson and Dylan Brady.  Young Watson claimed the Youth Fast Time award with seven fast times, while Lawson received the Directors Choice award for winning the Women’s Class, which has been run as an exhibition class the last few years.  That class will be added as a ‘regular’ points paying class in 2010. 

          ‘Dangerous’ Dylan Brady claimed the coveted King of the Hill Award.  This award is sponsored by Kaleb Northrup and his KingoftheHill.org website.   Each hill climb club runs one ‘King’ class each year at one of their events – a one run shootout  for the ten fastest riders from all classes that day.  Brady finished with the most points accumulated in those events, including two wins.

        This year was another great season for trials.  We ran a full year of the newly added women’s class along with clarifying all of the rules for 2010.  Our youth class remained strong with some very good rides including one rider who won the 2009 youth national in Tennessee.  The youth are the future of our sport and we are keeping a keen eye on that by trying to grow this class.  We had a pretty wet season as you know, but that did not keep the riders down.  Some of the sections were pretty tough, but they managed to keep it quite exciting.  We emphasized the need for a spotter.  If the rider gets into trouble in a section, the spotter can lend a hand to minimize injury.  This enables the riders to “go for it” with added confidence while keeping the injuries to a minimum. 

        We had eleven events after one cancellation due to a fellow landowner and friend who became terminally ill.  The crew pulled together and put together a photo album to say thank you for his support over the years along with our prayers.  We have several terrific land owners, promoters and clubs to thank on that note.  I’d like to specifically thank NITRO for their continued dedication and support along with Rock River Riders and Variety Riders for this year’s events they hosted.  We look forward to another exciting, competitive and safe year in 2010. Thank you all!! Dan Loer

The 2009 Enduro season saw 11 events on the schedule this year.  Once again Mother Nature made for a challenging season both schedule wise and event wise.  We saw one three enduros cancel, something that we never saw in the past and one event postpone due to heavy flooding.  But even with those setbacks the series turned out to have some great events and some great point’s battles. 

Once again our AA and Grand Enduro Champion was Jeff Fredette on his Team Green / Moose Racing / FRP KLX450.   For many years Jeff has been challenged by some up and comers but year after year he has shown why he is a champion by putting in consistent rides and coming out on top at the end. 

This year we had a new comer to the 200B that set the class on fire.  Chris Welch came into the class and took almost every class win and many Overall B awards.  Chris was so successful this year that he won both the 200B class and the Overall B award.

In the Open B class we had a three way battle between Michael Westhoff, Travis Held, and Curt Shomberg.  All three riders had consistent rides and pushed each other at each event.  Michael came out on top this year and Travis had good enough results from this year and last that he is now an A class rider.

2009 was a very wet season, many races cancelled or changed around.  Hopefully 2010 will be dry on weekends!!!! Racing starts in March, which is just around the corner..............good luck in your racing endeavors this year!!!