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Photos by Blue Groove Photos
Goodman Wins Round #1 FMF Extreme Dirt Track ATVA Nationals
June 17, 2005 – Harold Goodman (#708) launched his new Suzuki dirt track racer into first for the weekend and leads the new 2005 FMF Extreme Dirt Track ATVA National series.
Twin Creeks Raceway, Greenbrier, Arkansas host for round #1 saw a big increase in entries again this year, great weather and plenty of cheering fans as the season opener kicked off.
Owner-promoter
of Twin Creeks, Terry Reynolds hauled in truckloads of red clay to renew the
racing surface, widen the track and make changes to the exciting split lane
option. Riders could choose the longer but faster left hand lane or the right
lane with jumps, but much shorter.
Twenty
seven amateur classes raced their qualifying races and main events leading up
to the Pro Main event for the evening.
Shane Hitt (#5) all time leading TT champion, switched to Suzuki for 2005, easily won the first six lap qualifying event.
Tim Farr (#4) Honda led all challengers in qualifying race #2 and also had the fastest qualifier to give him first pick on the line for the main event.
Sixteen of the fastest Pro Extreme Dirt Track racers in the nation came to the line to kick off the 2005 season in hopes of earning the coveted national number one plate.
Darrel Ogden (#2) riding his Fisher Cycle prepped Honda screamed down the front straight, grabbing the hole shot. Goodman was in hot pursuit in second, followed very closely by Farr in third, Keith Little (#12) on his Yamaha and Hitt rounding out the top five.
Lap four of the twenty lap feature, Ogden went left on the always exciting split lane, while Goodman went right, when it came time to merge together, Goodman had the edge and took the led.
On the same lap, Little was able to use the split lane to his advantage and pass Farr and take over third place and quickly set his sights on Ogden in second. After both passed Ogden, Little and Farr battled lap after lap, while Ogden and Brad Covington (#22) Yamaha battled it out.
The
challenge between the four riders was the best races of the evening as lap after
lap as each would choose one of the options lanes to try and make the pass never
knowing who would come out front. As the race came to the final lap it was Goodman
in first followed by Little, Farr, Ogden and Covington.
Hitt had to settle for sixth place, only receiving his race motor and suspension the day before the race, he did not have sufficient time to dial in his new Suzuki, we can’t wait to see what happens at round #2 in Danville, VA.