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Photos by Mike Allen/ATVRIDERS.com
Shane Hitt rocks at Paducah Extreme Dirt Track event
September 15, 2005 – Shane Hitt (#5), riding his Suzuki-Yoshimura ATV, put it all together at Paducah International Raceway (PIR) in Paducah, Kentucky, for his first win of the season September 10.
The 2005 FMF Extreme Dirt Track ATVA National series has become one of the most hotly contested series of the season. At each of the first five rounds so far there have been five different winners: Goodman (#708), Farr (#4), Little (#12), Ogden (#2) and Hitt.
The track at PIR is one of the fastest and longest races on the series. This year the race was just as fast and promoter Steve Nace made a few changes to the track layout from last year.
Rising gas prices and Hurricane Katrina couldn't keep racers away, The track set another record with more than 350 entries.
Pro
qualifying was divided into three heats. In the first heat, Little (left) grabbed
the holeshot followed by Ogden and Daryl Rath (#67).
In the second heat, it was Shane Hitt out front, leading the pack from start to finish. Bringing up second was Chris Fristo (#206), with Eric Jennings (#38) in third.
In the third heat, Tim Farr pulled the holeshot and led all the way to the checkered flag. Brad Covington (#22) followed in second, and in third was Brad Riley (#27)
The track was in excellent shape and the stage was set for the Pro main event. When the starter flipped the light to green it was Hitt coming off the high side to pull the holeshot.
Once out front Hitt took off, never to be challenged all the way to the checkered with one of the biggest leads we have seen this year.
Most eyes were glued on the battle for second. Little couldn't catch Hitt. Riding a solid second he was getting all kinds of pressure from Farr. Little has been in this situation before and focused his attention on holding his line.
Farr was pushing his Honda as hard as he could, but there just wasn’t an opportunity to make a pass. A slight bobble in one corner allowed Little to open some breathing room over Farr.
Fristo was looking good in fourth place until he made a mistake on the back straight, which allowed Rath to move up and finish in fourth place.
Ogden, the winner at Dixieland, was in the middle of the pack at the start. But he was able to pass a number of riders and finished fifth.
We saw several new Pro racers at this event: Bobby Bond (#87) from Sheridan, Minnesota; Jackie Meadows (#111) from Collierville, Tennessee, came out of retirement for the race; and Chris Fristo (#206) from Kickory, Kentucky.