JUNE 2007 MATT NEWSLETTER

 

ATTENTION ALL NON-MATT MEMBERS:  Due to the high price of fuel, our club has voted to drop the entry fee for both the June and July MATT events.  Sounds too good to be true but it is! We MATT members want you to put our normal entry fee into your tank and come join us for some trials action fun MATT style!  Pass the word and bring all your friends.  See you Sunday June 17th at our incredible trials grounds in Trenton, MO at 11:00am.  If you need directions call Kelly at 816-966-8594 or 816-721-5116.

 

NEW NEWS, EDITORS VERSION:  Ken Brown is our MATT representative for the Central Regional Series.  Ken was unable to attend our May event but asked President Randy to present information about Central Regional communications.  Ken has had email communications with other Central Regional representatives led by David Black of AVTA and Scott Williams of NEOTT.  I believe there was confusion about the information presented.  There is no conflict with MATT QC date and any other fall 2-day in the area.  There is an issue of the date for our QC.  Central Regional rep’s sent an email to Ken with the Regional dates as follows:  MATT QC 9/22 & 23; Muenster, TX 10/6 & 7; Disney, OK 10/20 & 21; Douglas, KS 11/3 & 4.  These dates do not conflict with the Omaha 2-day scheduled for 10/13 & 14.  There is a conflict however with Theilman, MN scheduled for 10/20 & 21.  The NB 2-day and MN 2-day plus our QC make up the Northern Regional.  I know our QC is normally the 3rd weekend of September.  I am trying to reach David Black to see if this would be a problem for the Central Regional.  It should not because there are no conflicts with either weekend dates in September.  I believe we need to address this again at the event in Trenton this Sunday.  I will have copies of the emails I have received on this matter available on Sunday.

NOTE:  NEOTT published in the “Trials Competition” that they will require AMA membership to ride in the October Test in Disney, OK on 10/20 & 21.

 

COVERAGE OF THE MAY EVENT:  Saturday May 19th marked the return of “MATT Fun Day” at our Trenton grounds.  Many members were busy tidying up their campsites or bringing in new campers, visiting with neighbors and friends as well as some fun just riding for pleasure with no event pressure.  

 

The May MATT Trials School also returned with Professors Steve Morgan and Bill Sanderson giving out invaluable information and demonstrations to wide eyed students.  The attendees came away with lots of tips to work on and a new appreciation for trials.  Many thanks to Steve and Bill for sharing your time and talent with these grateful students.

 

SIDE NOTE:  During the day on Saturday, Dawson Dennis had the misfortune of having his bike break down.  The “Good Samaritan” Larry Findley happened along and offered for Dawson to ride his GG280 to find his dad and bring him back to the crippled Beta.  So off Dawson went and returned with dad, Randy.  Later Kari was seen issuing Larry with a summons for “Child Endangerment”.  Apparently Dawson had never been on a bike larger than an 80cc!  Larry was apologetic; Dawson rides so well, Larry just never thought anything about loaning Dawson his bike. Dawson of course thought it was GREAT! “Mom, that bike has so much power, it was AWESOME!”  Yeah, like a little 45 lb shrimp needs all that power!

 

NOT REALLY NEWSWORTHY:  Steve Eichelberger is back! That is newsworthy!  Steve has a friend named Tommy (not Ahvala) Mikels that has had a racing career of going very fast in just about anything with four wheels. Steve is introducing Tommy to trials so they rented my GG280 to take to TTC!  We met at the quarry on Saturday.  I told Tommy that I have very short fingers and he should adjust the controls to suit him.  Tommy promptly pulled off a glove revealing 4 stubby digits and a very short thumb.  I turned to Kari Dennis and ensured her that we had not compared any other body parts!

 

PROMOTING TRIALS:  On May 26th, Jason and Scott Carpenter and I took up Curtis Harper’s offer to do a trials demo during his vintage motocross weekend festivities.  Jason and Scott brought the Trials Trailer in for the finale, which I declined to participate in.  We also setup four natural terrain sections, one in a creek, one over some logs and a ravine and two more in a mess of old stumps.  I was “done” by the fourth section, preferring instead to visit with spectators.  Jason showed off his patented “kill the motor in a section and restart it without putting a foot down” to the cheers of the crowd.  He then later dazzled the crowd with a through the bars step off on a very large stump root ball. Scott put on a dazzling display of balance and bounce as he was trying to get on top of a log and ride the length of it, then off the end.  He came off the log early in error, nose wheelied his rear wheel off the log, planted the front wheel back up onto the log, bounced both wheels to the left about 98 times, hopped the back wheel around to line up with the log again and successfully ran the length of the log as originally planned to the enthusiastic roar of the crowd.  Then the Carpenter boys did their performance on the mobile demo trailer as the spectators were amazed and entertained.  I’d say it was a success.  And in the process, we got to see some old friends of MATT like Mike Hermesch, Joe and Tyler Logsdon and Fred Reynolds.  Plus we met some new friends like Shawn, Jerry, Larisa of Excelsior Springs (hope to see you in Trenton sometime), Curt and his good friend’s son, Chase.  Chase is a 14 year old motorcycle enthusiast who was all smiles to get to ride a real live GASGAS trials bike!

 

The Annual Golf Cart Competitions were held Saturday evening.  I was unable to attend so my details of the event are sketchy.  “x” competitors competed in “y” events setup and ran by some people.  After all the scores were tallied, Eva Carver and her daughter “I can’t remember her Name” took first prize of “some trinket” accompanied by plenty of cheers from enthusiastic, adoring fans!  “x-1” competitors were losers but are still thought to have had a fun time.

 

Of course as always, the Carver’s campsite was the scene of a large fire, horse shoe challenges, a few adult beverages and some good old fashion “good times”.  This comradery is a big part of what makes our club so special and I for one am very thankful to be a part of.

 

Trials Masters Steve Morgan, Jim Thornton, Bob and Bill Sanderson plus a section done by Russ Amos, totaled eleven fun and challenging sections for 27 competitors.  Speaking for myself, it seemed that each section was cleanable, but cleans were hard to come by.  This sentiment was shared by Bob Sanderson in our newly formed out of necessity class SR Amateur class.  Even though Bob had consistent scores, his points were in different sections each loop!  Larry Findley was putting on a school for his competition in SR Amateur when for some reason unknown to me, Larry did not ride the last 3 sections of the day.  Even if Larry was given 5’s for all three sections he would have won the class by a wide margin, but Larry reported his final loop as “DNF” and would not accept a “win” for the day.  I guess Larry just loves to ride and we love it whenever he is able to join us!

 

The Amateur class had challenging lines and good, close competition as our guest John Alvis took home the victory followed by the return of Nathan Dennis in 2nd place edging out Zayn Arndt in third and last but not least was Dillon Woolston.  This is a fine crop of young trials riders, look out all you old farts!

 

The Intermediate class looked to have some tough lines but Jim Westcott handled them with ease.  It’s always great to have Jim join us all the way from Cherokee, IA over 300 miles away. Randy and Carl battled for second with Randy taking the tie breaker on cleans.  The bottom half of the class had their hands full.  Tony Sargent took a giant tumble off of “Stepside” when he got off line going up a steep climb to attack a ledge. The ledge got taller has you go to the right and as luck would have it, that is where Tony was headed.  He skid panned the ledge but could not get his feet up on the ledge, so he bailed off and the GG tumbled to the bottom.  Tony was OK, but his bike could not finish the day.  Tony is determined to improve and give his Intermediate classmates a run for their money.  If anyone wants to go riding/practicing, give Tony a call.

 

Big story in the Expert class:  After dueling for 28+ years to bag a win over his dear old dad, Matt Hopkins finally reached his goal last month at the Carpenter’s Cup.  Setting his sites on the Expert class competition, and especially this writer (Kelly Echterling), Matt only needed one event to take home the gold in Expert class, winning by a narrow margin.  Matt followed in my footsteps, that is to say that after I paddled my way to the exit of the off camber torture section (#3?), Matt merely followed my boot prints to stay on line to the exit! Rumor has it that Matt intends to ride the Master Class at the June event in an attempt to turn a “Hat Trick” (three consecutive wins in three different classes). Look out Master class riders!  Oh wait, maybe Matt will be entering the Amateur class for the “Hat Trick”, guess we will find out next Sunday!  Seriously, Congratulations to Matt on his win and looking forward to a good, ongoing friendly(?) rivalry.

 

Jason continues his dominance in the Master class.  However, I predict a new Master class winner this month.  That’s right, Jason will be awaiting the birth of #2 child on or around Father’s Day instead of coming to Trenton on Sunday so the battle for first place Master is ON!                 

 

MAY 2007 RESULTS

 

NOVICE:                        L1   L2   L3   TOT AMATEUR:                           L1   L2   L3   TOT

1)  Mark Crabtree              6       6     9      21              1) John Alvis                           8        6      5       19

2)  Dawson Dennis                                   DNF            2) Nate Dennis             15      8      7       30

                                                                                    3) Zayn Arndt                           12     10   12       32                                                                                         4) Dillon Woolston                   17     16    9        42    

           

SR AMATEUR:            L1   L2   L3   TOT              INTERMEDIATE:                L1   L2   L3   TOT

1) Bob Sanderson             19   18    17     54               1) Jim Westcott                         9    10     3       22

2) Steve Smith                 28   16    13     57                 2) Randy Dennis                       16     11     5       32 (13)

3) Jim Bridges                  24   13    18    81                 3) Carl Hopkins                        13     14     5       32 (11)

Larry Findley                       3     5     18   26 (DNF?)   4) Paul Turnbull                        15     13    10      38

                                                                                    5) Mike Carpenter                   26     22    18      66

EXPERT:                      L1   L2   L3   TOT               6) Jeff Arndt                             21     26     25      72   

1) Matt Hopkins               22    20   17      59               7) Kirby Woolston                  21     28     24      73

2) Kelly Echterling            24    16   23      63               8) Jim Thornton                      26     27     31      84

3) Dave Walkinshaw      34    33   15      82                 9) Joe Boyce                            31    25     36      92

                                                                                    10) Tony Sargent                                                DNF

 

MASTER:                     L1   L2   L3   TOT               MASTER:                               L1   L2   L3   TOT

 

1) Jason Carpenter           8       1     7      16                3) Bill Sanderson                      15    18     8      41                 

2) Scott Carpenter             9      17    7      33               4) Bruce Carver                        16     19    11    46

 

FOR SALE:

First and foremost on the list is a very fine, strong running 2003 GG Pro. New bike forces sale. Has new rear brake pads, front fender, grips and better than fair rear Dunlop for $2700.00. Call Kelly Echterling at 816-966-8594 or 816-721-5116.

 

Brad Bennett utilizes GG trials bikes in his ministry shows. Brad likes to keep clean and shiny new bikes for his exhibitions and frequently has units for sale. At this time, Brad has a 2006 300 Pro that was formerly used by Keith Wineland. Although not as cherry as the one I bought from Brad, this bike is a fine mount. Brad may also deal his 2007 300 Pro for the right price. Call Brad at 417-353-0888 for info.

 

6’x10’ enclosed trailer with lift up full width rear door that doubles as a rain/sun shelter. $1500.00.  Get before I put it on ebay/craigslist at a higher price. Russ Amos 913.962.0159.

 

Jason Carpenter is selling a pair for Hebo boots for Jason Gerdman, size 9, $200.00.