Parents, kids, racers, and the whole industry is running wide open getting everything dialed in and headed out to Texas for the Lake Whitney Spring Classic. The week long event will kick off practice on Monday morning the 5th, and will wrap up on Sunday. Then the amateur racing community will pack up and head north to Oak Hill for another long week of racing for the GNC. It’s so wild. The scrambling that takes place for everyone that goes through it, but the kids dig it. It’s a road trip! With the help of our North Texas contributor Chris Schambacher, we were able to get a nice update of what has been going on lately in the lone star state.Many amateurs have already been in Texas for some time now. Lake Whitney hosted the final round of the FMF/Honda of Houston Winter Series finale with a huge turnout. Over 1100 entries raced around Whitney heaven looking for some extra seat time on the track, before the big Spring Classic. The track features many changes for this year’s event. The biggest change is the start. They tightened up and made it much shorter and safer then before.
Honda of Houston’s Wil Hahn held off the attempts of fellow Honda rider Trent Pugmire in the A class. The B class saw Kawasaki pilot Tyler Sjoberg take the 125 class, with Lamay taking the 250 class. Ktm’s Blake Wharton nailed the Supermini and Schoolboy classes. Other notable riders that did well were Eli Tomac, Jason Anderson, Austin Politelli, James Justice, Brandon Mays, Terren O’dell, Austin Eitel, Justin Summers, Andrew Pierce, Nick Paluzzi, and Jason “Buck” Ford who put on a good show in the B classes and the BTH 16-24 classes.After the warm up race, many of the racers headed out to Oak Hill or Cooperland. Oak Hill was having there warm up race for the GNC that entertained a crowd with some harsh winds. Many of the same riders that were at Whitney also went to Oak Hill. One of Suzuki’s newest rider Nick Paluzzi, had a good weekend at the Oak Hill track, where he dominated the 125 and Schoolboy classes. Austin Eitel was showing some fast speed winning a few motos, and winning an overall in the 250 B Mod class, but hit the ground hard calling it a day. Honda rider Tony Blood pulled the Iron Man award by competing in a handful of classes that seemed back to back and did well wining 5 classes for the weekend.
Mark Graddy was the dominate rider in the pro class, with Eli Tomac being the dominating mini rider in the Supermini and older age group. Other notable riders that did well at the Oak Hill warm-up included Alexah Pearson, Christian Craig, Michael Maze, Taylor Witt, Justin Summers, Drew Mitchell, James Justice, Buck Ford, Elizabeth Bash, Conner Mitchell, and Jesse Masterpool, and Frank Lettieri just to name a few.
While the Oak Hill warm-up was going, Cooperland was running a Loretta’s Area qualifier the same time that drew a large crowd. The standout rider in Oklahoma was none other then the Factory Connection Honda rider Trey Canard. Canard easily topped the A classes with no problems. Terren O’Dell was the winning B class rider, with Blake Wharton topping the 85cc12-15 class, Supermini, and the 12-16 class. In the 12-13 class it was local Oklahoma Kawasaki rider Justin Bogle taking the win, followed by Suzuki’s Austin Politelli, and Oklahoma’s Colt Nichols.
Well, it sounds like the riders are putting in the extra effort that should promise a great showdown coming. We will have to see how it all turns out when all the laps will be completed at the Texas Two-Step nationals.
We also had the chance to check out the new Champ Factory Bikes and hauler as they were getting ready to leave for Texas. Man the bikes came out nice. You can tell they put a lot of work into them. The newly Suzuki supported Champ Factory team is backed by Moto Metal Wheels, Rockstar, MSR, SPY, and many others. They also have a couple of ringers in their corner as team managers. Former Motocross and Supercross Champion Rick 
Johnson, along with Former World Champion Sebastion Tortelli will be keeping a good eye on the riders. The team riders are Jason Anderson, Austin Eitel, Brady Kiesel, and Austin Politelli.We just got off the phone with Florida’s Michael Picone as he has just made the last minute switch to Yamaha’s from Kawasaki. After having a rough year in 2006, Picone is looking to redeem his self and maybe the blue bike is what he needed. Look for him at Texas, good luck Michael.
In other notes, our very own Blake Dalen was heading up to Bear for some series snowboarding when he lost control of his truck in some gnarly ice. Check it out, the Final Lap decal saved him. Soon after, Blake admitted that there were no animals harmed during the swap out maneuver.