Hello!

On Feb­ru­ary 21st at the Grand Prix de Val­court, the 450cc ATV were intro­duced to the pro­gram. Being a fac­tory Can-am racer and Val­court being the home town of the Can-am brand, I had to line up for the race and be READY. I am new to the Ice rac­ing world but I did a few race dur­ing the win­ter and I was com­pet­i­tive right away. To say that I was HOOKED is a good word because I have a blast doing it and also the trac­tion we get with the Ice screw is just amaz­ing. The GP de Val­court is quite an event, more than 10 000 die hard fans line up the fence to watch Snow­mo­bile Ice rac­ing, Snow­cross rac­ing, Moto Ice rac­ing and now the ATV race. The fans favorite is definetely snow­mo­bile Champ 440 rac­ers Jacques Vil­leneuve Sr., brother of late F1 dri­ver Gilles Vil­leneuve and uncle of Jacques Vil­leneuve Jr., the F1 and Indy dri­ver. But on that week­end Jacques Vil­leneuve Sr. is all the name you need. He is one heck of a racer at some 56 years old.  Check out the news on his scary 100mph crash in the final on Sunday:

http://fr.canoe.ca/sports/nouvelles/archives/2010/02/20100221–203228.html The lastest news on him are good. I wit­nessed the crash from the side line and it froze my blood!

The race track was a 5/8 mile man-made ice speed­way that is so big and long that you get dizzy watch­ing it, but rac­ing it you get one of the best feel­ing! ATVs were get­ting close to 80mph at the end of the straight­away and not slow­ing down much for the corner.

Com­pe­ti­tion was fierce with some ICE race spe­cial­ist like JF The­ri­ault, Karl Lebanc, Dany Fiset, PY Deneault and also Jas­min Plante, ready to race and the old timer Syl­vain “Arsene” Arse­nault. All in all, 15 quad rac­ers were invited for the event. I made sure my Can-am DS 450 had the best pos­si­ble setup and all the power we could get out of it because horse­power would be the name of the game.  I actu­ally made a spe­cial drag style pipe that ran out on the side of the nerf bars, my mechanic Math­iew gave the OK after some Dyno runs that were scream­ing loud but hey, that’s what the fans like! And the sound was still no match to the Open piped Champ 440 two-stroke snow­mo­biles, now that’s something!

Prac­tice went really good, I changed the gear­ing a bit after prac­tice 1 as I was hit­ting the rev lim­iter in 5th gear with a already tall gear­ing! I quickly checked off the Wide­band to get the EFI on the edge and my Rotax engine was run­ning per­fect. The rac­ers were split in two groups for the Qual­i­fier. I got a good jump out of the gate and made a drag race to the first cor­ner with Dany Fiset, just sneek­ing him on the inside for the Holeshot. With a clear view, I could hold my line to the check­ered flag for the win.

Final race, I had the first pick and chose a straight line to my race groove in the first cor­ner but it was young gun Marc-Antoine Auger on the inside with the best start and the Holeshot in Cor­ner 1. I was able to use the fast race groove to edge him out of Cor­ner 2. The race was on! I ran the nine first lap like a clock hit­ting my marks like a Nascar dri­ver until lap 10 of 12. I went wide a bit and hit some loose snow and I lost some time. Num­ber 391 JF The­ri­ault was on the move and made some time on me but I was able to keep it together for the last 2 laps to edge him for the win. Let’s just say that the BRP/Ski-doo/Can-am fans went crazy. It was a good feel­ing to deliver a big win like that in BRP home turf, or rather home ice I should say!

A thumbs-up to the events pro­moter for includ­ing quads at this event. It was a great way to show­case some ATV rac­ing! They know how to put an event together with great rac­ing, demo rides, games for the kids and a true brag­ging rights atmos­phere! See you next year!

Check out the ATV qualifier:

http://www.flagworld.com/photos/v/2010/2010–02-21/Videos/2010–02-21+-+Grand+Prix+Ski-Doo+de+Valcourt+-+VTT+web.wmv.html

Richard Pelchat

www.rpevolution.com

Hi!

My name is Mike Estes, I’m the NW Cove Rep for Ore­gon and Wash­ing­ton, I also han­dle Alpines­tars apparel for men and youth. In addi­tion to all that– I’m one of the 4 con­trib­u­tors to Pinkbike, I’m the MC/Host for the Flu­idride Cups from 08–09 and this year I will voice the newly formed Port Angles NW Cup (with a PRO GRT stop) and the Flu­idride Series (on Mt Hood Oregon). I live in Hood River OR and am also an avid trail­builder here with 3 trails I steward.

Just wanted to thank you guys for mak­ing the Stage 5 so incred­i­ble and I look for­ward to get­ting more rid­ers rolling Elka!

2009 Over­all 40+ DH Champ, 2009 Wash­ing­ton State DH 40+ Champ, 2009 Ore­gon State 40+ DH Champ, NW Regional 40+ Champ, and ended my sea­son #2 ranked in the USA.

Cheers!

- Mike

OIL CITY, PA …It was a tough choice with all of the offers, but Het­rick Rac­ing Pro-Am rider Joel Het­rick has made his deci­sion and is once again set to ride Kawasaki for the 2010 season.

Het­rick Racing’s own Joel Het­rick has made the deci­sion to once again ride the Kawasaki for the 2010 sea­son. Because of intense inter­est in Het­rick, there were many offers on the table, which made the choice a chal­leng­ing one.  “The main rea­son for my deci­sion is because I can win both Pro-Am divi­sions on this ATV,” said Joel Het­rick. “Con­fi­dence is every­thing in the rac­ing world and this bike gives me plenty of it.”

The 2010 sea­son has changed in some ways from last sea­son, and the spon­sors that have come on board to help the proud, young racer are very sub­stan­tial.  Het­rick is pleased to be work­ing with Kawasaki, Elka Sus­pen­sion, JB Rac­ing, DWT with Maxxis Tires, Motoworks exhaust sys­tems, Rath Rac­ing, Kal Guard rac­ing lubri­cants, Pre­ci­sion, Het­rick Rac­ing, Max­i­mum RPM, Yoshimira, Rebel Gears, Walsh Race­craft, Hin­son, Quad Tech, Oury Grips, Quad­fast, CP Pis­tons, and 65 designs. He is also grate­ful to Jimmy White.

Most of these com­pa­nies have worked with Joel in the past, and he strongly sug­gests their prod­ucts to fel­low racers.

Het­rick has spent most of this win­ter in Splen­dora, Texas train­ing for the 2010 sea­son. Het­rick is well aware that the com­pe­ti­tion is fierce; how­ever, he is deter­mined to win. The young rider has worked a deal with Patrick Flana­gan from Quad­fast to be his tech for the 2010 sea­son.  Flana­gan worked with Kawasaki and Josh Creamer dur­ing the 2009 season.

Het­rick Rac­ing has teamed up with Max­i­mum RPM to put together one of the tough­est national race teams for the 2010 sea­son. With Joel Het­rick as a team leader, expec­ta­tions are extremely high.  With the help of all of his spon­sors, 2010 is look­ing promis­ing for Team 2K10 rider, Joel Het­rick. Thank you all !!!

French Elite Quad­cross Cham­pion Romain Cou­prie fin­ished sec­ond in the Le Tou­quet Endurance Race in France rid­ing Elka Suspension’s Fac­tory Shock.

Con­grat­u­la­tions Romain !

Sur­prise, AZ (01/31/2010) — After a very suc­cess­ful 2009 sea­son with Beau Baron tak­ing the WORCS Pro Cham­pi­onship, the pres­sure was on at the 2010 WORCS sea­son opener to see if the team had what it takes to stay on top. There were no dis­ap­point­ments as Beau Baron charged his way to the top of the podium and team man­ager Mike Cafro would take his first ever WORCS Pro podium position.

“This was exactly what we were hop­ing for,” said Cafro. “We wanted to come out here and start the sea­son off on the podium. We are really stoked because it couldn’t have gone any better!”

Beau Baron took an early lead in the first lap, but bat­tled back and forth for sev­eral laps with Dustin Nel­son before tak­ing over the lead per­ma­nently just after the mid way point. “It felt great to come out here and win round one. I have a good pro­gram in place again this year so plan to be on the podium a lot because I don’t want to give up the cham­pi­onship,” said Baron.

Mike Cafro was in mid pack off the line, but the vet­eran racer made a hard charge to take over fourth place early on. Cafro held that posi­tion for sev­eral laps until his pit crew informed him was up to third place. “They said I was in third when I came through the pit area and there was no way I was going to give up a podium posi­tion,” said Cafro, who would have his hands full the last four laps of the race. “Rob­bie Mitchell had caught up to me and I wasn’t about to let him get past me, so we were bump­ing and bat­tling for about three laps. Then in the last lap, I just pushed as hard as I could and pulled away from him,” explained Cafro, who would hold on to the num­ber three spot to take his first ever pro podium position.

MCR/Maxxis’ Josh Row still man­aged to take a top ten posi­tion in the Pro class despite a nasty wreck in the first lap. Row came on strong as he did all last sea­son and claimed a respectable ninth place.

Julie Rus­sell also put in a solid run in the Women’s A class. The com­pe­ti­tion was fierce for round one as Rus­sell went up against Traci Cecco and Tammy Balser. Julie would hold down a steady third place, fin­ish­ing within just sec­onds of Cecco and Balser. “There was a lot of com­pe­ti­tion in the Women’s class this time and Julie did a great job out there. We are very proud of her,” said Mike Cafro.

This year, there are a cou­ple of new names added to the Team MCR/Maxxis ros­ter. Pro-am rid­ers Keith John­son and David Haagsma made their team debut this week­end and put on an impres­sive show as John­son would fin­ish in third, and Haagsma would come in a close fourth. “Keith and David rode really well this week­end and we are look­ing for­ward to see­ing them both on the podium a lot this sea­son,” stated Cafro.

After com­ing off of such a promis­ing first round, the team is con­fi­dent and ready to tackle round two. “I have to thank Maxxis for their part in this because they really stepped up for us this year. We are really look­ing for­ward to this sea­son. We are in it to win and with the sup­port we have I think that this will be a very suc­cess­ful sea­son for us,” Cafro concluded.

Round two of the 2010 WORCS series that will be held at Buf­falo Bill’s in Primm, NV on Feb­ru­ary 27–28 where Beau Baron will be try­ing for his sec­ond win in defense of his of his cham­pi­onship title.

Mike Cafro Rac­ing would like to thank all of their spon­sors: Maxxis, Roll Design, Elka Sus­pen­sion, DWT, Motoworks, Ricky Sta­tor, Alba Action Sports, K&N, Stream­line, Golden West Cycle, Tire Balls, Moto Pro Train­ing, Pro Honda Oils Works Con­nec­tion, Tsub­aki, Hin­son, IMS, Quad Tech, PWR, Fasst Co., Maier, Trin­ity Graph­ics, Zing rac­ing, O’Neal and Smith