I attended the Virginia Beach beach-cross this past weekend. With a $5000 purse, a few big names showed up: Shane Hitt, Tim Farr, Chad Lohr, Keith Little, Greg Little and PRO rookie Jason Dunkleburgh.

The big race was called the Sandbox Challenge and both motos were ran Saturday night. The track was VERY rough this year, whoops and VW sized holes everywhere. Shane Hitt was in my qualifier, which he easily won. I finished 7th after a soil sample in one of the high speed whoop sections. 7th was good enough to get to the main. (They did it TT style where your finish in the main is all that counts.)

In the final it was a 2 row start. I started behind Tim Farr and got a decent position after the first turn. Tim later got tangled on the back stretch with Matt Coulter (Kangaroo Kid) and everyone lapped them 4 times before they got the quads apart. Meanwhile Hitt was in command with Chad Lohr in second and the Littles in 3rd and 4th. I somehow found myself in 5th place (up in the good money! $325!) with about four laps to go. Just as I was thinking it was to good to be true, disaster struck. As I rounded the turn on the small outer backstretch near the water, a waved washed ashore. Being it was dark I couldnt get stopped and ran through it wide open, promptly killing my screaming CT 330. It took about 45 seconds to get it fired up and that was enough time for everyone to catch up to and pass me. I ended up a measly 13th, which I could have contested, but didn’t. With all of the crashing, tangles, lappers and poor lighting, the scoring was tough for the event staff to keep track of.

Final results were 1. Hitt 2. Lohr 3.K Little 4. G Little 5. Gil Attix III

Farr DNFd the second moto due to the tangle, he was disgusted to say the least.

The sand drags were a real thrill, with 100mph banshees and a 250 Quadracer with a GSXR1100 engine! Surprisingly one of the full on drag Banshees shut down the monster motored nitrous Quadracer.

Most of the PROs had their trailers parked right on the boardwalk, along with NACs big rig. Saturday evening everyone running in the PRO classes and Sandbox showed off their quads at the end of the board walk. Some gave autographs and signed pictures for the spectators.

All in all it was an awesome event and great exposure for ATV racing. My hat is off to everyone at the MAATVA! Thanks guys! Special thanks to the ladies behind the scenes! (Most of which spent all day scoring racers and setting in the box trailer figuring the mess out!)

Thanks for the post, I enjoy reading others racing experiences. Also sounds like you were hauling!

I want to thank the MAATVA people for a sweet event. I imagine it was alot of trouble to get a race on VA Beach with all the enviros around. I also want to give VA Beach Events credit for allowing us to come.

I had a blast running in the sand the whoops were alot of fun. I hope we can all do it again next year.

Adam Smith

99 400EX