As some of you may know the 2003 GNC MX & TT banquet was held this past weekend. I attended it and thought I would share the weekend with those that were unable to go.

The banquet was held in Fort Mitchell, KY at the Drawbridge Inn Hotel. It was a huge hotel that you could easily get lost in. We flew into Ohio Saturday morning and rented a car and drove over into KY. We got to the hotel and checked in. The lobby was full of familiar faces such as Jeremiah Jones, Jason Dunkelburger, and Jeff Thompson to name a few. We talked to everyone and decided to head over to the mall with the Lost Creek Cycle crew. I have never been to a place besides the Nationals where there were so many ATV racers. The mall was full of racers from Keith Little and Shane Hitt (pro riders) to Justin Pugh and Kyle Taylor ( 250B riders). We walked around for about an hour and decided to head back to get ready.

The banquet doors opened at five and people started coming in. The banquet room was huge with two huge movie style screens playing highlight videos from the races this year. There was a big stage set up in the middle of the room with a table in front of it with several different prizes on it ranging from PEP shocks to Full Bore plastic. There was some ladies walking around selling raffle tickets for the prizes on the table. They were $5 each but well worth it if you were the one that won (more on that later). There were around 60 tables that sat 10 people each. At our table we had my friend Justin Pugh and three of his friends and my wife and parents and two people that were with a 90 youth rider. Dinner was served buffet style and the food was good. You had a choice of some veggies and ham or roast beef.

The awards ceremony started after the food was served. They did it in a moto format with each class being called up and recognizing the top ten for MX and TT. The first place winner of each class was able to make a speech. As you were called up to the stage you got your top ten trophy (which was made of wood and had a picture of Tim Farr for MX and Shane Hitt for TT) and then got to go to the prize table. There were different tables for each different place. For instance if you place 1-3 you got to pick a prize off a certain table. The prizes ranged from Quad Tech scoops, ITP Holeshots, AC work stands, Denton Stabilizers, Lone Star bearing carriers, to Scott goggles, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and hats. To say the least there was a lot of nice and expensive things given away.

As they went through each class they would have the ATV Sport choice awards. This ranged from engine builder of the year (which was Tom Carlson from TC Racing) to amateur rider of the year (Joey Dreslinski). I do have to say that the Women’s class was the best to look at on stage. All of the girls were wearing dresses and looked very good. Our fellow forum member LT80's daughter Angela Moore looked very nice and took top honors in the Women’s MX and TT class and a very respectful 3rd in the 4 Stroke A TT class and 7th in the 4 Stroke Pro-Am TT class. That girl can haul ***!

Towards the end of the award ceremony they started calling out the $5 raffle ticket numbers. My friend Justin Pugh spent $40 in these tickets. We all told him he was crazy, but were we wrong. The announcer was getting ready to call out the winner of the full set of PEP zps shocks while Justin was saying these are mine. We were like yea right and as soon as we said that he called out Justin's ticket number. I couldn’t believe it. He won a full set of PEP shocks. Then as soon as he came back to the table they call out his name for a ATV Innovations brake caliper that goes for around $350. In a matter of a minute he had won over $2100 in prizes for $40. As you can imagine it made his night and I think he bought just about everyone around us a round of beer.

After the awards ceremony the party started. They had about three different bars in the room and everyone was dancing and drinking just having a good ole time celebrating the season. We partied to about two in the morning before going to bed. It was sad to leave the next morning because when you go to these Nationals you meet a lot of new friends that you only see when you are racing. So I cant wait for the 2003 season to start back up. This was my first year racing and my first award banquet, but you can bet it want be my last.

 

That must have been awsome.

 

Mrp,

Very well written post! Thanks for the info you made it almost feel like I was there, NICE POST!

John

 

I bet that did make that guy's night!!!! Sounds like you had a blast.
later,
josh

 

Excellent post Todd. Your wife the lady at Swan? She seems very nice, and being married to you makes her even better. Haha. Congrats! I remember you saying at round 1 of the TLSS that this was your 1st year racing... Good lord you're freakin NUTS! How can someone be so fast their 1st year? You've got a gift, use it wisely.

 

wow i didn't know lt80 was angelas dad. thats awesome!

 

Thanks everyone on the compliments of my post.

lonestarbanshee- Yea thats my wife with me at Tyler. She is awesome and supports me 100% in my racing as do my parents. This was my first year racing and I am hooked for life. I cant wait for the 2003 GNC's to start back up. Are you going to be at Tyler on the 24?

 

November 24th?

We'll see. Bring some cash, or a friends 400EX... You might get to return home with a sweet K&K 250R [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]