VURB PRO AM CLASSIC
Author: Wes Williams	Features | Tuesday, 13 October 2009 16:13

Photography: Ryne Swanberg / Wes Williams

While Sunday was an exceptional day of racing, first things first; we must backtrack to Saturday night in order to give the full flavor of the 2009 Vurbmoto Motosport.com Pro Am Classic. What flavor would that happen to be, you might ask? The flavor of wonderful Oatmeal Cream pies. Thanks to our wonderful friends at Tag Metels, we held the 2^nd Annual “All You Can Eat Contest” consisting of 144 delicious cream filled oatmeal cookies and 4 contestants. The objective from there was to ingest as many of those Little Debby cakes as possible in a 5 minutes time span, which quickly ran to the 13 minute mark. The winner put down a staggering 23 pies, with the help of a quart of Mayfield Chocolate milk. Within thirty minutes, every contestant was spotted behind the concession stand feeling great, from what we could tell from their facial expressions anyways.

On to the racing. Sunday was absolutely sensational, and that might even be an understatement. With the help from our hired guns, the beautiful weather, and a wonderfully prepared track, the 2^nd Annual Pro Am Classic went on without a hitch. With over 500 riders, nearly every class had a respectably full gate, and the 2000 spectators on hand got to see some of the best racing since Loretta Lynn’s in August. Red Bull brought in their A game and added some great aesthetics, including “The Arch” to the infamous Bremen tabletop and their insanely cool Red Bull DJ station to our Podium area. Motosport, Tag Metals, Six Six One, and Smith Optics also threw out some banner love to make everything look monumental for our occasion.

 

The A classes packed the fence line, as usual. Our 2008 roster, which included the likes of Barcia, Futrell, and Smith, was so good, we knew this year it was going to be hard to top. This time around our hired guns included Auston Albers, who was unfortunately sidelined in a practice crash, Derek Rogers, Jase Lewis, and Nick Myers. Bremen, GA is the home to that of Jase Lewis, and he proved that no one could touch him on his home turf. He walked every single pro class moto, mounting impressive leads and never looking back. The fact that he rode a borrowed 250 2 stroke in the MX Lites A was also a bonus. The sound of a crisp smoker winning the pro class is unbeatable. Props out to Lewis as he took home plenty of contingency and purse money, not to mention the coveted Golden Ticket for next year’s Pro Am Classic. Rogers and Myers finished respectably in every moto, whilst doing battle with some big names of the southeast. The #504 of Jeremy Kress was able to do the most damage inside the top 3, taking home a 2^nd and 3^rd overall, while North Carolina’s Tyler Clark and Michigan’s Josh Woods were able to battle within the top 5.

MX Lites A: 1. Jase Lewis (Kaw);2. Derek Rogers (Kaw);3. Jeremy Kress (Hon);4. Tyler Clark (Yam);5. Nick Myers (Hon)

MX A: 1. Jase Lewis (Kaw);2. Jeremy Kress (Hon);3. Derek Rogers (Kaw);4. Joshua Woods (Kaw);5. Nick Myers (Hon)

The intermediate classes had the most action of any classes throughout the weekend. The hired guns here shined brilliantly; AJ Cantanzaro, Grant Ransdell, Zach Freeberg, Justin Summers, Vann Martin, and “new guy” Anthony Rodriguez all graced the Golden Ticket list, and inevitably proved why. Watching the videos we’ve put up, and will continue to put up, will be the only way you can do yourself justice in understanding how these battles went down. Every single lap of every single moto was neck to neck until the checkered flag. Although Cantanzaro and Freeberg both took home overall victories, a huge surprise this weekend was Anthony Rodriguez, who has relocated to MTF from Venezuela. This kid was going amazingly fast, which is obvious as he was doing battle with guys that all took home top 5 or better at Loretta Lynn’s. Watch out for this kid to do big things at Mini O’s.

Grant Ransdell, like Lewis, ripped around on a 250 smoker the entire weekend. Ransdell finished 2^nd overall this year at Loretta Lynn’s, and the Georgia native brought his A game to Bremen, which he’d likely consider one of his home tracks. While he wasn’t able to grab an overall, he was the most consistent on the weekend, taking home 2^nd overalls in both the Lites and Motocross classes.

 

 

MX B: 1. Aj Catanzaro (Kaw);2. Grant Ransdell (Yam);3. Zachary Freeberg (Kaw);4. John Pauk (Kaw);5. Alex Mcwilliams (Kaw)1. Aj Catanzaro (Kaw);2. Grant Ransdell (Yam);3. Zachary Freeburg (Kaw);4. John Pauk (Kaw);5. Alex Mcwilliams (Kaw)

MX Lites B: 1. Zachary Freeberg (Kaw);2. Grant Ransdell (Yam);3. Anthony Rodriguez (Yam);4. Justin Summers (Kaw);5. Aj Catanzaro (Kaw)

Justin Summers managed himself to a top 5 in the Lites B class, but where he really shined was the Schoolboy 2 class. Freeberg captured the overall, yet Summers kept it extremely close between himself, Freeberg’s #27 Kawasaki, and the #67 Yamaha of Rodriguez. John Redding and Vann Martin closed out the top 5 overall, respectively.

Schoolboy 14-16 2: 1. Zachary Freeberg (Kaw);2. Justin Summers (Kaw);3. Anthony Rodriguez (Yam);4. John Redding (Kaw);5. Vann Martin (Hon)

Typically the 125 C class is one of the most crowded gates on the moto list, and it was no exception at the Pro Am classic. This was actually one of the most exciting classes to watch, as both motos had constant battling within the top 10. Kyle Durham, Darryn’s 3^rd cousin from his mom’s aunt, was the only one to manage to keep consistent moto tallies on the day, with his 5-5 leaving him with 4^th overall. The rest of the class was wide open, with moto scores varying heavily. Tyler Nowlin took the overall victory with Nick Barr and Jordan Martin rounding out the top 3.

In the MX C class, Brad Allison, who took home top 3 honors at Loretta Lynn’s and was our only C class hired gun, took the overall victory, beating out the lites class’ top 2 of Nowlin and Barr. Look for Allison to be back next year with his Golden Ticket doing battle in the intermediate ranks.

MX Lites C: 1. Tyler Nowlin (Yam);2. Nick Barr (Yam);3. Jordan Martin (Kaw);4. Kyle Durham (Suz);5. Justin Parmer (Kaw)

MX C: 1. Brad Allison (Hon);2. Tyler Nowlin (Hon);3. Nick Barr (Yam);4. Travis Long (Suz);5. Austin Mccullers (Kaw)

Just a few motos down, and plenty more to go. This is a conclusion to the big bike recap. Stay tuned for the youth and vet reports coming to you over the next few days.

Anthony Rodriguez

Jeremy Kress

Jase Lewis