IATVHSS Rd. 1
Fun Valley MX, Montezuma, IA
April 21, 2008

The first race of the year, as usual, was a mud fest at Fun Valley in Montezuma, IA.  The course looked fun and fast on Saturday evening, but by the time the morning sessions were over on Sunday, it was a muddy mess.  Both Adam and Luke had pretty good starts, Luke in 3rd and Adam in about 6th until he became tangled with another quad about 100 yards past the first turn.  Adam ran a pretty good first lap after that, but his race was over when his clutch burnt up 3/4 through the second lap.  On Luke's first lap, many of the riders ahead of him took a wrong turn, cutting the course.  Luke stayed on track for fear of a DQ and lost several spots but continued to run well until he had to pit, with about 20 minutes left in the race, for a flat front tire.  At that point, he was reluctant to head back out for one last lap after getting stuck in the mud a few times previously, but with a little persuasion, he did take the checkered flag, finishing 12th of 16 riders in the Pro (AA) class.  Adam ended up 22nd in A class.  Due to scoring issues, the overall results for this race are not available. 

IATVHSS Rd. 2
Mineral City Speedway, Fort Dodge, IA
May 25, 2008

The second race of the year went slightly better than the first.  Good weather and fairly dry track conditions were a nice change from the first race.  Luke had a great holeshot in the Pro class and was running as high as 2nd place, but ultimately faded back to 7th place where he finished among 11 riders.  Adam also had a great start, running in the top three of A class until early in the first lap when his seat came loose and fell off.  He initially threw it to the side of the trail but soon realized it was going to be a long race without a seat.  Luckily, the trail looped back around near where he had left the seat so he picked it up.  After the first lap, he pitted and secured the seat to the quad with some #9 wire.  At this point, he had fallen all the way back to last place in A class but managed to work his way back up to 12th of 20 riders by the end of the day.  Overall, Luke and Adam finished in 7th and 41st place, respectively, of 75 riders in the afternoon session.

IATVHSS Rd. 3
Blue Ridge Run, Carlisle, IA
June 29, 2008

The third race of the IATVHSS did not fare much better for Upah Racing.  Again, both racers had good starts, but shortly into the first woods section Luke became tangled with another quad, losing his rear brake function in the process.  He ran the rest of the race hard but lost more time on that first lap than could be made up and finished 11th of 14 riders.  Adam was running well in the top 5 of his class until midway through the race; his seat came loose, once more forcing him to pit.  This was very frustrating as they did have countermeasures (zip ties) in place to keep this from happening again.  He fell back to 12th place but rebounded to a 10th place finish of 19 riders.  Overall, Luke was 14th and Adam 32nd of 78 riders in the afternoon race.

IATVHSS Rd. 4
Bobcat Run, Decatur City, IA
August 3rd, 2008

The Decatur City race in August is typically a hot one, and this year was no exception with the heat index well over 100 degrees.  Adam was finally hoping to get the monkey off his back and finish the race without a pit stop, while Luke was gunning for a top 5 finish.  However, neither goal would be accomplished at this race.  Shortly into the second lap, Luke began experiencing severe abdominal cramping, the cause of which was never determined.  After Adam’s first lap, in which he climbed from 20th (last) place to 11th, his quad began to overheat as he noticed that the cooling fan was not working.  Both riders finished the race but at much slower paces than usual.  Luke finished 12th of 13 riders in Pro class and 19th of 75 racers overall, while Adam’s four laps resulted in a 15th of 20 finish in A class and 45th overall. 

At this point, both racers are struggling to put together clean, solid races.  This is in stark contrast to last season where pit stops were rare for both riders.  With the results so far, some racers in this situation might start looking ahead to next season, but Adam and Luke are still both committed to racing as hard as possible and finishing this season out strong, hopefully with fewer problems in the remaining 3 IATVHSS races.  Top 10 series finishes are still well within reach, with a little luck. 

On another note, Adam moved from Iowa to Ohio in late June for employment at Honda R&D.  He has since joined the Team Honda Research (THR) Off-road race team.  In July, he raced Round 6 of the AWRCS in Clintonville, Pa, aboard a mostly stock 2007 400EX in the B class, finishing 14th in class and 33rd of 66 overall.  He will try to race a few more races with THR this season, but is mainly focused on finishing as high as possible in the IATVHSS as he will continue to travel back home for the remainder of those races this year. 

IATVHSS Rd. 5
Greenhurst Farms, Mt. Pleasant, IA
September 7, 2008

The race at Mt. Pleasant was a unique one this year as all classes ran together in the morning session, which meant there were about 200 quads on the 7.5 mile course at one time.  Both Adam and Luke were fairly confident that the gremlins would be gone by now with everything else that had happened through the season… but not quite.  On the first lap, Luke got a flat rear tire but continued to run on it for the remainder of the race as the bead had not broken off the rim (thanks to the ITP beadlocks!).  Bad luck struck for Adam on the first lap as well.  Running in the 4th place spot, the top 5 riders in A class all got turned around on one section of the track due to poor trail markings that had been run over by the pro class ahead of them.  Those riders completed one 5-minute section of the course twice on that first lap and all fell to the back somewhere in the middle of the other 200 racers on the course, with little hope of making it back to the top.  Luke finished the day in 8th place and Adam in 13th, in their respective classes. 

IATVHSS Rd. 6
Hanson Hollows, Spragueville, IA
September 21, 2008

Finally, some good luck for the Upah Racing Team!  This was a brand new track for the IATVHSS, and it was an amazing one.  The loop was about 8 miles long and had a little of everything, from hills and rock bluffs to creek beds to nearly a full mile of sand whoops.  The weather was also great, sunny and dry, at the start of the afternoon race where Luke pulled the holeshot and early lead in the Pro class.  Adam also had a great start off the line, in second place just behind the A class points leader.  The track was long and fast, but also very rough and brutal as well.  Luke ran a hard race, but in the end finished in the 6th spot even though many of the other more heavily modified quads in the pro class were able to navigate the rough track a little better.  This was Luke’s best finish of the year and a very respectable one at that when considering some of the company in that class, most notably GNCC Pros Michael Burrows and Duane Johnson. 

Adam ran solid all day after getting that great start, taking the lead early in the second lap.  He held that lead until lap 6 when fatigue started to set in.  Then on the 7th and final lap, he was able to regain the lead after the leader broke down.  The excitement was a little too much though and with second place on his tail, he may have been pushing just a little too hard when he blew a turn and rolled the quad into a shallow ravine.  After losing about 90 seconds getting the quad back up and running, he had to settle for the third spot on the podium, which he was very happy with after the previous string of bad luck this year. 

With one race left, Luke and Adam are both sitting in the top ten of their respective classes!  Luke sits in 9th place in Pro (of over 20 racers) and Adam in 8th place in A (of over 35 racers).  If they can pull off finishes in the last round similar to those in round 6, both also have a good shot at moving up even higher.