I guess my Road Trip would have to take place on the road that led me toward winning the 2001 250-B Grand National Championship. I won't bore you too much with the details of the season itself, instead just hitting the highlights.
Although I had raced in the past, 2001 was my first full season of ATV National racing. Growing up in McRae, Georgia, racing motocross, you pretty much had to live in the shadow of MX superstar Matt "The Stalker" Walker. Instead of lurking in shadows, I chose to race quads. At first we raced all over Georgia, but it didn't take long to figure out that the highest level of competition was to be found at the nationals. So 2001 began with a commitment to race the entire GNC season (this is back when the GNC consisted of both MX and TT) and see where I truly stood in the grand scheme of things. My dad was all for it and was taking steps toward improving the racing in Georgia; he decided to invest in a couple of local tracks (Echeconee and Paradise Park) and seemed more excited about MX than I was, which was good being that he'd be flipping the bill for the season.
The season started off pretty well for me; I left the first two MX rounds (Echeconee MX and Daniel Boone) with a pair of third-place finishes. It wasn't until the third round at Muddy Creek where things got interesting. After piling up in the first lap and starting dead last, I managed to make my way into second place. Between motos, I got a surprising visit from Sean Sermini of Nac's Racing who apparently had just watched my race. We talked for a few minutes before he offered me a spot on the Nac's team. At that time, Nac's was the biggest team in ATV racing, and I about pissed myself at the thought of joining their squad. The next race was at Red Bud and the pressure was on to perform well. I had to prove to myself and everybody else that I deserved my new ride. Rather than really stress about it, I decided to keep my mind off of the pressure through the magic of ATV Offroad Fury and my PS2. My dad, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck-he almost blew a gasket when he woke up at 3 A.M. on the night before the race to find me still up playing PS2. Despite all the pressure (and video games), I somehow scored my first GNC win that weekend, and it felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
The best part about being on Nac's was my new teammates: Zac Willett was nuts and we hit it off immediately. Dustin Shuler, Dana Creech, Nate Leverenz, Nate Frees, Keeton Hanks and Jimmy Elza were all pretty damn cool, too. Everything was really coming together for me, the TT rounds were going well, I scored a solid fourth at Danville in my first TT ever-it was actually the first time I had ridden a TT bike. I even managed to win the Georgia round at Paradise Park (home court advantage?). Orville was pretty interesting, the promoter had a freestyle show and two of my teammates entered. Creech was amazing, while Frees managed to overjump the freestyle ramp by 25 feet resulting in a snapped axle and sore ankles. The crowd loved it but it scared us half to death. The following week was pretty much the highlight of my season. I spent the week in between Orville and Ashtabula at Matt Bartosek's place with Willett, Mark Kendall, John Woodward and a bunch of other guys. We had way too much fun to even mention here, but let's just say that it was one of the best weeks of my life.