#ITPTires

The ATV MX National Championship Series returned to historic High Point Raceway after a three-year absence to enjoy hard-fought battles under nearly ideal conditions here in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. This was the sixth of ten rounds on the 2012 schedule. With only four to go following this event, championship pressure was clearly on the rise.

No one is taking on more weight than Merrill Crose, who’s been running ITP tires all season and, after High Point, holds second place in the point standings of an astounding four classes! This weekend he once again won the Veteran 30+ class and was runner-up in Open A and Junior 25+. Issues in the first moto of the 450 A class pushed him back to 11th place, but he came back with a second place in the second moto to finish sixth for the day.

Haedyn Mickelson is another of ITP’s ironmen. This Root River Racing team member scored three podium finishes in three classes: second overall in Schoolboy Jr. (13-15) and third overall in both Schoolboy Sr. (14-17) and Super-Mini (13-15). This tough teen is top-five in all three classes for the season.

The Mountaineer Run, held at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, WV, was another new stop on the 2012 Grand National Cross Country schedule, but for many it had an old school feel. Round seven of 13 was held on a technical, rough, rocky, semi-muddy course not far from the familiar Snowshoe GNCC site. Plus it was also just good old fashioned hot, which all added up to a challenging weekend for man and machine. But Team ITP was up for it, and notched a number of victories using a variety of ITP QuadCross and Holeshot tire setups.

A most impressive display of skill and endurance was put up by Patrick McGuire (Yamaha). The Valencia, Penn. native blasted out of the first turn in first and never looked back, leading the XC2 Pro Am class from start to finish, securing his second win of the season by nearly three minutes. It was good for ninth overall out of 186 top competitors in the afternoon wave of racing, and moved him back into the points lead.

Finishing second in XC2 was Matt Hanna, backed by Greg’s ATV and running ITP tires on his Yamaha YFZ450. It was Hanna’s third podium appearance of the season, which puts him in fifth place in the class standings.

ITP has made available $128,750 in contingency for the 2012 AMA ATV MX National Championship Series and a good chunk of that had to be paid out after ITP racers found success in the third round at Budds Creek MX in Mechanicsville, Md. Dipping deeply into the ITP “MX Bucks” pool Team ITP riders Chloe Buerster, Mike Barnhart, Maci Devenport, Haedyn Mickelson, Sean Taylor and Samuel Rowe.

Rowe collected three moto wins on his way to overall victory in both the Schoolboy Jr. (13-15) and Schoolboy Sr. (14-17) classes. This put the Janssen Motorsports-powered Root River Racing rider in the points lead for the latter, and into third for the season in the former.

Root River Racing’s Sean Taylor made a consistent day pay off as 3-2 moto finishes got him the overall win in the highly competitive Pro Am Unlimited class.

Haedyn Mickelson of Root River Racing continued his season’s hot streak with fourth overall in the Schoolboy Jr. (13-15) and Super-Mini (13-15) classes, as well as a runner-up finish in Schoolboy Sr. (14-17). He currently leads the point standings in that last class, and is top-five for the season so far in the other two.

Team ITP riders came into round two of the 2012 ATV Motocross National Championship Series at Muddy Creek Raceway in Blountville, Tenn. determined to keep their substantial momentum from the opening round rolling.

ITP’s sponsored guys and gals, riding with a variety of ITP QuadCross MX and Holeshot MXR6 tires as well as T-9 Pro Series wheels, claimed several class wins and stepped up on the podium regularly after the dust had settled.

One of the highlights of the weekend for ITP was the on-track introduction of ITP’s all-new Turf Tamer Classic MX. This legendary tire has been redesigned for modern sport quads and features an industry-first pre-grooved tread pattern for an extra competitive edge on loose, loamy track surfaces.

ITP-sponsored riders at the Steele Creek GNCC in Morganton, NC had a successful week, earning a number of podiums.

Adam McGill ( Honda) put on a come-from-behind charge on a course notorious for its narrow, hard-to-pass nature to finish second in the XC1 Pro class and second overall. The West Virginia native has now moved into third in the point standings, despite his mechanical issues at round two.

Patrick McGuire ( Yamaha) was on the course at the same time as McGill, on his way to fourth place in XC2 Pro Am. This was enough to easily keep him in the number one position in class points for the season.

ITP has added a new wheel to its SS Alloy wheel line – the SS216.

“The lightweight, one-piece aluminum SS216 is as aggressive as it looks, due in large part to ITP’s all-new Rock Armor reinforced inner wheel lip design,” ITP says in a release. “This advanced feature makes an already high-endurance wheel even more bulletproof.”

To back up ITP’s claim, the SS216 comes standard with a lifetime structural warranty, as does the rest of ITP’s SS Alloy wheel family.

The SS216 boasts a 1000-lb. load rating for both its 12×7 and 14×7 sizes, ideal for the requirements of the most demanding, modern side-by-side UTV and 4×4 ATV applications. It rolls out in a bright machined finish with black accents and is topped with a durable clear coat. A matching SS center cap is included with every wheel.

If you’re in the market for an ATV or UTV tire that can tame the gnarliest terrain, ITP may have the answer with its new Mega Mayhem tires.

ITP is set to make even more mischief in the ATV/UTV aftermarket with the introduction of the all-new Mega Mayhem. This younger brother of the original ITP Mayhem uses all the tricks of its sibling, but has added some wicked moves of its own.

The Mega Mayhem borrows much from the original ITP Mayhem, but features an even more aggressive 1.5-inch-deep lug for what ITP calls “ferocious bite.”

After thousands of laps at 13 different locations in the eastern U.S., the 2011 Grand National Cross Country Series came to a thrilling — albeit delayed — conclusion at Loretta Lynn’s in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. This location was originally to be round five, but diabolical weather forced a rare postponement and shift to the end of the schedule. Final celebrations may have been late in coming, but in the end there were a number of ITP riders heading for happy holidays.

Foremost Insurance/Warnert Can-Am teammates Adam McGill and Chris Bithell were consistent frontrunners all season in the premier XC1 Pro class. Implementing ITP Holeshot GNCC and QuadCross XC tires, McGill won two events and stepped onto the podium eight other times to claim an excellent second overall for the year. Bithell appeared in the top three a total of six times to finish a close fourth in the final standings.

ITP was once again heavily involved in the ATV MX National Championship Series and would like to recognize the success of its top riders. The following is taken from an ITP press release.

Whether they chose ITP’s Holeshot or QuadCross lines of tires or T-9 Pro Series wheels, these riders demonstrated the talent and commitment it takes to set themselves apart from the competition.

For example, Jeffrey Rastrelli of Palm City, Florida, came out on top of an extremely hard-fought Pro Am Unlimited championship battle. He captured four overall wins in the series’ 11 events, and was in the top three at every race but one. Rastrelli also competed in the Pro Am Production class and finished the season with fourth place in the points, taking one victory and five podiums along the way.