AmPro Yamaha Race Report

AmPro Yamaha Race Report

AMA REKLUSE NATIONAL ENDURO SERIES - ROUND 4 “Rad Dad Enduro”

Riders:
Paul Whibley 10th Place
Jordan Ashburn 14th Place

This weekend, the boys made the short drive to West Point, Tennessee for round 4 of the Rekluse
National Enduro Series. The tight slippery track was sure to be a challenge for even the most
experienced racers as they lined up and prepared for their minutes to start.

Both Paul and Jordan made some last minute decisions on bike choices, and decided to mix it up a bit.
Paul chose to ride a Yamaha YZ250 two-stroke instead of his usual Yamaha YZ450F and Jordan decided
to ride his Yamaha YZ450F instead of his usual Yamaha YZ250 two-stroke.

The day started out with a 2 mile transfer section that gave the riders a nice preview of what was to
come throughout the race. The tight course was riddled with rocks and both Jordan and Paul noticed
some immediate changes that needed to be made to their bike setup. Unfortunately, there was no time
to make these changes and the two AmPro riders headed into the first test section. Jordan was off to a
good start and managed to put together a solid first test. Paul wasn’t as lucky and a couple mistakes
would throw him out of the top 5 times. After the first section, the team made the necessary
adjustments to the bikes and sent them back out on the course. The second section would be bitter
sweet as Paul and Jordan both managed to stay in the top 5 until the end of the test where a bad line
selection on a root covered hill climb would send Paul colliding into another rider, throwing his time off
by a substantial amount.

From there, the day would steadily go downhill for both of the AmPro riders. Ashburn suffered a severe
crash on the third section that pretty much ended his day while Whibley was unable to salvage time
from his previous crash. At the end of the race, the battered and bruised riders eventually crossed the
finish line, disappointed but both with smiles on their faces.

“You have good races and you have bad ones,” says Whibley. “Today was an emotional mix of both. I felt
really good on the bike but I spent a lot of time on the ground, which I was ultimately unable to make up
for.”

“I had a lot of fun out there in the first two sections,” says Ashburn. “The course was really good and the
bike was working great. I crashed hard in the third section and the bike and I were pretty banged up.
After that, I just did my best to finish.”