PVR - Pro Am Production

Fate deals Casey Martin and his Polaris a win

Mechanical failure plagues Hetrick; mishap for Snapp

Call it luck or call it fate, but either way Casey Martin walked away from the Pro-Am production moto 1 at Pleasure Valley with a win Sunday, and after his performance in the second moto Martin cemented the weekend overall on his Rath Racing backed Polaris Outlaw MXR450.

The Fourth of July weekend gave Martin his first overall win of the season and bumped him up to fifth in the points chase in the ITP/Moose Racing AMA ATV Motocross Championship.

With just three rounds to go, Martin is now just 23 points behind class leader Joel Hetrick.

In the first pro-am production moto, Suzuki-mounted Chase Snapp grabbed the holeshot. Kawasaki-mounted Joel Hetrick soon began biting at Snapp's rear tires. The pair hooked up and began pulling away from the rest of the class.

Perennial front-runners in the pro-am classes Chase Snapp(22) and Joel Hetrick(88) settled in to their usual spots and started to gradually separate from the pack.

But soon fate, or bad luck, intervened for Hetrick. The pungent odor of burnt coolant grew each time Hetrick passed, until it became obvious he had a coolant problem when white smoke started pouring from his quad.

The mechanical failure sent Hetrick tumbling backwards through the pack. He settled for an eventual 18th place finish in the first pro-am production moto. The failure had the Hetrick crew working feverishly to replace the quad's radiator between  motos. He managed third place in moto 2.

For a brief moment, Snapp seemed to benefit from Hetrick's misfortune as his pace picked up without the constant pressure from the Kawasaki rider. But it was only brief.

Out of the view of spectators, Snapp had some kind of mishap in the back section of the track. And practically everyone in the class took advantage and passed him. Whatever happened, Snapp re-mounted his quad but fell back and finished the first moto in 14 place. He left Pleasure Valley with a seventh overall finish after salvaging a sixth place finish in the second pro-am production moto.

Snapp's mistake left the door wide open for Martin, who charged right through it on his Polaris.

Casey Martin took advantage of Snapp and Hetrick's misfortunes to take his first overall win of the season on his Polaris MXR450 Sunday at Pleasure Valley Raceway.

Martin wasn't the only one to benefit from the misfortunes of the leaders. Ohio-native Aaron Meyer slid into finish second behind Martin in the first moto and backed that up with a fifth-place finish in the second pro-am production moto to take home third overall for the weekend.

Aaron Meyer cruises to a second-place finish in the first pro-am production moto Sunday at PVR.

Round nine of the ITP/Moose Racing AMA ATV Motocross Nationals heads to Berlin, N.Y. for the Unadilla National July 17-18. For more information, log on to ATVMotocross.com.