ATVMX National Championship 2023 Sunset Ridge MX
The ATVMX national championship was returning to Sunset Ridge in Walnut Illinois for the 17th year on the weekend of May 27th. The track is always a favorite of many in the series and the hometown track for Chad Wienen #44. The 8-time champion showed up to Sunset Ridge with winning in his mind, turning out the second fastest time in qualifying.
It would be Joel Hetrick that would dominate the weekend. Hetrick has won the last three ATV championships and has built a solid points lead already this year. Along with winning both motors for the top spot for the weekend he also topped the qualifying times and snagged both holeshots. He had a perfect weekend as he lead every lap also.
Bryce Ford had an impressive showing grabbing third place in both motos and third in the overall results also. Taking second place in both motos and the overall was hometown favorite Chad Wienen who looked at home on the familiar track. Wiened did not get the best start and had to work through part of the pack till he settled into second place. No one else had enough pace to run down Hetrick with him having a healthy lead in each moto win. The racing was action-packed through most of the pro pack with some hard-fought battles throughout the ranks. Gennusa had good starts but slid back in the pack with fourth and seventh places finishes for a fifth overall result.
Overall Pro results
Joel Hetrick
Chad Wienen
Bryce Ford
Heading into round 6 of racing Hetrick had a pretty commanding lead in the season points with a 33 point lead. Exiting Sunset Hetrick extended his lead with Ford’s third-place finish keeping him solidly in second place in point and Wienen’s second place closed a few points on his rivals.
Joel Hetrick - 214
Bryce Ford - 181
Jeffrey Rastrelli - 169
Chad Wienen - 156
Nick Gennusa - 148
The amateur racing for the weekend had a great turnout, might not have been as strong as the last couple of years but still great numbers with several hundred racers traveling from all over the states and a few from Canada. A couple of classes had enough entries to need to run qualifying motos.
With the impressive racing and number of riders, the track got gnarly by late on Saturday and was challenging on Sunday also. These conditions just seem to make the racing more interesting and the track team did a great job touching up spots when needed and keeping a steady flow of water trying to keep moisture in the ground with the sun beating down all weekend.
The series heads to Budds Creek, MD for round 7 hopefully the weather will be as nice as it was for round 6. It remains to be seen if anyone can step up and knock Hetrick off the top podium step even if just for one round.