Friday finally arrived and miraculously after a day and a half of rain, it turned out beautiful.  The weather was nice, too!  Seventy-one entries were made into the test & tune allowing some of the best riders on the fastest ATV's on the planet to make hundreds of time trial passes.  The festivities lasted over six hours before locking down for the ride of a lifetime.  Saturday, at high noon, somebody would win the biggest honor since "Overall Track Champion" in the first ever contest of its kind at Big River...  The Top Shop Shoot-out.

Sirens wailed as four psyched shops took the line to begin the battle of all time.  The teams were:  Adrenaline Racing, The Bom Racing, GT Performance and Precision Powersports.  As the contest ran into the qualifying round, it was proven that GT Performance and Precision Powersports would be the two fastest teams.  Each had to select one rider and one bike to face off for the title.  It came down to Clay Ide (GT) and Kevin Betzer, Jr. (Precision).  It was a best 2 of 3 shoot-out.  Each ended up with one victory.  Then, in the final round it was Ide who won the Top Shop trophy for GT Performance of Dearborn, MO.  He not only took the ride of his life victory wise; Clay also had one near catastrophe miss.  He started on the outside of the right lane only to be pulled toward the center rail at the 125 ft. mark.  Ide rode the center and collided with the MPH & E.T. markers.  He was not injured, nor was his record setting rocket.  The previous ATV record for fastest E.T. was a 3.62 second pass from John Conner of Oak Grove, MO.  Well, the first recorded ATV record anyway.  Clay shattered it with a 3.485 pass (backed up).  He also set a MPH record for ATV’s at 95!  So, let's recap -- the track was vandalized (set a record), it rained and rained (not a record, but probably needed none the less), 71 at test & tune (set a record) and a new ATV record for E.T. and MPH.  Isn't that enough?!?  Nah...  BRSD set a record with 162 entries in a single event night.  A combined Pro ATV/Super Pro ATV class had 40+ while Unlimited ATV saw a record participation of 51 entries.  Wrap this up and serve it for 22 hours over two days.  That's how long it took to see this event through to its end.  Imagine how the owners and staff felt.  Many additional hours were worked to ensure a safe track for all competitors and a family friendly atmosphere.  In the end -- as the final race of the annual event took a light at 4:00 a.m. Sunday -- I believe everyone involved realized just what had happened; what had they pulled off?  Overall, one of the greatest ATV events this area has ever experienced.  So now, we can only wonder -- what will happen next... ?