Our Sponsored Teams
Trinity Racing is proud to be sponsors of Team Faith and Team Starrett. Read on to find out about their experience at the 2010 GNCC UTV Championships.
| TEAM FAITH NEWSLETTERWritten by Team Faith Founder/President Brian O'Rourke
Ice storms and blizzard conditions covered the Midwest on Friday as we ventured out from various parts of the country for the next round of the National Arenacross Series. The dangerous inclement weather hit as far south as Oklahoma. Yes, ice storms in Oklahoma. Sign of the times, not sure, but, it was no fun for Phil and Eric to drive in, that's for certain. But, for Jesus and a chance to tell this intensely needful extreme sport sub-culture about His love, grace and truth, we'll drive through anything. This week's destination city: Kansas City, Missouri: To race motorcycles and to war to win souls to Christ.
Saturday morning, the team is awakened by the creaking and jarring of the back loading door of the rig at about 8:30AM. An indication that the nights rest is over and a day filled with ministry opportunities, chapel services, discipleship and racing Arenacross was before us. It was also an indication that Eric, as always, is up and out like clockwork to get into the building and get our pit area set up and bike prep done. Good and life changing ministries like Team Faith could not function or exist without behind the scenes warriors like our own Phil Bechtel and Eric Hampton. These are the guys that like Nehemiah, build the platform for the ministry to go forward on. And, they are gifted Extreme Sport Athletes and racers to boot.
Important Groundwork
I need to mention again that, the greetings and initial contacts on the first day of an event are so critical. We work hard to have a real, caring & legit connection with everyone. We really do care deeply for every single person at these Arenacross events and it's important to us that our words, actions and considerations bear this out. All of the messages sparked a lot of discipleship, interaction and response from everyone at the event. Racers, mechanics, friends, guests and industry people all experienced the impact, challenge and activation of the ministry. It all starts with those greetings and initial contacts on the morning of the first day.
Chapel Service & the Devotional Dinner
I usually have point when I'm onsite, meaning, I do the first Chapel after the riders meeting on Friday and Kevin does the Chapel on Saturday. We all love to tag team and have been so blessed and even amazed at the continuity and synergy that the Holy Spirit establishes in the messages He gives us. It has been a truly miraculous and extraordinary thing for Brian O., Kevin, Chuck and I, the Teaching Team of Team Faith to experience. This event was only a one day event, so, Kevin did the Chapel service-bible study after the rider's meeting in the morning and I did the ministry and message at the Team Faith devotional dinner later that evening.
We love to provide this meal and ministry for the racers, their families, their guests and all who attend. Everyone loves it and we've had a tremendous time sharing Worship and teaching the Word of God in a very fun and exciting way.
Kevin -the TV Star
Kevin's charismatic, witty and warm personality seems to make him a favorite with the Speed Channel producers and he is usually involved with some aspect of the event program. Whether it's wearing the helmet cam for the night or using him as a commentator/interviewer for the production of the event broadcast, they put him to work and have him on air quite a bit. And that's good, because it gives Team Faith and our sponsors some great national exposure on television and best of all; it elevates our credibility in this sub-culture, hence, positioning us to have a greater impact for the truth of Jesus. And hey, truth be told, I think Kev enjoys hamming it up a little bit from time to time. He's a natural, like Brian O. Very comfortable in front of the camera or microphone. I guess the same could be said for me too.
Racing & Representing
Practice went very well. Kevin and Eric seemed very focused and determined to take it to another level. At every round we see them pursue excellence with the bike and Kevin's riding. The rider/mechanic partnership is so critical for a race team. Good communication, creativity and technical resolve are vital to compete against the best Arenacross racers in the world. In this arena, every littlebit of expertise and edge is needed to perform at a competitive level. The tracks are so demanding (especially the whoop sections) that all of the teams work feverishly to get the most out of the bike and coach the rider to perform optimally.
The ministry of Team Faith is, without question, the most important thing to everyone on the team, but, we have also earned an invaluable respect by pursuing excellence in all that we do. This respect is very important to Kevin and our skipper, Brian O. They have determined that, since we believe the Lord has called us to race, we will do it with excellence, with all our strength and do it heartily as to the Lord. Ever since I have been with Team Faith I can honestly say that, this Team is always on the cutting edge. Not getting on the band wagon, but, building our own "band wagon" for Jesus. From Kevin's creativity and innovation on the track to Brian O's graphics designs and layouts (with the invaluable help and support from DZ Graphics of course!) to working together as a team to resolve a bike set up issue and on and on it goes. I've heard racers say in the pits; let's see how Kevin's doing it. And, they watch and they learn. Kevin and the team are always looking to squeeze out everything that we have for the Lord and the program. Doing our very best is always what we strive for. And, this weekend's stop in Kansas was no exception.
Kevin looked good in practice and his times were strong in the top ten, but he was stilllooking for some more improvements on the bike. So, after Eric changed out a few TAG Metals sprockets and made some adjustments to the suspension we were ready to go racing.
The Main Event
The opening ceremonies are done, the heat races and LCQs are over, the Arenacross Lites main is in the books and Kevin has just finished doing the Freestyle show with our good friends Darrin and Scotty. Kevin comes in to our pit area, drops off his FMX bike, grabs a fresh pair of gloves and goggles and heads over to a group prayer that we do for the racers before they line up for battle. Helmets on, heads bowed, hearts racing and everything is then turned over to the Lord and His will for their lives. We pray and agree for safety, wisdom, strength, for the best to come out of every rider and for Jesus to be glorified in some powerful and relevant way.
On the starting line Kevin makes an obvious statement to all about his commitment to the Lord, his commitment to purity and his commitment to be an example for Christ, as he decides not to look ahead at the half dressed event model that's holding up the 30-second board out in front of the gate, rather he focuses his attention to the left of the gate, were AMA referee Harv Whipple is standing to cue the hip swinging board girl. It is a powerful thing for me as a dad to see. While all of the other riders are looking straight ahead, Kevin's head is turned away, hard to the left at the official. When the official nods to cue the Arenacross show girl to turn the board sideways, Kevin then looks down, ready to explode out of the gate.
His reaction and jump out of the gate is good, but, he gets pinched off heading into the first turn. He comes out of the whoop section in about fourth or fifth. The early laps are steady and it looks like we could have a chance to make a charge to get on the podium. t the mid way point Kev's running in fifth and Chad Johnson is charging up behind him. Kev gets held up by a lapper in the corner after the catapult jump and it gives Chad just enough time to come in and take the line where he would explode into after squaring up the corner up on the outside. Kevin surges into the rear of Chad's bikes and goes down. He picks the bike up quickly, but, gets passed by a couple of guys. Kev fought hard to regain his rhythm after he went down, but, a couple of small mistakes and some lappers cost him a few more positions. He held on for 10th and survived a lot of carnage caused by the dangerous mix of the charging leaders and exhausted lapped riders.
Race Night Reflections
All in all, the race was good. Kevin was safe and healthy and we were in the top ten, which is an amazing place to be in a comeback season like we're in. But, there seems to be some more things to figure out about the suspension and set up on our new 2010 YZF-450 so that Kevin doesn't use so much energy to run at the pace necessary to be up in front with the leaders. We know its where he belongs, so we keep working, striving and training. Well, Kevin does all the training. The rest of us pray!
We wrapped things up in our rig, worshipping the Lord in song and praying for Him to water the seeds that were planted and to draw the people who experienced the ministry of Team Faith closer to Jesus. Thanking Him for keeping Kevin safe and for the opportunity to share the love of Jesus and work together as a team for the Lord.
| Team Faith and Trinity Racing have a great day at Rd. 1 of the GNCC UTV Championships!
As usual, time flies when your having fun! This season of GNCC Racing has come upon us by storm and we simply were not ready for it!
We had so many plans for the winter to get ready for the GNCC Season, including building a second smaller rig for Chuck to work out of at the races and moving up a class in UTV racing from Lites Limited to Lites Modified. Unfortunately, the smaller shuttlebus rig is still a work in progress, as is getting our Yamaha Rhino modified to run with the faster guys in the Modified class.
We started the day with the Team Faith Chapel Service at the Yamaha ProAm pits again. It seems like we are starting to see some real connections now in our second full year of ministering on GNCC. Typically, last year, there were less people that came to the Chapel on ATV day because they race on Saturday and usually have time to make it home for church, if they are in church, on Sundays. But, this round there were surprisingly more attendees at Saturday's devotional! Chuck is engaging the folks with messages from the Word of God that seem to be hitting home with those who attend Chapel. Add to that the fact that he spends more time socializing throughout the race days with these people and you have a recipe for effective ministry! Praise God and good job Chuck!
After Chapel Chuck got ready to race the ATV. Unfortunately, he wadded it up pretty good halfway through the race when he was trying to pass another rider on a fast 4th gear tapped straight-away and the two collided and wound up on the ground hard. He'll tell you more about that in his report from this round later...But I was worried about how his pronounced limp was going to effect our UTV Championship racing efforts!
We have great support from Trinity Racing this year again. They make excellent UTV performance products and we can't wait to put all the new stuff on the Rhino! But, for this round, we'd have to settle for racing our Limited Rhino in the Modified class.
We were a little nervous about racing against much faster Rhinos and Teryxs this round because quite frankly, we knew we were going to get waxed off the start. And as in most all of racing, the start is VERY important. Add to this the fact that we hadn't had time to practice or even shake out our Limited Rhino...well...let's just say we were well aware that in GNCC Racing they throw out your worst finish when tallying the final Championship scores! But this would be a great tune-up race at a new track in Washington, GA. that we could see where we were driving-wise and what kind of competition we would face for the rest of the series.
We ran into the other Trinity Racing team of Josh Sterritt and his dad the co-pilot. Since racing the GNCC UTV Series, we've had the pleasure of battling with Josh in our first year where he actually won the Lites Limited Championship but then moved up to Lites Modified last year while we contended and won the Lites Limited Championship. This year, Josh moved to the Open Modified class having switched brands. It was his first race in his new machine also and it seemed like we were both in the same boat - ill-prepared and ready to toss this event finish out the window in terms of Championship points!
It was a beautiful day and racing got underway in the best of conditions. We hadn't seen the track and as the rows in front of us took of 10 seconds apart we buckled in and said a prayer and got ready to gas it.
Of course we were dead last to the first turn. The guys we're racing against can go up to 62 miles an hour while our little Limited Rhino can only hit 50 on a good day! But, we quickly made it into the woods where its tight and the drivers' skills shine. We were right on the rear bumper of 2 of our competitors with a line of Razrs ahead of them all in a freight train. We could see that our suspension set up was much better than the teams in front of us (Thanks Chad Goodwin!)...so we figured we had an advantage in the woods at least. Less than a lap in it didn't take long to make our way past both guys to put ourselves into the lead!
We made it into the open sections where we were really concerned about our competition catching and motoring by us, but we had enough of a gap that were able to keep them at bay. The course was the shortest course we've ever ran on GNCC so in some ways it was to our advantage. Chuck got to learn the lines in 6 laps while the opportunities to pass us came and went rather quickly. Add to that the fact that there were RZRs in back of us that were passing our competitors a1s well and we only seemed to be pressured about every other lap! Until...
On the second to last lap Chuck was yelling over the motor to me to check the front tire. The Rhino didn't seem to be handling that well. We both felt it, but when I looked out front there was nothing wrong that I could see. I couldn't look at the back being strapped in my 4-point harness. But we went from being able to go a mere 40mph to not even being able to go 30mph! Terry Haymaker and his co-pilot were right on us going into the last lap. Terry is the reigning Champ in the Lites Modified class and we KNOW he can drive! The last lap seemed like torture as we limped along through the woods, all the while seeing our competitors catching up to us! But Chuck was smart and backed her down just enough to make sure we slithered through the tight woods - all the while enticing Terry to possibly make a mistake. The tactic worked as Haymaker, seemingly smelling blood in the water and anxious to get around us hit a tree and broke a tie rod end. (Something we did OFTEN last year in the Lites Limited class!)
We went on to cross the finish line in 1st with a flat rear tire! We were even doubly excited when we saw that our other Trinity Racing "teammate" Josh Starrett won his class in Open Modified and actually won the overall for the day beating all the other 43 UTV entries! Congratulations to Trinity Racing!
We were a little behind the eightball going into this round, but praise God we have the focus to know that it is He who we are trying to glorify and not ourselves. Chuck and I are constantly having to put Jesus in perspective in relationship to the racing. And I believe, when we do that, not only are we truly fulfilling the Vision of Team Faith, but it seems to allow us the fortune of being that much more blessable!
We want to recognize the efforts of those who continually support us to use the sport of UTV racing to glorify Jesus: Western Powert Sports and FLY Racing have been with us for years and continue to believe that what we are doing is relevent and impactful. Thank you! We couldn't even compete in this UTV racing if it weren't for the help from Harry McDermott and the folks over at Trinity Racing. If you have a UTV you should check out their awesome products. And, if we didn't have help from Pilot Travel Centers we couldn't even go to the events we go to throughout the year...they are a HUGE help!
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