Natalie Engages in Intense Battle and Miller Given OK to Race

Pell City, AL (March 30, 2008) – Round number 2 of the AMA ATV Motocross Nationals saw Warnert Racing’s, John Natalie, engaged in a 2-moto heated battle with National champ Joe Byrd. Byrd applied the pressure, but Natalie showed why he is the WPSA champ and never buckled despite the fierce competition. Meanwhile, Cody Miller was given the thumbs up to race, after a health scare at round 1 in Glen Helen, and made his National Pro class racing debut.

Out of 28 Pros that showed up, only 6 of them had earned seated positions, but Cody Miller had no problems in Saturday’s qualifying round, securing his spot for Sunday. Miller came off the line in 6^th place during the first moto, and fell back to 11th. In his 2^nd moto, Cody was in 15^th place out of the gate, but kept his focus, and raced a smart consistent race and eventually worked his way up to 11^th place. “Everything went really good,” said Miller. “Warnert has been great to work with, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of this season,” he said. Between now and round 3 Cody plans to do a little testing on his bike and train a little bit harder so he can get back to the level he was at before his recent health issue sidelined him from training and riding for a couple of weeks.

While Cody was holding his own out on the track, John Natalie had his hands full trying to hold off Joe Byrd. In the first moto, John came out of the hole in 6^th place and soon worked his way up to 3rd place with the #7 bike nipping at his heels. Byrd was so close, he almost appeared to be perched on Natalie’s grab bar at one point, but Natalie kept his cool and held him off for the entire first moto, and hanging on to 3^rd place as he crossed the finish line.

In the second moto, it was Natalie that grabbed the holeshot, but the fierce competition between the top 5 sent him back to 2^nd place where he once again found himself under pressure from Byrd. Natalie and Byrd battled back and forth for several laps. Byrd soon fell back but Natalie soon found himself doing battle once again as Chad Wienen began to close the gap. Natalie was doing an excellent job of keeping Wienen at bay, but Wienen and Natalie connected which caused John’s tie rod to break, forcing the #13 Can-Am to DNF. “We got too close in one of the corners and Chad ran into me and the impact broke my tie rod,” said Natalie disappointedly. “We’ve done a lot of testing and tuning and the bike was running great,” he concluded.

The next round of the AMA ATV Motocross Nationals will be held at Ballance MotoX in Bowling Green, KY on April 12-13 where Natalie, Miller and the rest of the Warnert crew will once again demonstrate their competitive spirits.