March 28, 2024

Baxter teen riding the off-road life

Ryan Meyer successful in first year of racing ATV on GNCC circuit

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BAXTER — Ryan Meyer is back in the state he won his first race in his inaugural season in Grand National Cross Country Series racing. The Meyer family is in West Virginia for the GNCC annual awards banquet Friday.

Ryan, 14, is a freshman at Baxter High School. He competes in basketball and baseball for Collins-Maxwell/Baxter in high school sports. Ryan also likes to go off-road.

“I’ve been racing ATV’s for three years now. I’ve always been around four-wheelers and dirt bikes, so I decided I wanted to race,” Ryan said. “This was my first year in the GNCC.”

Ryan, with the help of his father Rob Meyer, hit the GNCC racing circuit, which has 13 races in eight different states starting in March, for the 2016 season. They have traveled 24,000 miles to races in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, New York and West Virginia.

It paid off for Ryan with a second-place overall finish in the ATV 125 Sr Division, which is for riders ages 12 to 15. He finished with three race victories. Ryan had one second-place finish, four third-place finishes, a fourth and a fifth among his race finishes.

“I love the intensity of the sport and the competition,” Ryan said. “It’s kind of unique from school-sanctioned sports, and it’s something I can do with my dad.”

Ryan and Rob build his racing ATVs in their home shop. Ryan said they do everything expect for the motors. Rob said they have the motors built by someone in Pennsylvania.

Ryan said he liked the off-road racing aspect. He said the courses are laid out differently so there is a new challenge each time out.

“We started racing in the Iowa series three years ago,” Rob said. “We struggled our second year of racing. We didn’t finish half of the races in the Iowa series and didn’t finish in the top 10 in the points standings. We knew we were getting the bugs worked out of the machine.”

Rob said a group of fathers and their sons, who raced in Iowa, decided to check out the GNCC, which is consider America’s premier off-road racing series. He said the group went to Florida for 10 days in March when the season opened.

“Ryan finished second in his division in that first race, so we thought maybe this was something we wanted to do. Ryan made the podium in the second race in Georgia,” Rob said. “We discussed it and he decided he wanted to compete at this level.”

The GNCC series begins the first weekend of March. There are races in March, April, May and June then there’s a break of action.

Racing resumes with a couple of events in September and October.

“I was in third place overall for awhile early in the season then we had a couple of bad finishes,” Ryan said. “In the second half of the season, I began doing better.”

Ryan said the courses wind through wooded areas and there is water to ride through. A race is 60 minutes long and riders will go through a course several times for the five-mile distance.

Classes are determined by vehicle engine size and rider age.

Ryan said on the GNCC there are youth and adult racing classes along with professional off-road racing classes.

Riders have transponders on their helmets and pass through several check points along the course. Through the transponders, riders’ times are recorded, Rob said.

Ryan said riders have to have a helmet, chest protector, neck brace, long sleeve jersey, long pants and boots to race. Riders also wear goggles, gloves and knee pads.

“I blew out a tire during a race and it was tough to steer, but I kept going,” Ryan said.

Rob said they had to make a pit stop, which cost them some time. He said Ryan was able to get back up to finish fifth in that race.

Coming off of back-to-back third-place finishes, Ryan went into the final race of the first portion of the schedule at Snowshoe, W.Va., looking for his first win. He got it in the race at the end of June.

After the two-month break, Ryan notched his second victory on Sept. 10. On the course at New Berlin, N.Y., Ryan won the Unadilla GNCC race. He ended up fifth and ninth in the next two races this fall.

On the final weekend of October, the GNCC series held its season finale — the AMSOIL Ironman at Crawfordsville, Ind.

“I give Ryan kudos. He is an honor roll student. He does the work in the classroom and competes. He is learning life lessons, and I’m proud of him,” Rob said. “He is helping with all the preparation in the shop. He has learned what it takes to pack up his racing gear, travel 1,000 miles, compete, travel back home and do the work.”

Sponsorships are important to racing. Ryan and Rob said Ryan is able to compete because of contributions from several local sponsors — Van Maanen Electric of Newton, Colfax Tractor Parts of Colfax, Farrell Properties of Newton and Baxter Comfort Solutions of Baxter.

“We’re so grateful and appreciated to these sponsors. Their contributions allow Ryan to compete in a sport he really enjoys,” Rob said.

Ryan said he will move up into the Super Mini class in the 2017 season in the GNCC. He will race a different engine-sized ATV in the School-Boy Jr class on the Iowa ATV Hare Scramble Series. He raced in the Super Mini class in Iowa this past year.

“It is something I want to keep doing,” Ryan said.

So, look for RM12 Racing on the GNCC Series circuit again in March.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com