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Fayette
Front Page... a better side of news for the citizens of Fayette County!
First to bring you complete daily community news you can use. Enjoy some
of the best news in the county and the state of Georgia!
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand
fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as
sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as
effects.
- Henry Melville
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Six essential qualities that
are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy,
wisdom, charity. - William Menninger
Local motorcyclists Russell Bobbitt (left) and Andrew Matusek (right)
round a turn during an aggressive practice session
7/12/07 Local talent Russell Bobbitt and Andrew Matusek have
one big thing in common--their passion for off-road motorcycling. Friends on
and off their bikes, they train together and occasionally race together,
traveling to near and distant places across the U.S.
Russell started riding a Yamaha PW50 when he was 4 years old.
Andrew rode an ATV when he was 2 and moved up to a two-wheeled Suzuki JR50 when
he was 3. In 1994, when Andrew was 6 years old, he won his first amateur
motocross national title, flying with his Delta Airlines dad (and mechanic),
John. Russell started racing in enduros, a different type of motorcycle event,
when he was about 10, traveling to different points in the Southeast with his
dad, Bo, who owns Cycle Specialty in Fayetteville.
Currently, Andrew is the only east coast amateur Kawasaki team
rider. He is presently the top amateur rider in the Grand National Cross
Country (GNCC) series, the largest off-road racing series in the U.S., where he
competes in the four-stroke A Lites class on his Kawasaki KX250F. He has won an
amateur title in this series the last four years in a row. He is also the 2007
Southeastern Enduro and Trail Riders Association (SETRA) Hare Scrambles
Champion. In addition to the GNCC series, Andrew competes in the Southern
Off-road Championship Series (SORCS).
As a Red Bull KTM factory rider, Russell is the 2006 National
Enduro Series Champion, was on the 2006 International Six Days Enduro World
Champion U.S. Junior Trophy Team, is the 2006 and 2007 SETRA Enduro Champion,
the 2006 SETRA Hare Scrambles Champion, and the 2006 Florida Trail Riders Enduro
Champion. He will be competing in two rounds of the World Enduro Championship
in New York and Ontario, Canada in July, and is also competing in the National
Enduro Series and in the GNCC Series in the XC1 class. He will again represent
the U.S. on the U.S. Junior Trophy Team at this year’s ISDE in Chile in
November.
How do they perform at peak levels? Both riders train,
oftentimes together. They practice ride 2-3 times per week and also ride road
bikes to cross train. Russell includes some trials motorcycling when he can
(precision, low-speed, technical riding over and around obstacles on a trials
bike) and aerobic exercise and stability training, working with trainer Mark
Anderson of Bicycles Unlimited in Peachtree City. Andrew’s personal trainer is
professional motocrosser Shae Bentley.
Andrew is a 2005 graduate of McIntosh High School and a
Fayette County resident. Russell attended Fayette County schools and graduated
from the Heritage School in Newnan in 2004. To follow these riders’ series, go
to
www.gnccracing.com or
www.nationalenduro.com.
