Tuesday Toolbox: Zach Jones

In 2009 Youth ATV Racer Zach Jones and his family made plans to race the entire season and make a bid for a coveted Youth ATV Championship.  The night before the Big Buck GNCC they literally had everything taken away.  Truck, trailer, Quad, RZR and all the other race stuff were gone along with a dream.  But thanks to determination and a little help from a few friends Zach is back and looking to win.

GNCCRacing.com: Hey Zach good to see you at the Big Buck GNCC especially since this is the place where your racing career almost ended before it begin.  Can you tell me what happened?

Zach Jones: Yeah in 2009 we were staying at a hotel and when we woke up to come to the races and all our stuff was gone.  It was really hard to have that happen.  We were going to race our first full season of GNCC and we had everything ready and then we had nothing.

What happened after that?

We took the rest of the year and tried to sort things out.   I got a sponsorship with Apex thanks to Jay Shadron and we just started practicing for the next year.

That's really cool to have that happen after all the bad luck with losing your stuff.  How did your first full season in 2010 go?

It turned out good.  I ended up 3^rd in points for the year in my class and was 12^th overall and that's my national number.

This Big Buck GNCC should hold some special memories for you then.  I understand that you just got in from a family vacation.  Where did you go?

We went to the Bahamas and it was awesome!  We went to all the waterslides and played on the beach.  We went scuba diving; we played with dolphins, had some really good food and just had fun.

I bet it was tough to leave a vacation like that?

Not really.  I was thinking we were going to come back and have another vacation here at the Big Buck. (Chuckles) But when we got back on Thursday we went out practicing and Dad was getting me ready for this race and I took my Raptor out and I was riding really hard and then I clipped a tree and broke it.

Oh man!  Talk about the luck!  What did you do?

It was still able to move so we just rode back to the house.  We weren't able to bring it.  Fortunately it was my practice bike so I was still able to race.

How was your day of racing here at the Big Buck?

I got 2nd in my class and 4th over -all.  I was running up front for a while then on the last lap Charlie (Welch) took a line that I didn't think I could make, but he took it and made it.

It looks like you guys have had some pretty intense battles already this season.  What's it been like for you?

It's been fun!  Charlie's a good rider and Westley (Wolfe) is a good rider too.  Westley has just had some bad luck with his quad.  But the three of us are just neck and neck the whole race and we are all together.

So did you have any practice time coming into this season?

No.  I didn't get to ride any this winter.  I get practice at these races and I just get better at the races. I do have a few trails behind our house but that's probably not going to last very long because someone bought the property.

So does it boost your confidence knowing you have not had any practice and can still run up there with the fast guys like that?

Oh yeah!  I mean if I am doing this good with barely any practice then I know once I can get some more practice I will be able to really put some pressure on them.

I hear that you are not only a great racer but also a great scholar as well.   Can you enlighten us on that part of your life?

I have kept straight "A"s since first grade.  A few months ago just before Christmas I took the SAT for practice and scored higher than 33% of high school seniors taking the same test.

*Note*(This year Zach scored higher than 98.5% of the 7th graders in the Federal Government's standardized testing which qualified him for a Duke University program.  This program enabled Zach to take the high school senior college SAT test and Zach scored higher than 33% of the seniors that took the exam. He is also in several other honors programs and he was a starter on the school football team and soccer team).

How old are you?!

I am 12 years old and in 7^th grade.

Wow!  What are your plans scholastically, I mean will you be advanced to other grade levels?

I'm just going to keep doing what I am doing.  I want to keep my grades high and study more.   Well I'm not really studying that much, but I need to start studying more. (Laughs)

What are your plans for the future?

I do plan on going to college somewhere.  I am not sure where really but I also know I want to keep this racing close to us because it is a lot of fun.

What are your plans for the rest of the season?

We are having Justin with Maximum RPM build us a motor with a Malosi on it.  Hopefully that will help keep me up speed wise with Westley and Charlie in the fields.  And hopefully that means I will get a lot of podiums with that.  Podiums are what I am shooting for.

Thanks for talking with us today!  Good luck with everything.

Thanks.   I want to also tell my Dad thanks.  He is always working on my 4-wheeler right up till the night before the races.  Also thanks to my Mom and my sister for supporting me.  Thanks to Maximum RPM for getting us the stuff for my Dad to work on it with.  Thanks to Apex Racing for hooking me up with a nice quad.  I would also like to thank the Shadrons because they got us started with Apex and they really helped us out getting to where I am now.  Also the Ballance Racing team for when we had all our stuff stolen they were there and they invited me to hang out in the pits with them that day.  I got to meet all the pros and it was a lot of fun.  That also really help to inspire me to get to where