Press Release –
As a series champion on the GNCC Racing Circuit, Kevin Johnston knows a good machine when he rides one and what to do with it.
On November 6, 2005 at Burnt Mill Creek cross-country course near Laurens, SC, Johnston rode a KYMCO Mongoose 250 to a first-place finish in the Utility class, beating entries from Polaris, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki in the process, then he did it again in December at the Mid East/Interstate winter race held in Yadkinville, NC.
At Burnt Creek, the Mongoose was so strong that Johnston finished a full lap ahead of the competition, even though most of them had 200cc to 400cc more displacement. The same was true at Yadkinville, where Johnston started dead last out of 42 entries, then managed to pass half the field, even though most were bigger, and supposedly faster, sport quads.
“The KYMCO is a quality product,” Johnston said after he rode the Mongoose to win two Utility-class races in a row. “We were definitely the smallest quad out there.”
Johnston, 34 and a road-grading supervisor from Denver, NC, even tested the Mongoose’s toughness by jumping a 15 foot creek on the Burnt Mill Creek course. “I was rather impressed,” he said in a post-race interview. “It definitely performed better than the other ATVs in the tight turns.”
The 2005 national champion (Johnston won the 2005 GNCC Unlimited Utility Class) decided he wanted to try out a KYMCO after seeing the Mongoose on display at the ATV World¹s Fair in Louisville, KY.
“Kevin called me the week before the hare scramble and said he wanted to pick up the quad we had at the show to run in an event,” said Joe Wofford, Vice President, Operations for KYMCO USA. “So we prepped the Mongoose and he picked it up on Friday. I spoke with him afterward and he advised me that he did ³pretty good² with it.”
The Mongoose 250 he used was stock with the exception of Elka shocks, an exhaust system, 2 A-arms from Desert Toys, and a EX 300 extended axle from RPM.
More information on KYMCO racing is available at kymcousa.com/racing.
