Tuesday Toolbox: Doug Howarth

Doug Howarth just won his first GNCC championship. The 14-year-old high school freshman just tied up the ATV Youth championship, and what makes this even more impressive is that this is his first year racing GNCC. Howarth, who races in the 90 Modified (12-15) class, spent some time after school to tell us about his year in this week's Tuesday Toolbox.

Hey Doug how are you? Good.

Did you just get done with school for the day? Yes.

How old are you? I'm 14.

What's your favorite subject in school? English. I find it fun because you get to learn about a lot different ways how to write and how to improve my writing skills.

Is it hard to be a student and be a racer at the same time? 8^th grade was easy but 9^th grade is pretty hard.

Do other kids know you race? Quite a few of them do.

Congratulations on winning the Youth Championship. How does being the champion make you feel? It's really awesome. I didn't really expect to win it but it was just awesome to win it.

Did you think you were going to be able to take it home when you started the season this year? I tried to come in with a positive attitude and the first two races I got second so I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen.

When did you realize you were going to take it home? When I started winning a couple races overall and started winning in my class.

Is this your first year racing GNCC? Yeah. I started racing last year in the New York series and then I came to Unadilla and was 4^th overall last year. So we decided to try GNCC this year.

Is the New York series a lot like GNCC? It's pretty much the exact same just a lot smaller.

Do you still race any of the New York series? I did the whole summer during the break and during the race season. I ended up getting second in that class on my 300.

What got you interested in going cross country? You've got a lot more competition. I just like racing through the woods. I like a lot of competition.

Your class saw riders winning all over the board, how were you able to pull through to beat the others? I just took a lot of time making sure everything was ready for it. I tried to stay consistent on my lap times and not give up.

Who would you say was your biggest competition? Jay Shadronc would probably be my biggest competition.

Did you have a lot of tough battles with Blake? Unadilla was a pretty big battle. The whole season has really been a big battle. Vincent was competition the first few races and I think my skill improved and I just got a little quicker than he did.

You didn't race two races and still took home the championship. Do you mind me asking why you didn't race those two? The

one we had the opening of New York series and it was a long drive and we knew we only had to have 8 and so we just took it as one of our loses. The other one, I'm not so sure.

Who helps you with your program? Basically it's been my dad, my brother and my mom and Shadron has been a big help, and Lamont and Amy Jackson.

Who are Lamont and Amy Jackson? We met them last year in the racing season and we became really good friends. We work on four wheelers a lot together so we have a good friendship.

What's your training regimen? Well, generally Fridays we do our practicing and I try to eat healthy a few days before each race. If we don't have a race on the weekends, we'll practice on the weekends. That's when all the four-wheelers are ready to be practicing and we are all out of school. We can all chill after and see what needs to be done.

So you only eat healthy a few days before the race? Not all the time? (laughs) No, not all the time.

Besides racing and school what else are you interested in? I do some sports. I did wrestling. I ended up with a 3-3 record before I left for Florida.

What's your next step now that you've won the championship? Do you have any plans settled for next year? I'm probably going to race in the 13-15 schoolboy class.

What do you think your competition coming up in that class? I think they're going to be really hard people to beat.

Anyone in particular you're nervous about? Cheyanne Shadron. They all seem like they're pretty dang fast.

Do you like racing in the early morning? I like it being cooler and I don't have to worry about any of the energy I've burned by just sleeping so I like it.

Any new goals? Not really, I'm just going to see how next year pans out and just go from there.