A different kind of spousal support

Joe and Heather Byrd will have to wait for another time.

The husband and wife team from Union City, Tenn., have raced their ATVs against each other hundreds of times.

This weekend, they hoped to race one another in a national event, but only one of the two qualified for the final Four Wheel Frenzy race at ESPN's Great Outdoor Games presented by Dodge at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

While Joe Byrd, 32, qualified in Heat 1 for the final Four Wheel Frenzy race, Heather ranked low in Heat 2 and placed 10th in the Last Chance Qualifier early Saturday, eliminating her from the final race.

"I've beaten him … once," said Heather, who was a last-minute addition to the race. "It was a local race."

The couple is only the third married team to compete in the same Great Outdoors Games event in the same year. Jackie and Kathy Caudle of Gadsden, Ala., did it in Archery in 2000, and this year, Cindy and Jerry Decker faced off in Archery, with Jerry taking the silver medal. Cindy tied for ninth.

In motor racing, teammates sometimes have little regard for each other, crashing each other or brushing one aside to get past. But it's not that way in the Byrd household.

"I'm not going to bump her out of the way," Joe said.

Still, the chances the Byrds would compete in the main event on Saturday night were remote. Because she was a late addition, Heather's Honda quad was still in the couple's Tennessee race shop, forcing her to race on her husband's backup bike.

Sniffing in the Hot Zone

ESPN's Great Outdoor Games include many sports with a few quirks that fans of mainstream sports such as football, basketball and baseball may consider unusual.

For example, one of the events held Saturday, the Hot Zone, started with a "boom sniff." The organizers of the event, which features sporting dogs jumping and catching flying discs thrown by handlers, wanted to be sure that the 12 competing dogs would be comfortable with the giant camera boom floating above them as ESPN crews captured the action for telecast next week.

So, early in the morning, the production crew lowered the boom camera to ground level and allowed the dogs to walk around and "sniff" it, becoming familiar with it and therefore not getting startled during the competition.

The Games will be aired on ESPN and ABC Sports July 13-17, 2005. Click here for the broadcast schedule.