Primetime Hare Scrambles

I just finished my first real off-road race yesterday, the Primetime Hare Scrambles(mx is kind of different from off-road in that it's on a specially prepped track). It was a blast, but it also kicked my butt. Hare Scrambles are where you race a 5-10 mile loop (this one was 8 miles) as many times as you can in an hour and a half. I managed to get 4 laps in, while my buddy Oscar (who races enduros) managed to get 5 in!

Hare Scrambles have a dead-engine start, and unfortunately, my bike seemed to be taking 2 kicks to start, so I got off behind almost everyone. Normally this isn't such a bad thing, but most of this race seemed to be tight single-track, with no chance to pass. There were a couple of crashes/stalls in the single-track on the first lap that wound up with 20-bike back-ups, which maybe I could have skipped if I'd gotten a better start. Oh well. My second lap was my best, and I really seemed to be doing good in the open stuff (fire trails and mx tracks, etc...), which makes sense given that I race supermoto and practice MX. Unfortunately, by the third lap I started to get really tired. My legs were starting to give out and I needed to sit down as much as I could. Good thing I pulled a muscle in my back a week ago, cuz it hurt every time I hit a bump. :)

By the fourth lap I was done. I had to stop racing, and just put-putted around the track. I'm no good at single-track, and it killed me. I just wound up going for a leisurely ride on the last lap. I think most everyone else near me was in about the same shape, though. I could still go fast on the wide-open areas, which saved me. There's a common race saying that goes something like this: "Go fast in the fast parts, and take your time in the tough parts." This basically means that you make up time in the fast sections, and take it easy in the difficult/risky parts. Usually in the hard parts, you're going slow anyways, so if you go slower, it's not a big deal. You don't actually lose that much time, but if you're slow in the fast parts, you can actually lose a lot. At any rate, the fast parts are where I did well, although the open 2-stroke people (who started in the first wave - I was in the 6th wave) started to catch up in the last lap.

I made it through the finish line, and I was so relieved. I was done, and ready to get off the bike. At that point, I knew I wouldn't do this kind of racing that much. It's too much work. :) I think I'll definitely do the Primetime Hare Scrambles next year, though. It's nice to race in an area that you know really well. It makes it really easy to remember what's coming up in the track. Now that I think about it more after the fact, I think I may do more off-road racing. It's fun, different from what I normally do, and I bet it'll be really good for me to learn to go fast through rough stuff.

Of course, in any race, the only thing that counts is how you finish. So, here it is. Not so pretty.

C Vet (30+): 30th/40 - 4 laps 15:44:53.86 (118th overall out of 160 total C class)

Oscar: C Open 4-stroke: 16/36th - 5 laps 15:58:33.01 (78th overall)

TimeKeepers - the club that put on this race

C Results - the results on the AMA District 36 site

New '06 gear

I just got myself setup with my new equipment for the 2006 race season. I'm riding a new 2005 Yamaha YZ250F. I had such great luck with my '02 Yamaha being super fast and reliable that I just got the new one. I love it. It's smooth, fast, and even easier to ride. The Metzeler race slicks that I have on it make a huge difference as well. They don't squirm, chatter, or break loose the way some other tires do.

I also got the new 2006 TLD supermoto riding gear. It's really comfortable, and it looks very protective as well. I haven't gotten a chance to crash test it yet (knock on wood), but I think it will hold up fine. It also allows for much more flexibility than leathers, which helps with maintaining proper form.

Jake Thompson - Stockton Round 7

Jake Thompson (#611) is another one of the races I often find myself battling with, although he's quite a bit younger than I am (usually an advantage). We race together in the Lightweight and Production Mini classes.



The tabletop in the dirt section at Stockton



Battling in the turn leading up to the dirt section. This turn can be tricky because you have to go through it as fast as you can on the pavement, and then straighten up right away to get on the dirt without sliding out.

Stockton Round 7 Race Report

Coming into the second to last round of the Stockton series, I was starting to feel some momentum building and thought I might have a chance at taking the Middleweight Novice series title away from David Goldstein. We were ranked first and second, with only 8 points between us, and no chance anyone else could catch us. I beat David in the last race for the first time and knew that if I could just beat him by a couple of positions in the last 2 races, the title was mine.

Of course, after having said all that, I got a horrible start in the Middleweight Novice heat race. Once again I was gridded right next to David Goldstein (#13). I wheelied off the line a bit and fell in behind him, but got squeezed off by a couple of people coming around the outside of the first corner. I was still in a decent spot, but then someone came by me in the turn leading up to the dirt and I blew my transition onto the dirt. My rear tire spun out in the dirt and I was able to recover pretty quickly, but since it was the first lap, 3 or 4 riders got by me before I was able to get my bike straightened out and going forward again. I spent the rest of the race stuck in a train that had formed behind David. Everyone was riding really close together, so I wasn't having much luck passing people and moving up in the train. I tried to get past Scott Sneddon (#974) in the dirt, but he's been practicing at Club Moto in the dirt with slicks, so it didn't go so well. I tried to take the outside line around him over the double, but I wasn't able to stay on the groove before the loose "flat track" corner that comes right after it. I went wide into the marbles and had to berm off a tiny mound of loose dirt to get turned for the corner. I didn't lose it, but it was definitely not my most in control moment.

It didn't look like I was going to be able to get anywhere in the heat race, so I tried to figure out where I would start on the grid for the main. At Stockton the outside line is definitely better, because you can go around people in the first corner and squeeze them off. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how many people had gotten in front of David on the start. I guessed 2 people had gotten by in the start, because he finished 3rd in the heat race last time. Since there were 3 people in between us, that put me in the 7th spot on the main grid, which is the outside of the second row (we run alternate between 3 and 4 people on each row of the grid). Since 7th was about the best I could hope for given my start, I decided to just stay put. On the second to last lap, DJ Sharkey (#332) came up the inside of me in the left hander at the end of the straight. He was able to outbrake me and force me wide in the corner to make the pass, which made me go aggro, because there was no way I wanted to start on the inside of the 3rd row in the main. Sharkey has always been a faster rider on the pavement so I started to set him up as soon as we got to the dirt section. I tried the same move I had tried on Scott earlier and took the wider line around the corner after the tabletop and went around him on the outside of the double. Thankfully, this time it worked like a charm and I was able to get back my #7 spot.

Unfortunately, I had guessed wrong about how many people had gotten by David, and I was actually in the #9 spot. 3rd row, 2nd on the inside in a giant pack of riders. Not my idea of a good position for the start of the main. David wound up in the second row on the inside, so it looked like my one hope was to get by him in the start and squeeze him off in the first corner.
I was actually pretty stressed out by this start, because my hope had been to be gridded next to or in front of David so I could put some distance between us. I think I actually got a halfway decent start, given that I just recently started getting holeshots, but since I was gridded on the 3rd row, it didn't wind up that well anyway. I wound up in a train stuck behind David. Bert Toth was 2nd in line, followed by Scott Sneddon, who's been getting much better starts lately. I tried desperately to get around Scott, but I wasn't able to put a pass in on him. After a couple of laps, we came down the straightaway only to see a yellow flag being waved. Dorrey Ingoglia (#441), who won the last race, was down on the ground and not moving. As soon as we got around him, they red flagged the race and we lined up at the start finish line. Apparently Dorrey had gone down in the left hander right in front of pit row and had gotten hit in the head hard by one of the motorcycles following him. Eventually he got off the track and sat on one of the hay bales for the rest of the race. I saw him walk his bike off the track after the race, so I think he's all right, although I wasn't able to talk to him about it afterwards.

They lined us up in the order from the previous lap for a single file restart. This was my chance to get out of the train. Bert Toth and Scott Sneddon lined up aiming to go around David on the outside, so I aimed for the inside. With a couple of laps left, I knew I could get around David if I wound up right behind him. On the start I got past Scott and slid in right behind David. Bert managed to make his way around David as well, so I was in a pretty good position after the first turn. David is a very conservative rider who is just incredibly difficult to get around, so I got to work right away. Once we got into the dirt, I tried to get around him the same way I had gotten around Sharkey. I took the outside line around the first corner and showed him a wheel over the double. David was having no part of that and elbowed me out of the groove and into the marbles, where I bermed off the same little pile of dirt again. Great riding on his part. I got back in behind him and tried to go inside him at the end of the straightaway, but he rode way inside, as he usually does, and there was no way I was squeezing inside him. The next time around I tried the same line in the dirt and overcooked it and went wide in the marbles. This time Scott was right behind me and showed me a wheel as I bermed off the dirt pile. I managed to stay in front of him getting out of the dirt, but I realized was going to have to find another way around David since Scott was so close behind me.

I tried to go outside David at the end of the straightaway, but I couldn't get around him, and I couldn't pass him on the big left hand sweeper because he hugged the inside line super tight. On the next lap I stayed on the gas as long as I could on the straightaway and backed it in to the right hander on the outside of David. I slid right past him and was able to get on the gas and get through the corner before him. In the next lap I was able to put a pretty decent gap on him, and started to catch up to the next rider, but by then it was the white flag lap. I crossed the finish line and looked back to see Scott only a couple of feet behind David, but he wasn't able to get by him. While I did manage to beat David for the second time in a row, neither of us did particularly well. There were a heap of fast riders there that day and we finished in 8th and 9th respectively, closing the points gap between us by a solitary point, leaving it at 7 points between 1st and 2nd.

After the race David bought Pucho Bagnis' #1 plate Vertemati race bike from last season, so there's no telling what will happen next season. My friend Linda also came out to race minis for the first time that day. She had a blast, and we were able to dice in the mini races. She's been racing in the Stockton Mini Road Race series and has gotten pretty good at that whole pavement thing. Thankfully, racing supermoto does count for something, and I was able to flat track around her in the dirt after spinning out on the first lap of the main. I like to think of it as payback for her trying to outbrake me in practice and going up the inside on the right hander at the end of the straightaway. She wasn't expecting me to stay so close to the inside of the corner, so she rear ended me and got her ttr-125 stuck in between the rear tire and fender of my xr100. In the Prestige race at the end of the day, Bobby Fong (#82, 15 years old) was riding like a madman and caught up to Pucho Bagnis (#1) on the last lap of the day. I'm not sure if Pucho even knew he was there, but Bobby tried the same move up the inside in the exact same place and t-boned Pucho. Bobby went down and pushed Pucho off the track into the grass, but they were both able to keep going (after Pucho looked around to figure out what the heck had happened) and finish in 1st and 2nd.

All in all, a great day of racing. A little overcast, 87 degrees. Lot's of dicing and passing. A decent finish. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

-- Don

SupermotoUSA #57
'01 yz250f, '00 xr100
Sponsored by: T-Pro Body Armour, Johnson Leathers in SF, EBC Brakes, Silkolene Oils, Scuderia West, and Motostrano.com.

My first win! Stockton Round 6

In the Middleweight Novice heat race, I was gridded on the front row next to David Goldstein, who I've been battling with all season. I've got some speed on him, but I've never been able to do anything with it. He always gets really good starts, and then he's incredibly difficult to get around. He knows how to block really well. I guess he's kinda like the Alan Yarrow of Middleweight Novice. I've been practicing my starts recently, and I was able to see some improvement at the Arco Arena race where I held my line a lot better in the mad rush for the first corner.

David had pole in the heat race, and I was gridded second. When the flag dropped I got the holeshot and got away from David pretty fast. Dorrey Ingoglia (441) started from the outside of the third row and got past the rest of the 1st and 2nd rows, including David. He was really fast and started pressuring me in the dirt. On the second lap he managed to sneak inside me down the straight and push me wide in the "backin' it in" corner. I went outside him on the next corner and had good drive, but spun up the back wheel and almost lost it. I had pretty much caught back up to him by the dirt, but he lost it right before the double. I think he even slid up and over the first jump. For some reason, the dirt section had developed two pretty bad sandy sections, one right before the double, and one right in the middle of the last dirt corner. People were crashing there all day. I went outside him and took off. I was able to put a good lead on the pack, and by the time Bert Toth (riding HighSpeed's CR250F) got past him, I was long gone. Even though I had a good lead, I couldn't believe how long it took for the white flag to come out, and I really couldn't believe it when the checkered flag came out for my first ever race win.

Unfortunately, at Stockton the pole position isn't actually that good, because it's pretty easy to get squeezed out by people on the outside. I got a good start in the main, but David Goldstein came over into me and pinched me out of the first corner. I guess the guy on the outside of him was really leaning on him to make sure he could get past him in the start. No one wants to have to pass David. After the first corner I wound up in 4th, with one rider between me and David. The three of us diced for a couple of laps, with the other rider and I trying to take the inside and outside lines around David, and neither of us being able to pull it off. I had a pretty big front wheel slide in the left hand corner after the straight, but managed to save it somehow. The next lap, the other rider went around David on the double, and managed to get in front of him before the next dirt corner. The next lap I tried the same move, but wasn't quite able to get in front of him. With David in front of me in the dirt, I cut to the inside going over the last jump just before the pavement. David drifted wide and spun out his rear tire in the loose stuff a little bit. He didn't crash, but I was able to get better drive than him onto the pavement and pulled past him easily going down the straightaway.

I checked out on David at that point, but there weren't enough laps left for me to catch the next rider, so I finished in 3rd place, which is my best finish in a main at Stockton. It was also the first time for me to get past David in a main and place ahead of him. He finished fourth, so I believe he's in the lead for the Middleweight Novice series, and has 8 points on me. It all comes down to the last two races, and whether or not I can beat him convincingly in both.

-- Don

SupermotoUSA #57
'01 yz250f, '00 xr100
Sponsored by: T-Pro Body Armour, Johnson Leathers in SF, EBC Brakes, Silkolene Oils, Scuderia West, and Motostrano.com.