An ideal day of racing would consist of a short travel time, nice weather, and ideal track conditions. Round # 3 of the PA State Harescramble Series was anything but for DHaggs Harescramble Racing. Hurricane Hills in Clifford, PA hosted the third round in the series and despite some misfortunes it turned out to be a pretty good day after all. Figuring we would have quite a hike in store for us Sunday morning we decided to call up J. Biggs and make sure that it would be alright for us racers, my dad and I, to get a good pre-race sleep at his house which is not as far from the track. I would like to personally thank him for his hospitality and understanding of the exhausting life of racing. After an energizing dinner it was early to bed because tomorrow would be race day. There was a 6:30am wake up call and when I pulled back the curtains to get some idea of how the day might be – it was snowing! It snowed a good bit and by the time we were done eating breakfast there was a bitter cold wind that replaced the icy snowflakes. Okay, so far on race day it is snowing and the temperature is staying in the mid30’s. With our stomachs full of carbs and protein we headed up the turnpike towards New York. We were on the road for about 20 minutes when yet again we were dealt another misfortunate hand. With our safety blinkers flashing on the shoulder of the turnpike we realized that our trailer tire disintegrated and there was nothing but a rim on the concrete highway. Thinking that this could have been an enormous problem we quickly counted our blessings and got to work. My Dad located a jack while I worked on getting the lug nuts off. Needless to say that we could barely feel our fingers it was so cold and we just woke up about 45 minutes ago…talk about a stressful warm-up. Despite the snow and numbing cold we conquered the thrashed tire and were back on schedule to arrive at Hurricane Hills in time to register for the race. Upon arrival at the track we notice that not only was parking on a hill, the rainfall overnight made the roads up the mountain pretty muddy. I’ll skip all of the dirty details and just tell you that after getting stuck 3 times we finally parked it and unloaded out bikes and gear. We made registration and finally it was race time.The track was relatively shorter than most harescramble tracks but the woods setup was pretty technical. Using good sections of the motocross track and cutting trails on a super rocky mountain made for some okay racing. Throw in some challenging hill climbs, some sloppy mud sections and 100 plus racers; then you’re in for some outstanding racing. I got a great start third or fourth into the first turn but the way the track was laid out the next turn would put me in the front of the pack or a close second. I felt good for about 4 laps until I tried to go around a lapped rider stuck on a hill climb and lost my back wheel and the bike went down. The bike was on it’s side on a hill which meant that I had to pick a 275lbs dirt bike more than 120 degrees the other direction just to get it parallel so that I could sit on it again. Getting that bike up drained a lot of energy out of me and I felt it when I continued on the next lap. The race went on and I was in a nice groove since the track was starting to break down and some different lines were opening up. The trails in the woods were tight and that lead to some dicey racing in the technical sections where some were faster than others. After all was said and done and the checkered flag was waving I finished 7th in my class. Not to bad for not having my best day on the bike. My Dad ended up finishing 8th in his class and I give him respect for finishing because 2 hours of that track is no reward on the human body. After our long trip the day turned out to be great because in the end our bikes ran fine and neither of us got seriously hurt and that’s what it’s really all about. This week is Foot of the Mountain and it is another demanding track. Hopefully I’ll get back in the top 5 again.
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