AMA National Harescramble Race Recap

The AMA National Harescramble Series made its last stop on the tour in Eagleswood, New Jersey this past Sunday. The event was sponsored by Meteor MC and hosted by the Atlantic Grand Prix Series. With weather conditions nearly perfect and the sense of fierce national competition around the pits would lead you to believe that we were in for an amazing day of racing. Well, the reality of it all hit when it was 4:15 and I still haven’t raced yet and we were scheduled to start at 1:30. I was supposed to race a three hour race which would be a little difficult since sunset in the mornings paper said 6:19. Let me explain.
My Dads race was supposed to start at 11:30, but the organizers put every C class on one gi-normous line. So we sat there for about 2 hours until they could figure out who was in what class and what line they were supposed to be on. Finally they said start’em up so it wasn’t long and they were off. Now this is when I got really fired up, someone got hurt on the track and the ambulance had to take them off to the hospital and in the NJ off-road rule book you can’t run an event without medics on the scene. So they did one lap and the race was black flagged and they all had to get on the start and line up again until another ambulance showed up – they sat for another 40 minutes. At this point I didn’t even want to ride and I was seriously looking into getting my money back. I ended up going back to the trailer to eat something and then walking back up to see the second start. By the way, D Haggs Sr. holeshoted the start not only the first time but also the second time. The second time was a lot better because the first time he was going so fast that he overshot the first turn and lost his lead. The second time was a mirror image but he managed to tone it down and make the hairpin turn and keep his position at the front of the class heading into the woods. He ran a really good race, fast in the woods and strong in the fields. He thinks, nah he pretty much knows, he ended up in the top ten but due to all the previous catastrophe his scanner was unreliable. What’s important is how good of a ride he put in for the day.
I on the other hand had to get ready because I had no idea what was going on or when we would start or how long we were going to race for. I lined up and was able to see D Haggs Sr. finish his last lap up strong. There was some shuffling of lines prior to my race to but nothing like the supposed “morning race.” There were some big time pros on the front line and like always they were freak’n fast. It’s awesome being able to be out there and see them ride right by you while you try to follow their line but then in 5 seconds you can’t even see them anymore. After the dust cleared I was off and I got a great start, everyone pushed wide and I snuck right inside and came out of the first corner in third. Myself and the second place guy went at it right away. It wasn’t brought to my attention till the ride home but I was so fired up with how the day went I was pushing hard right off the start. Normally it takes me a little bit to get going but on Sunday I was on it! I made a good pass on the second place guy once we got into the woods and then it was me and first place, he was on a Honda. He was fast, I doubt that he was even a B rider but I was up for the challenge. He crashed hard and I raced by looking at him keeping my quick pace. It wasn’t long before he caught up to me passing me and out of my site. They again on the following lap there he was track side from crashing again. I passed him and pushed a bit harder this time and it was a while but he caught me again and made the pass. From then on out I found a pack of fast riders and hung with them for a while until I passed them. I felt so good and the track was AWESOME. I’m pretty sure that I love riding in the sand because it suits my riding style so well, and the way the track flowed it was if they built the track for me. I’m pretty sure that as the race went on my lap times dropped. There was some tight woods, some wide open sections where I was topped out on the bike, some cool elevation changes, and even some jumps. The woods were my favorite because they had great loamy dirt and a good portion of them had multiple lines where you could get creative; picking good lines is what I feel I’m best at. Due to the time the hardest part of the track was trying to see because the sun was so low it was right in your eyes the whole time. And when you were in the woods roots and trees were all over the place and the whole time I was trying to shade my eyes with my visor because I just couldn’t see anything. My last lap was probably my best; I was alone for about 90 percent of it. It wasn’t until there was about one mile to the finish line when the pro guys passed me again. I was still running strong and was able to do a few more laps but because of daylight the shortened to race to a normal two hours. When I came across the finish line the scanner board said 2nd and I was more than happy with that because I had an awesome ride, a great end to the day and an even better end to the season.
Thanks again to everyone who supported me throughout the year. Look for a year end recap coming soon!