Rausch Creek National Pics!

Camp
DownHill with a Twist

Assistant Pitman Lending a Helping Hand on the Line

DHaggs Jr. Playing Catch-up on an Up-Hill

DHaggs Sr. Taking a Good Line off the Start

Podium - Stoner (Left) is the Man Right Now!

Even the Trailer Made a Race for the First time this Year!

Pictures By: DHaggs Jr - Pitman Jimmy B - A. Mohar

AMA National Harescramble Race Recap!

Round #6 of the AMA National Harescramble Series EAST was held this past Sunday in Good Springs, PA. This event was also co-sanctioned with the Pennsylvania State Harescramble Series. Despite the reputation of Rausch Creeks brutal terrain there was a huge turnout for the event. Riders came from all over the east coast and there was a respectable showing from some of the top pro’s, twelve to be exact. Since the race was “suppose” to start at 11, which for some reason they never do at Rausch Creek, we decided to get up there early and leave Saturday afternoon. We were able to walk a bit of the track and even though the small part that we walked was not so rocky, I knew the real horror that was going to haunt us come mid-day Sunday.
The track was 13 miles long and was with out a doubt the hardest track that I have ever ridden on, let alone tried to race on for 3 hours. It was just rocks after rocks after boulders after rocks. Then there were make it or break it up hills where if you didn’t pin the gas there was no way that you were going to make it up it. There were down hills where both your back and front breaks were locked up and you were still flying down them. There were creek crossing sections and some swamp sections where there were multiple lines, some were 5 or 6 feet deep, some were the point of no return and some you could just get through without sinking your bike. There was just no where you could take a break, there was a section of black coal fire road but you were going about 60 miles and hour and focusing on not hitting the protruding rock that were showing through the soil which made you stay on your toes because I’d imagine that crashing at that speed would extremely hurt. It was just 13 miles of the gnarliest beating that I have ever taken, and the start was no exception.
For some reason the start was all messed up with our lines because we had 250 A, Open A, and 200 A all on the same line. So instead of holding up the race any longer they decided to run all of us on the same line and then adjust our scoring at the end of the race. Not such a great confidence booster when your about to kill yourself for the next three hours and in the back of your head your thinking that some one could mess up the scoring trying to figure all of that out. Regardless the green flag dropped and I got a great start, bolted to the first right hand turn and was probably in the top 5 or 6. There was about half a mile of rocky road with a slight hill climb in there and then we were heading into the woods. There was a course worker at the top of the road pointing to the right signaling that we needed to slow down because we were going down hill. The hill went straight down for about 10 feet and then there was a little ledge about 7 feet wide and then the hill went STRAIGHT DOWN into a seriously deep valley. Well the course worker didn’t motion or tell you that you were going to have to make a 180 degree turn and stay on that ledge and continue to the right once coming down the down hill. I was banging bars with another rider and he went to the inside and I went to the outside, I went straight down the hill and then when it was too late I noticed that we had to make a hard right. I went of the ledge about 3 feet and I tried to save it and ride down the hill into the ravine but my bike caught a rock while horizontal on the hill and it projected me like a bucking bull off the side. I hit a cluster of trees with my upper half and it made me spin like a helicopter and then I rolled down the steep hill until a tree stopped my fall. My bike was about 20 feet up the hill almost completely upside down. Just imagine my bike at this degree / with my handlebars being the bottom of the slash and my wheels at the top of the slash. That’s how steep this hill was. I climbed back up and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to flip my bike back up horizontally so I pulled on the front wheel so the bike was still on the side but facing down. Then I picked up my bike and bull dogged it down into the ravine. I got back on my bike, composed my self and tried to get out of that baby. As I watched not only my class but 2 other classes as well race past me about 20 feet above my head around the lip of this ravine I pinned the gas so hard and happened to make it out of there. I regained my composer and made sure that I kept a good pace and tried not get over excited and try and catch up to my class because I was way back. My only hope now was to try and get them at the end. I felt really good when I got back on pace and even thought the track was physically demanding I thought to myself that this track is actually not too bad. After one lap I felt good and managed to pick up the pace on the second lap putting in charges here and there. Again I was feeling good and with all of the different obstacles on the course I found myself enjoying the hill climbs and the creek crossings. I didn’t enjoy the rocks so much but I guess I was in a bit of a trance and was getting used to them. After my second lap I still felt pretty good and it was at the middle of the third lap where I started to feel the effects of the heat and the track conditions. The pit area was located at the 10.5 mile mark so you had to make a whole lap before you were able to pit. We decided to pit on the third lap, which went great. Pitman Jimmy B gave my some additional well needed water while assistant pit man for the day, Aaron fueled me up and even DHaggs Sr. was there because he seized his engine earlier in the race. His sarcastic “how fun is this track,” made me realize that it wasn’t just me who despises Rausch Creek for the 13 miles of hell they laid out. After denying new goggles and gloves I kicked the bike and was off to the uphill which was just after the pit area. I pushed for the next 3 and a half miles and came around to the scanner and I was off on my fourth lap. I still had a bit of energy left so I set a pace and rode through the shredded trail. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to hold this pace for much longer so regardless this was going to be my last lap. One by one I saw the mile markers out on the course and one by one my muscles started to stop working. It seemed that each mile that I put behind me a new muscle started to cramp up. It was hot and pushing like that for three hours and going so slow in those rocky conditions really plays a toll on your machine and body. I tired to just ride at a putt-putt pace through some of the sections but the course doesn’t allow it. It was easier to go fast and in some sections you just had no choice if you wanted to make it through. At this point I’m really starting to feel sick and I’m cramping up bad but I’m almost half way through the lap. I pass mile marker 5.5 and then 7 and I managed to make it to 8. I had only 5 miles left to the finish and only 2 and a half miles until I would reach the pits. I came around a right hand turn and then a left and I fell into a rut where my bike just stopped. It was so deep my axle bolts where hitting the dirt and I was stuck. I don’t know where that line came from because it wasn’t there all day. Thankfully there were two kids there who pulled my bike tire out and then I made it over a log and up a hill and I was on a fire road. There was a course worker there and they saw my condition and they said if you follow this road you will be back at the pits. I sat there for 5 minutes and really wanted to finish out the lap. So I went back into the woods and tried to just putt the rest of the way. Well that wasn’t happening because my legs, hips, back and arms were severally cramping up. Not to mention that I was dry heaving and super faint. I had to pull off the track and take off my helmet to try and cool down. And that is where the race ended for me. I was stuck up on the mountain severely dehydrated watching the rest of the racers pass by. Luckily my buddy Noah D saw me and stopped to see if I was okay. He informed my crew where I was and told them how bad I was. Despite my early ending I still managed to hold onto 9th Place for the day.
DHaggs Sr. had a good day that ended early too. He had some bike problems that forced him to end his race early as well but he still managed to hold onto 7th Place. At the end of the day we came home safe despite my overheating problems and nobody was seriously hurt.
Big thanks to the Pit Crew of Jimmy B and Aaron M. for helping us try and get through one of the toughest races on the circuit.
Now we have summer break and a month off until we continue in the fall with Back Mountain. Hopefully the summer heat will be gone!
I would like to Thank my Sponsors: DHAGGS Harescramble Racing, MSR Racing, Scott Powersports, Kenda USA, DP Brakes, Scott USA, TAG Metals, Decal Works, Twin Air, IMS, Devol Eng., FMF, TM Designworks, Cycra Racing

AMA National Race INFO!

What: AMA National Harescramble Series EAST Round #6

When: This Sunday the 27th of July/ Race starts approx. at 11:00

Where: Rausch Creek Motosports Park - Good Springs, PA

Directions: 309 North to I-78 West to Rt61 North to 183 West to 209 West to 901 N (Take 901 N through the town of Tremont and when you see I-81 go under it to the first intersection. Right at first intersection toward Good Spring -- Left at 4-way stop -- Look for Harescramble sign on right after railroad tracks.

Pit Fee: ($10)

GNCC Somerset Race Recap!

The Grand National Cross Country Series (GNCC) stopped in our home state of Pennsylvania for the GEICO Mountain Ridge at Mountain Ridge Park in Somerset, PA. Round #9 of the 13 round series was also co-sactioned with our local PA State Harescramble Series and Atlantic Grand Prix Series as well as the new National AMA Harescramble East Series.
Although the weather predictions for the weekend showed a 60% chance of rain and showers we stayed optimistic and hoped for the best. After walking much of the track on Saturday and watching the Pro Quads I was praying that we weren’t going to get any rain at all overnight or on Sunday for that matter. On Saturday we did see some showers and rain at times but it was just enough to be considered refreshing. Cloud cover was constant throughout the weekend and it wasn’t until the Pro Bike race on Sunday until we saw the sunshine. Dark clouds that were visible over the distant mountain tops would keep the umbrella and rain coats near but they wouldn’t be needed on Sunday because it didn’t rain or shower at all! And it’s a good thing too because it would have made the track even more brutal than it already was.
The track for the afternoon bike race was a 14 mile loop which consisted of about every type of rock and boulder you could think of. It seemed that even in the “smooth” field sections there were rocks protruding through the soil which kept you honest and searching for another spot to catch your breath. Up in the woods were some of the biggest boulders that I have even ridden through, let alone raced through. I thought Rausch Creek was bad but this track definitely has them beat. I’ve heard about last year’s race here, which I missed because I had Lymes Disease, and now I know why I didn’t really see any familiar faces from the PA State Series. Regardless of how vicious and technical the track was I didn’t expect any less because it’s a GNCC and it host some of the best riders in the world.
And there they were at the start, right in front of me…David Knight, Charlie Mullins, Barry Hawk, Nathan Kanney, Josh Strang, Thad Duvall, and Justin Willamson just to name a few. I really got a good feel of what it’s like to be up front because these are the best of the best in the most prestigious off road racing series in the world. As I looked to the left and right of the 250 A line which precedes the Pro XC1 and XC2 classes in front of us and I realized that I would have to run the best race of my life to even be in the mix of the talent that I was competing with. Most of these guys focus on this sport as a living and most will be getting signed or turning pro next year. Me, I’ve just started riding a dirtbike 5 years ago and this is only my forth year of racing. But never the less when that flag drops I’m hitting it as best I can for as long as I can and that is the best I can do.
The flag dropped and I got a terrible start, which was not in the grand plan of how to start off for the day. The top of the pack took off and I banged bars with the riders who were in the same boat as me. The first 4 miles were great, I was keeping a good pace and then we went into the woods and hit the first boulder section and there were guys everywhere. It didn’t take me long to get stuck in this boulder section, which I realized wasn’t even part of the track. There must have been a bottle neck so people spread out to get around them and I followed a couple people on the wrong trail. Getting lost on the first lap was another situation that wasn’t in the grand plan for the race. Eventually we got out of that section and continued to pound out miles on the 14 mile loop. The field sections were 5th gear pinned and 90% of the woods were big boulder rock racing. This is probably the fastest and slowest track I have ever raced on. I came through the scanner after the first lap and felt that I had a good grasp on the lay out of the course so I went all out on the second lap trying to make up time, every boulder section I was quickly getting through, and the other woods sections I was railing all of the obstacles, in the field sections I was going so fast I was scarring myself, and the pine tree section I was weaving in and out pinning it from corner to corner. This is how I should have been riding the whole race if I even wanted to have a shot at being in the mix. I felt great and thought that I would be able to make up for that horrendous first lap. I was doing about 44 minute lap times so it was about an hour and a half when I came in to pit. The pit went great and then I went back out and continued to push as hard as I could. I got to about the 5 mile mark and went into a boulder section and the bike got out from under me and the gas was pinned and I hit a boulder and then slammed into a tree. All of a sudden I felt the exhaustion from pushing so hard from the past hour and I was spent. It’s not good stopping your momentum in a rock section like that because when you crash it takes a lot out of you and then you need to use all of your muscles to get out of the rock section so you are trying to use energy that you don’t even have. And the rocks kept going and going so I didn’t have anytime to charge back up. Around the 8 mile marker a spectator pointed me onto the wrong line so I tried turning around in between trees and over boulders and crashed again. Still I haven’t been able to regain any strength because I have been using everything I had to just get through these sections. Then I put everything that I had left just to get through the Boulder Rock Garden around the 9 mile mark and just before exiting the woods there was one little boulder section left and I went down really hard. My front washed out on the slick rocks and I was stuck in this rock gully. I was so spent I couldn’t even pick up my bike; three spectators had to help me back up. I pretty much decided then that I was done. My bike was bashed up; I was hurt and cramping up, and in that condition I wasn’t going to be able to make it around another 14 mile loop. I continued on for the remaining 5 miles went through the scanner and got the white flag. I tried to keep going on the last lap but I only made it till about the 3.5 mile mark.
On a day that I had to ride my absolute best, putting in a bad ride wasn’t going to cut it at this level. I ended up finishing in 14th place and although I understand the level of competition I am competing at, I know that if I put in a good ride I can do better than that, even if just a couple spots better. I’ll have a chance to redeem myself at the National Harescramble at Rausch Creek I in a few weeks.
DHaggs Sr. ran the morning race and put in a really good effort in the Super Senior 45+ class. He ended up finishing in 7th place in his class which is pretty impressive. He too just put his head down and pushed for the whole race just trying to make it through all of the technical sections.
Pitman Jimmy B also made the trip and filled his normal rolls as Pitman and Photographer…he’s working on his video skills. If you need some help with your imagination regarding the track terrain you can look below because I took some video of the sections I was talking about when we walked the track on Saturday. You can also see DHaggs Sr. in action when I took some video of him during the morning race on Sunday.
I would like to Thank my Sponsors: DHAGGS Harescramble Racing, MSR Racing, Scott Powersports, Kenda USA, DP Brakes, Scott USA, TAG Metals, Decal Works, Twin Air, IMS, Devol Eng., FMF, TM Designworks, Cycra Racing

GNCC Somerset Video!

DHaggs Sr. Off the Start (Far Right)

DHaggs Sr. UpHill

Pro Quads run Saturday at GNCC's. When we were walking the track we hit the 9 Mile Mark and it was followed by miles of Rock Garden which looked like this.

Here is another section of the Rock Garden. You think it looks tough for the quads, you should have seen the bikes on Sunday! I can't film and race at the same time so that's why I took film of the quads on Saturday so you could see what we would be going through on Sunday.

Video Taken By: DHaggs Jr.

(GNCC Somerset Pictures Below)

GNCC Somerset Pictures!

A Nice UpHill in the Field Section
Not a Nice UpHill in the Rock Garden

This is What the Woods Section of the Track Looked Like...

DHaggs Sr. and Pitman on the Front Line

#099 DownHill

#099 UpHill

DHaggs Sr. Deep in the Dark Woods

Pitman and DHaggs Jr. on the Line

#925 Bad Start = Get Roosted

DHaggs Jr. Head Down and Charging

DHaggs Jr. Hittin the Field Bump

Very Misleading...Looks Nice till You Get In the Woods!

Pictures By: DHaggs Jr. - RacedayPix.com - Pitman Jimmy B

DHHR NEWS!!!

The Grand National Cross-Country Series (GNCC) has switched its scoring system from bar-code to transponder scoring. What is a transponder? Well for all of you non-racers, it’s pretty much the same thing as EZPass but for dirt bikes. It allows the riders to come through the scoring scanner without having to stop. The previous barcode scoring made the riders come to a complete stop and a track official had to scan a barcode on the side of your helmet, similar to one you would find in the supermarket. So what does this all mean to you? Now that the series is using a transponder scoring system they also bought a satellite to broadcast the race live in real time. So this Sunday when the DHaggs Harescramble Race team is out on the track on Sunday, you can sit at home and follow us through each lap that we complete. It’s really simple and if you’re around the computer you can just leave the screen up and follow as the race goes on.
What you need to do is to go to http://www.gnccracing.com/ and at the top of the page they have a graphic that reads “Live Time Scoring,” just click on that and an other window will pop up. There will be a black box that reads Live Event Results in the left corner. In the right corner will be a drop down box with a selection of classes to choose from. All’s you have to do is select the class and then all of the racers that are competing in that class with appear on the screen. As the race goes on and each racer comes through the scanner each lap, their row on the screen will flash RED and then will adjust accordingly depending on their placement when the lap is completed. If you want to see how only one specific rider is doing, then you just click on their name and it will give you lap for lap and some more information. When you see the time behind column that means that is the elapsed time from the rider who is in the position directly in front of you. So if you are in 10th and it reads Time Behind: 00:01:82 then you are one minute and eighty two seconds behind 9th place. All of the other columns are self explanatory.
DHaggs Sr. #099 will be racing a KTM in the Super Senior B (45+) class on Sunday morning at 10:00am.
DHaggs Jr. #925 will be racing a KTM in the 250 A class on Sunday afternoon at 1:00am.
I think I made it pretty darn easy for you to root us on! If you are confused or something is not showing up or you feel as if your computer is freezing up, well then they may be having difficulties getting a signal from the satellite because of the location of the track. They did have this problem before but they say that it has been fixed. Regardless this is how it all should work so on Sunday give it a try. Thanks for all of your Support!
See you when we get back…