ENDUROCROSS/SKIPPACK RACE WEEKEND RECAP!

WOW! This weekend was one of the most memorable of my life and I don’t even know where to start. I know that it would be impossible to share every little detail with you but I’ll try my best to help you understand what it is we went through this weekend. Yes I said “we” because this weekend wasn’t just all about me, 6 of us made the trip to Ohio and Skippack. Besides myself, DHaggs Sr. went to tackle any mechanical issues on Saturday and raced Sunday, Bub Haggs handled all video taping assignments on Saturday, Aaron “Pitman” Mohar took care of the pictures on Saturday and Pitman responsibilities on Sunday, Mike Werner showed us around a school that we are starting to doubt he even went to, and Noah D’Antonio switched between the Christini team and DHaggs racing team on Saturday and also raced on Sunday. It truly was a team effort and I want to thank everyone who decided to go on this trip and make it one of the best weekends in my riding career.
FRIDAY
We left Friday morning for Ohio State and after about 8 hours we arrived pretty much on time. We checked into our hotel and then took the van over to the parking area at the arena so we would get a good spot. We were settling in and getting set up when Noah received a call from his brother who is the Mechanic for the Christini team. Christini is a company that makes 2 wheel drive dirt bikes and they are based out of Philadelphia. Their bikes are all the rave in the off road world right now and they had two pro riders who were riding their bikes this weekend at the Endurocross race. NJ based pro, Wally Palmer is one rider who was in route to Ohio with Noah’s brother and the other is 10 time National Trials Champion Geoff Aaron. We passed Noah’s brother and Wally somewhere in PA by Pittsburg and because they had a trailer we just passed and left them behind. So back to the call, Noah’s brother said that they just witnessed a huge accident and they we stuck on the highway and we were going to have to pick up Geoff Aaron from the airport. It’s not every day that you get to pick up one of the most famous off road riders in the sport. The airport was only about 20 minutes away so we left Bub and Mohar at our spot and took off to pick up Geoff Aaron. He is one of the coolest and laid back guys you will meet. I asked him for some pointers for a first time Endurocross rider and I made sure not to forget what he said. We got back to the arena and he hung out with all of us for a bit. Then we went back to the hotel and put his stuff in out room and went out to get something to eat. After 2 hours of being stuck on the highway the rest of the Christini team joined us for dinner. It was a once in a lifetime experience to have dinner with Geoff and Wally, they are two really cool guys.
After dinner Noah and I headed back to the room, while DHaggs Sr. slept in the van to keep an eye on the equipment, and the rest of the team went off the see what Ohio St. was like.
SATURDAY
Despite what time everyone went to bed we all got up the same time in the morning, showered, got something to eat, check out and walked across the street to the arena.
Finally at 9:00 the building opened and we were able to walk the track. The track was amazing, technical, almost unridable, crazy, and unforgiving. I really didn’t know how I was going to ride a bike over and through that stuff. It looks hard on TV and the obstacles were twice as big as they look on TV. After the track walk there was a riders meeting and then at 10:10 was my first practice. HOLY CRAP! It was so hard, there was log after log after log and then the rock sections were impossible and it was all so quick with no where to take a breath or rest. I couldn’t believe how tight the track was. Before you were even settle from hitting one obstacle there was another one right in front of your tire that you had to get ready for. Practice took only 5 minutes so there wasn’t much time to figure out what was going on. At 11:10 were my hot laps, which meant that they were going to take my fastest lap and whoever had the fastest lap got first gate pick for the qualifier race. That was also for 5 minutes and I only decided to do 2 laps to save energy. The first one was my best and then on the second I got hung up on the rock pile so I knew that wasn’t going to be such a good time. After the hot laps was going to be the qualifier race at 12:10 to see if I would make it into the main event which was at night in front of the packed arena before the pros had their races. The top three went right to the main event. I got a great start but again I got hung up on the monster mountain and ended up getting 9th place, which sent me to the last chance qualifier race. For the LCQ I got a great gate pick and again got an awesome start. I was feeling the best I felt all day, I was finally settling in and had a better idea of how to attack the obstacles. I needed to make the top 3 again to be qualified for the “big show.” After a couple of laps I was running in forth and I was a little behind the top 3 on the track. Luckily, the top 3 guys all got stuck on top of the Monster Mountain boulder section. The top two were on their way off of it and I approached the mountain, made it up on the boulders, made the turn in the boulders and was just about to hit the final log and my front wheel went down in between two boulders and I was stuck. I had third position and while I was stuck the other rider got his bike out before mine and I went back to fourth place. There were only a couple turns left and I missed the night show main event by: 8 seconds. Bummer! I had an awesome time and I can honestly say that this was one of the hardest things that I have ever done in my life. I was really happy that both my bike and I were in one piece. Now that I was done racing there was some down time before the night race so I was finally able to go up in the stands and watch some of the pro guys practice. It made me feel good that I wasn’t the only one having my troubles out there; the pro’s looked just as inexperience as I did. The course was just so tough and even though I wasn’t watching it on the TV and even though I was there in the stands watching, it doesn’t even come close to actually racing that track. I thought that it looked a lot easier from the stands but when you are down there on the floor and hitting those obstacles and trying to control and muscle that bike through that stuff while doing it with other racers on the track is something that you can not experience unless you actually do it.
The night race was awesome and the building filled up fast with spectators. They had opening ceremonies and then the support classes rode their main events (the race I should have been in) and then the pros did their qualifying for the main even. The main event was so exciting; Taddy fell on the first turn and worked his way back up to the front of the pack. There were 2 laps to go and Geoff Aaron was giving him a run for his money trying to put the pressure on him. Taddy passed Geoff and Geoff didn’t just let him go; he pushed his way to the end but just couldn’t figure out how to pass Taddy back. Geoff took second place and Dietrick took third for the pros.
Right after the main event was over we hoped in the van and drove back to PA to try and get back for the Skippack Harescramble. We left Ohio St. at about midnight and we ended up getting home at about 7ish which was good because it was smooth sailing all night.
SUNDAY
We stopped for some breakfast, stopped at the shop to pick up DHaggs Sr. bike, did some fine tuning on my bike and then headed to Skippack which was only about 20 minutes away. When we arrived at Skippack we learned that they had lost half of their land that they used to hold their race on. At first sight it didn’t seem to be like much of a harescramble with two woods sections and a little field section. Whatever the case we were there and it was our home track and people showed up to support us and we were going to make a good time of it. I was sad to hear that this was going to be their last harescramble but I was happy to hear that they are going to make a permanent Endurocross track and they were going to try and have 3 races there next year.
DHaggs Sr. and I got suited up and Noah’s Dad met him at the race with his bike so he was racing too. I convinced him to ride in the A class for fun so that way both he and his brother Luke and myself would be racing again like old times. We were all on the front line and the horn blew and we were off. I got a great start and was just behind Sipe who took the holeshot. The track was extremely tight, mainly single trail. From the start we went into the woods then we went into a field and then back into the woods before making a lap. The field section was pretty cool because they incorporated some Endurocross obstacles and even some motocross jumps. I don’t know how I was feeling so well because I ended up driving home from Ohio through the night and I had been up for about 30 hours. I felt great on the bike and I was really giving a good push for the whole race. The track had a certain flow to it and I don’t know how to explain it but I was just on for some reason. I really liked the track and I think that they did an outstanding job for the amount of land they had. They said that it was going to be an hour and a half race so I decided to pick up the pace a bit since it was going to be a bit shorter. I maintained that pace for the whole race until the second to last lap where I started to feel a little worn out but I picked up some speed and realized that I just took a breather for a couple of minutes. Finally they showed the white flag and it was the last lap. I saw DHaggs Sr. on the last lap back in the woods. He let me go by but he took the smooth line and left me to turn on the rooty section. I made the pass and took off. Then I heard a 4 stroke behind me and all I could think about was the 8 seconds from Saturdays LCQ. There was no way that I was giving up this spot on the last lap, so I continued to push as hard as I could and kept the rider behind. I managed to stay in front of him for the whole last lap and when I came through the scoring barrels I took 4th Place for the day. This was my best finish for the year and I really don’t know what got into me or how I ran the best race of the year after riding Endurocrss the day before and being up for 30 some hours but it happened and it felt good. This is the first time in a long time that I made no mistakes at all. I had a little bobble here or there but I made no big mistakes and I pushed for the whole race. It feels really good and it’s a nice finish to such a great weekend. DHaggs Sr. put in a good race as well pulling out a 6th Place for the day. He too liked the track and enjoyed racing in front of our home town fans. Not only did we have a good race both DHaggs Sr. and I were interviewed by a local news paper reporter which was pretty cool. To top off this amazing weekend we both got awards at the trophy ceremony. DHaggs Sr. got his trophy and for the first time in my racing career I got paid! Now what’s better than getting paid for having fun and racing one of the best races of your career after driving all night from racing Endurocross the day before and enjoying it with some of your best friends. If it were a commercial – PRICELESS!
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