ECEA Delaware #2 Race Recap Nov 16th!

The final round of the East Coast Harescramble Series was held this past Sunday at Blue Diamond MX Complex in New Castle, DE. With temperature in the 50’s and wind gusts reaching 40mph at times; Sunday’s weather turned out to be the least of our worries. Previous to race day we got quite a bit of rain during the week and were hit again with a 1+ inch soaker on Saturday making the track conditions for Sunday a bit on the sloppy side. You didn’t have to look at the track to figure out how much rain the area got because just pulling into the pits you had to maneuver your way around some huge puddles. After registering DHaggs Sr. and I took one look at the MX section of the track and knew what struggles laid ahead. The track promoters announced that we would be looking at about a 9 mile loop, and having raced at this track last year with a lot of high speed straight-aways, I knew that today wouldn’t be quite as fast with the track conditions how they were.
I got an awesome spot on the starting line, and do you know how I knew it was an awesome spot – because Mike Lafferty was lined up directly in front of me! Since he is an 8x National Enduro champion, just missing his 9th this year by six points, I knew that if I was behind him then I was starting off on a good foot. I got a great jump when the flag dropped but because it was so soupy I spun off the line for a bit. By the time I finally hooked up I was about mid pack heading up the first hill climb. The first lap was probably the easiest because only the pros were in front of us so that’s all the lines that were on the track. There were a lot of high speed straight-aways, the motocross track, an ATV track, a supermoto section where they ran you through the amusement park, a pebble mountain down hill, mud holes, off camber sections, deep sand sections, and they even through in a bit of woods. Like I said the first lap wasn’t so bad, basically just learning the track and hitting all the obstacles in the initial good line. By the second lap the whole track changed. Overall on the track there were about 6 or 7 muddy water holes with people stuck all over. As the race went on each lap when I came around there would be 4 or 5 guys really stuck with about 8 or 9 guys waiting for riders to get unstuck or trying and figure out another line around. Each lap I managed to make it through all of the sections with no problems but each lap I came through the scanner I wasn’t picking up any spots. I thought that was a little hard to believe considering how many people were stuck in different spots out on the track. It wasn’t until the second to last lap when I came across the first mud hole in the woods and DHaggs Sr. was there stuck in the line that I took the previous lap. It was deep when I took it so a whole other lap latter it had to be twice as deep. I found another line to get through and kept pushing around the track. Since it was so cold I felt great, I realized how affected I am by the heat in the summer and how much it affects my endurance. If I could only feel like I do in the late fall as if it were summer and I would be able to push as hard as I can for a long time. But I guess that’s just how I’m built so there is nothing that I can really do. The track was exhausting and it was basically a lot of mud holes connected by some high speed sections. One of the coolest parts was probably the huge pebble mountain that they sent us down, it was probably about 40-50ft high and you could lock up both of your breaks and you would just hear the pebbles rolling underneath of you. The other unusual part of the track was the supermoto section; there is an amusement park in the complex and the track wrapped right through it. Just imagine flying around Dorney Park or Six Flags on a dirt bike, you were going around the Ferris wheel and hitting about 70mph going past the little kiddie rides. After seeing DHaggs Sr. the lap that followed turned out to be the last lap even though there wasn’t a white flag. I came across the finish line at exactly 2:00hrs and that means that the leaders were probably just shy of that. I think that they cut it a little short because the trail was getting unrideable and so many guys were stuck out on the track and it gets dark at 4:30 now so they didn’t want be pulling guys out in the dark. Bottom line is that I had a lot of fun and although coming in 9th Place didn’t make sense to me after feeling like I ran a really good race, the season is wrapped up and having everyone back home safe is what really matters.
DHaggs Sr. had some fun out there himself. He was running in 12th place before he got stuck in the muddle hole. He seemed to really like the supermoto section, so much that he is thinking about trading in his knobbies tires for some street tires. He had a huge line on the start and he ended up placing in the middle of his class.
Mohar and Jimmy B were on hand for the final race of the season. Jimmy B was back to taking his action shots out on the track and Mohar was taking on his pitman duties. He even washed the bikes, which was a choir in itself because they were caked with mud; while Jimmy B resorted to his post race duties – PBR’s.
Afterwards we held the first annual DHaggs Harescramble Racing banquet at a nearby resurant. We just kicked back, talked about the race and already started to talk about next year. There might be a quad position opening up on the team so look for DHaggs Harescramble Racing to be representing in 2 and 4 wheels next year!
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