ECEA Delaware #1 Race Recap October 19TH!!!

The second to last Round of the 2008 East Coast Harescramble Series was held this past Sunday in Delaware City, DE in the Delaware Canal Bed. Having never been to this location before I had only the little race details posted by the club on the internet to give me a hint of what I was about to expect after the green flag dropped. With a surprise snow shower during the week I anticipated a long two hour struggle in muddy contitions. On Sunday it was chilly in the morning but by the time everyone lined up on the starting line the sun was shinning and it look liked it was going to be a perfect day for racing. The start was a bit odd because they parked you in a farm field, where the starting line was, and then you went right around all the lines and crossed over a road and into the canal. Police held traffic up until all lines were across and once you were on the other side you were on the loop and you never came back onto the side with the start. With a 13 mile loop it wasn’t like we were missing a huge part of the track, there was plenty of riding in the canal and boy was it crazy out there. Like I mentioned on the start you made a left handed 180 and went right around everyone, after that turn was a huge straight-away. I was probably 4th from the inside and I got a great start, second or third to the first turn. I took a couple turns to get around the field, crossed the road and then just pinned the throttle. Everyone was flying and I had no idea what to expect. The first half mile was just fifth gear pinned. The rest of the track was a combination on super long straight-aways where your bike couldn’t go any faster, tight woods, small up and down hills, trails that flowed through the tall brush in the open field, and some wood sections that were a bit on the dangerous side. After my great start I just tried to set a good hurried pace which I did for almost the whole first lap. I think my first lap was 4o minutes so you know that it was a long loop. I pretty much just wanted to get to know the place and try to learn it as fast as I could for the remainder of the race. While sitting on the starting line the race promoter said that we were going to have a 4 lap minimum and I knew that we were in for a long day if a lap was over a half hour. On the second lap I settled in and set my pace for the rest of the race. For such a long track there were always riders around to help push you and keep your concentration. There was really nothing on the track besides the mid-point check tent that I could identify with. All the surrounding terrain looked the same so in the beginning of the race it was hard to tell if I even completed a lap. Finally on the third lap I understood the layout of the track and felt a little better about pushing a little harder in and out of turns that were blind. Who knows what place I was in because when I came through the scanner each time I never saw the display board. I keep time on a stop watch on my bike and I knew that we were definitely going to get in for laps and then some. I anticipated getting the white flag on my 4rd lap and I did, so I gave it all I had to try and make up time on the super fast sections and just keep and steady pace with no mistakes on the rest of the track. Since we were in the canal the soil there was amazingly soft, not too much like sand but more like coffee grounds, and this meant one thing – the track got ruff; super rough fast. With so many turns there were a lot of breaking and acceleration bumps all over the track and with 13 miles to get around that’s a lot of bouncing around. I tried to stand up as much as possible on the last lap and take new lines to stay out of them. I was also pushing in hopes to catch up to DHaggs Sr. but the track was just too long. I eventually made my 4th lap and finished in 8th Place with an overall time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. That’s a bit over the supposed 2 hour time limit but that’s racing and I rather it be like that than do 11 laps on a 2.9 mile track in 1 hour and 50 minutes. DHaggs Sr. had a good day as well considering he took is bike a part the night before till 2:30 in the morning and it made the whole race the following day. Now that’s a mechanic, and a racer, he came in 15th Place in his stacked class of Senior racers.
The season has only one more race left in a couple weeks and we are heading back down to Delaware. The race will be held at Blue Diamond MX complex and it will be the final round of the East Coast Harescramble Series. It may be a little chilly but the track has a number of fun challenging sections that will be well worth it.
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