SUPER-SIZED Miles Mountain Weekend Recap!!!

Round #6 of the PA State Harescramble Series was held this past Sunday at Miles Mountain MX Park in Elkland, PA. Miles Mountain also hosted an AMA National Quad Harescramble race on Saturday and all races held over the weekend were a combined event with the PA State Series and the Western New York Harescramble Series. Needless to say, it was exciting to have an opportunity to race against some new faces, so honorary team member and quad racer AMohar and I packed it up and headed 4 hours north for Miles Mountain on Friday. DHaggs Sr. was sidelined this weekend from catching “my” flu that I had the weekend before.
When we arrived Friday afternoon luckily we were able to get a spot on semi-flat ground. I made it a point to try and not be parked on the far hill like last year when my ankles were hurting from walking on a slant all weekend. We were rolling without our normal van set-up so we had a fresh new look in the pits. I think we made due just fine and in no time at all we were all set up and ready to go and register and get that out of the way.
After a goodnights sleep in the tent we awoke to the youth racers getting ready to tackle the hills of Northern PA. Just like the GNCC format, the AMA Quad Nationals run an armature morning race at 10:30 and then a Pro race at 2. At 10:15 that’s where you found AMohar – on the line. He and 32 other racers were all lined up on the 22+ C line which was the second row behind the utility atvs.
After a late start off the line it didn’t take AMohar too long to understand what he got himself into. Although the weather was partly cloudy throughout the day on Saturday and course workers said that they did get a fair amount of rain on Thursday night, what lay deep in the woods was something you would only understand if you were out there racing in it. He said the first lap was so tight that it was basically follow the leader through most of the course. It was hard to make another line off the main track because the conditions were so bad. On the second lap it opened up a bit and despite getting hung up on an off camber hill, which added a couple minutes to his lap time, AMohar was feeling pretty good and was making his way through the rugged and treacherous terrain. He waited for his third and final lap to make it his best one of the day. By the time he came through the scanner he picked off three people on the last lap by not giving up and pushing hard till the end, he ended up in 15th Place.
After the morning race we were able to watch the number one quad racer in the country, our local boy, Chris Borich take the checkers in the pro race. After the pro race finished it started to rain for about a half hour or so and I was getting a little nervous because rain was the last thing we needed for the bike races on Sunday.
Sunday morning came and the tent glowed of bright sunshine early in the morning. I unzipped the window and it was a beautiful day – not a cloud in the sky! While the youth racers took off at 8am we started to break down camp so we would have less to do when I was done racing. By the time the amateur race started at 11 we went to watch the start and see some of the technical sections to see how the riders were making it through. At 1:15 I was starting to gear up, at 1:45 I was on the line and at 2:00 we took off. Since this was a combined event with PA and NY there were a ton of good riders at the start and it was obvious when about 30 AA riders were in front of me. My line was stacked as well and thankfully I got a great spot on the start. When the flag dropped I kicked the starter, twisted the throttle and held on! I got a great start, 3rd to the fist turn and just after I was about 4th going up the first up hill. Okay so the beginning and end of my race were the best parts, the middle – I don’t know what they heck was going on!?
I was super surprised when I first made it into the woods; it was so muddy I couldn’t believe it. I’m not talking like a little muddy, I’m talking like the shinny soupy mud that’s like 2 feet deep and is as slippery as ice. Then throw some icy slick tree roots under the mud that you can’t even see and go up, down, and across the mountain through trees while trying to race with 200 other riders on the track. I remember last year being tough with the all the roots but this year was a whole different story – it was super technical and tough.
About the 4 mile marker some one tried to pass me in one of these sections, which was not such a smart thing to do and he hit a tree and it didn’t make a nice sound. He wrecked so hard I had to at least stop to make sure he was okay because from what I saw, there was no way that he could be. Then I made my way to the 7 and a half mile point where there was a huge uphill in the woods. The bottom section of the uphill was all off camber and then it made a hard right up the hill and it was super muddy and rooted. There were probably about 5 or 6 guys stuck on the hill and when I tried to get around them and make it up it – I got stuck. I was stuck for a good 5 minutes until I made it up the hill. I made it through the next several miles clean until about the 11 mile marker when I took a different line that was tight between two trees and there was a log lying between them with some roots, I hit it funny because of the mud and I went down again. My bike was lying with the handlebars down the hill and when I tried to pick it up the tree was stuck against my forks in-between my fender and my wheel. At this point I was frustrated and getting pretty beat up from the first lap, it was the longest 12 miles of my life. And one more incident happened on the first lap. Last year there was a huge creek jump, they had the same this year but at sign up they had a sign saying there were two creek jumps. I asked the riders from each race all weekend where the other creek jump was and they said there was only one. I found a course worker on Sunday morning and he said that it was just before the big creek jump and it was just a little “dip” that they called a creek jump. Well there it was just a few hundred yards from the big jump but there was no way in telling it was a jump. The workers were right at the foot of it and with the muddy conditions it was too late to get on the gas. When I came out of the woods I tried to get through the slop but then I noticed that I wasn’t going to make it. I turned around to get better momentum to make it across and when I did I went off course and got barbed-wire wrapped up in my wheel. What makes this part funny is that at the start of the race Joe Bromley announced the race promoter, who was making all of the announcements, and I knew the name sounded familiar. When I got the barbed-wire wrapped up in my rear tire the guy who helped me looked familiar. I didn’t put 2 and 2 together and it wasn’t until after the race when I asked some one who Jeremy Richardson was and when they pointed him out I realized that Jeremy and I played football together at Mansfield a few years back. What makes it funnier is that when he was helping me out he said, “your that guy with your own website aren’t you?,” which I now find extremely funny because he didn’t know it was me. Well again Thanks for your help, and like I said I love the track and the drive is worth it. So that concluded my first lap.
On my second lap it went a bit smoother with the exception of the hill-climb in the woods again. This time around there was still guys stuck on the hill and there were spotters there re-routing everyone and the one guy waved me up this one trail. It kind of made a dead end in some tall weeds but you could see another trail just a few yards away. I made my way through some brush and popped back up on the trail and it turns out that it was the same trail I was just on! So I back tracked about a half mile and had to go all the way back around and back up the up hill and take a different trail. The rest of the second lap was not too bad. When I came around for the third and final lap I was frustrated about the beginning of the race, especially because I felt so good physically. My third lap was by far my best lap, no problems and I just pushed as hard as I could and I enjoyed the track. A few miles from the finish I hooked up with fellow D6 Vet A racer Kevin Simpson and we raced back and forth through the muddy sloppy mess in the woods. The last mud hole before hitting the woods for the last time he went way right and I went way left and he made the pass and held on till the checkers.
It was one of the most frustrating, enjoyable, sloppiest, technical, and weirdest race that I have even been in. From getting stuck, to falling, to getting lost, everything that could happen did. With everything that happened I still managed to salvage a 15th Place, which I’m not really happy with but like I said I had fun and I love Miles Mountain. Overall it was a great weekend and I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way….well maybe DHaggs Sr.’s pork roll sandwiches for breakfast.
I would like to thank my sponsors for all of your support: DHAGGSRacing, MSR Racing, Scott Powersports, Kenda USA, T.M. Designworks, DP Brakes, Scott USA, TAG Metals, Decal Works, Twin Air, IMS Products, Elf Oil, FMF, Cycra Racing, Regina Chains, and MotoSport