Chills, Spills, Thrills and Hills
Fox Valley Off Road Hare Scramble Series
Round 1/5 May 6, 2007 Results (click)
By Joe Lanute/ Photos by Mandy Lanute
Chills; a brisk May morning. Spills; trying to keep your
balance through the mud and over the logs.Thrills; working your way past slower
riders with inches to spare. Hills; up, down and across a lot of them. The 2007
Hare Scramble season has begun at Fox Valley. Two hundred thirty plus riders
came for the season opener and once again Team Fox Valley put on a race for all
levels of Hare Scramble competition.
4 Wheel A opened up for the quads, Shea Dickson and Forest Burkitt broke in the course
with a strong and chilling pace. These two finished 1-2 in the class and 1-2
over all. Shea and Forest had Shane Gaunt to contend with, he was thrilled to be
the 4 Wheel B leader and number 3 on the day, John McCarrens put in for a solid
second.
4
C saw a battle between Chris Breitwieser and Bob Carothers for the one and two
spot.
Another
Burkitt name came up, this time in + 35, it was Dan, he and Kevin Johnson topped
a field of thirteen and brought them home after a fun filled hour at the Fox
Valley fun house.
While that thrilling hour was unfolding, the little folks had their fun.
The
Schmidt family sent 4 riders out in 4 different classes. They brought home 3
first place plaques. I am feeling a bit sorry for the one that only
finished third, I imagine he will be taking a lot of guff from his sons! It was
his youngest, Haydon, that led Shane Thompson and Eric York in 50- Injected.
50-cc sent ten riders to the line, Tyler Spizzirri and Ryan Blake were the 1-2
punch in that run.
Riley
Schuhler, Kurt Harper and Rachel Gutish provided the crowd with a feisty run in
65Beg. Dakota Marti stayed the course for Quad 50. Ross Gaunt and Michael
Goode cleaned up Quad 90.
Thumpers
always send a chill down my back and it a testament to how well these play bikes
are built. They truly take a punishing hour through the woods and come back for
more. Fox Valley Cycle's own John Conley and Bill Tracy punished all twelve of
them including another Conley coming off injured reserve., two Broll’s and
that devil guy, Larry Barker.
The
big track took a beating from the quads and the big bikes needed all their
muscle to get through the mud patches, up the hills and over several logs. No
‘Sally’ trail around the spectator log this week, like the boss said “you
are going over it”. Riders meeting some saw the new "logs" and asked
what they are for.......knowing the answer wasn't going to be pretty.
"Maybe we will use those for fathers day!"
Starting
with Trey Verardo and Ryan Moss, averaging almost 21 miles per hour they
thrilled everybody for a 1-2 on the day and in AA.
Jeff Snedecor, Brett Swantek and Carl Bruch traded places for an hour and a half and finally settled in for the 1-2-3 in A class. A broken shifter hampered Josh Rhodes’s debut in A class, he will be back seeking a top spot, we want to wish his dad a speedy recovery and get him back to racing, a few weeks ago he took a hard spill and now plaster replaces race gloves.
Now HOW
ABOUT Bubba!, Robert Johnson ran
a blistering pace right up there with the A guys! 6th overall? This kid was
rockin! He was going so darn fast the bike was falling apart, and we still
haven't found his side number plate! Eric Busz was the only one in 86-200
B that came close to him.
Halls
Cycle's own Clint Pherigo and RTR's William (big tank) Heitman were the
front-runners in 30 A. Mind you Clint was giggling as Will stuck his 525 in a
mud hole. Taking the win in the final laps, Clint made the best of a sticky
situation. William took a rare second this day.
201-Open
C, 1980's revisited, old MX rider John Horn was the top of thirty-three riders
averaging from eight to eighteen miles per hour, it was quite the spectacle
watching them take off into the woods! A lot of bikes all headed for the same
line. Line choice was what made the difference between a twelve minute or thirty
minute lap time, there were more then a few innocent looking ruts that swallowed
a bike’s front wheel to the top.
Just ask Theresa Lanute from
86-200 C, she has the distinction of clocking the longest lap time of the day,
and most of it was spent pulling her KTM that was stuck up to the seat! To her
credit, she never gives up and finished the race. "That head sticking
in the photo is Hannah Keith, saying "no way am I losing my flip flops in
that mess, that right there is why I gave up racing HS and stick with
SX!"
It
was Ben Schmidt (Ben) that won that class. He sat his 1st place plaque along
with his brothers in the motor home. Ben did a much better job keeping the
bike up and staying out of trouble.
Watching
riders attack the hills at Fox Valley proved to be very entertaining,
Ken Otterbach found his first place plaque after besting twelve 40 A riders. Jim Schmidt, had to place his third place plaque in the motor home with the three boys who were champions of the day. Last week his trusty old Honda smoked a cylinder, running a borrowed Hall's Cycles Gas Gas, Jim looked great on that ride, but he found line choice a problem in one particular mud hole and which kept him from challenging Kenny and his trusty KDX.
The
crew of + 50 found all kinds of usage for Ben Gay after they finished up, Gary
Peterson of that bunch finished up first. Local rider Doug Johnson and his
pretty white KTM finished 4th, Rich Mertes finish third after an hour and half
race, 32 seconds behind Don Carquville who came in little over a minute behind
gary.
Cindi Seibert stayed stuff, and made the hills, her determination didn't falter even though at the beginning of the race she had alot of trouble on the one hill which was loose and powdery from the quad race. She finished the day in first.
Scott Sexton looked unstoppable again, pulling a huge lead on Keagan Schmidt. Scotty having some bike troubles over the last few weeks, was clicking along well but found a deep spot on the east side mud hole. Keagan caught back up. Now the race was on, like a trailer Scott seemed to be "towing" Keagan who was right there, for 3 laps they fought hard til the end Keagan ended up taking home the win, Scotty 2nd, and Alex Perry lurking in a pretty close third. These three boys will be a force to be reckoned with in the very near future.
American
CNC Machine's, newest rider made his Fox Valley debut on his RM 65, half way
through the first lap on the mx track part of the course, the often impatient
Travis Ward loops out and does some "bodywork" to his bike. Sporting a
new look the rear fenderless Ward took the win, Ian Bellar and Cole Evans
rounded out the top three.
That
wraps up the opener, the next Fox Valley thriller will be June 17th,
Fathers day, keep checking the web site for updated information. On
a last note, there was a lot of action and a lot of side stories at this race,
if Gerhard and Patty had hired a good reporter you would be reading about it,
unfortunately, you are stuck with me, so, if you have a tale to tell, a rider
you would like to see profiled or you just want to see your name in print, look
for me at the next race and give me your story or idea.
I
am easy to find, fat guy in the camouflage Mule, leg in a cast, hauling sick
motorcycles back to the pits.