Tommy Hofmaster sets the stage at Megacross

 July 25th, 2015   Round 5     photos by Shift One      Results

Tommy Hofmaster being in his 30's decided that some times old dogs can learn new tricks.  Megacross this evening was setup for the annual Ex additional classes and the new Sx-Ex Dash for cash.  The thought was to set up a 4 lap dash for cash including both tracks, Megacross and Ex tracks.  This would be free entry for all A riders no matter if they were A mx / sx or A off road. It had a 500.00 purse which help decision making....  They all had the opportunity to go try the obstacles in front of the grand stands.  Tires, Logs, Deadwood forest were the challenge of the Ex and it also this year had no mud hole but a sand trap which didn't trap anyone!  Enter the stage more then a few MX/Sx riders signed up, only a few backed out, but the ones that didn't got to experience the difficulty of the process.  Tom Hofmaster, (#110), Kyle White (#291) were the only two Sx riders to actually race the dash, 4 others decided not to. Needless to say there was a big surprise in store for all the riders racing this dash.  Lap times were in the neighbor hood of 2 minutes+ and ended up being a  about a 10 minute race.  Cody Barnes (#99), Mason Schuhler (#138), and Travis Ward (#(#51) who all have since a young age rode all the types of racing were set to do battle with older and more experienced Sx riders. In fact both of the Sx guys have been or are seasoned Arenacross Pro riders with experience almost as long as the "kids" have been alive!  Lets not forget throw in a Top GNCC racer Adam Bonneur (#21), top midwest woods riders like Austin Wells (#93), Colt Converse (#111), and old man of the field by a bunch Ryan Moss (#24). 

The layout was set as a full lap of Sx then drop into the Ex for a full lap, to come out by the finish line to continue the Sx lap.  This would prove to be most important for the outcome of the race.  Stage is set, riders have went out and put a few laps of practice on the Ex course, a few notables decide to spectate, out of the 17 riders signed up 14 show up on the line at intermisson.

The gate drops Tom rips a MXSTUFF4 Yamaha 2 stroke holeshot, with the "kids" hounding him from the start.  Cody Barnes who has been racing Megacross since a young age got his 250 Yamaha thumper singing and wasn't going to let go of Tom's rear wheel, enter into the mix Mason Schuhler, Adam Bonneur, Travis Ward, Austion Wells, and Ryan Moss were a bit back but still in the leaders dust on the first lap.   As they entered the Ex course the crowd witness some craziness.  Wells skips over the tires only to have his front end wash out and hit the ground, two others get stuck in the tires while Tommy and the boys start to leave the rest of the pack.  This was all on lap 1. Lap two, Ward pulls up to the back of Bonneur who has a front row seat to the Trio leading, as Ward enters the ex section for the second time he washes out much like Wells did and is on the ground.  Kyle White seizes this opportunity and passes for 5th.  As the top thee head into lap three, it's clear Tommy's strategy is to pull on the guys on he Sx side of the track and hold his own in the Ex.  Mulitiple times Barnes stuck a wheel in, while Schuhler was sizing them both up.  Bonneur started doubling up some of the logs in the middle which Schuhler the "log jumper" in the bunch was doing earlier.  Top 4 one could drop that proverbial blanket over them, in the end Ward and White had a good battle with Ward holding on for 5th, White 6th.  This little experiment worked well and the riders had a great time.  Tommy stated "there is no time to rest, it's harder then looks"!!!  Lets not forget that Tom Hofmaster was the second oldest in the dash, and rode 4 classes on top of all this.  Sometimes experience is a big factor.  He had hard fought battles with Jonathon Six (#673) and Kyle White in the Sx A classes which came down to the wire in both of them. Below are the riders mentioned this this article.  Even though this weekends Ex will be a lite turn out the racing will be intense! This will be the last race at Megacross til Sept. 12th.  Come out and have a good night of racing, then slide on up to Ki Tracks for AMA District 17 Motocross on Sunday a short 40 min drive away! 

Cody Barnes	Mason Schuhler	Travis Ward
Austin Wells	Adam Bonneur	Jonathan Six