Ryan, Hall, Whipple and Otterbach shine in the heat at Fox Valley Off Road.

6-19-2016 Photos by Nick Smith  893 Photography

It's "dry heat"  you always hear that from folks around the AZ part of the country.  But for us Midwest riders, the first real 90* day with a little breeze took it's toll on many.  Even the young guns that don't understand the value of "water" two days before and event like this found out real quick!

Fathers day event at Fox Valley traditionally has been the "clockwise" rotation, if dry this allows for a much more traditional HS event with single track and new hills to put in.  This race was no different. Two completely new sections and many that haven't be ridden on for a long time is what waited for the riders.

The 65cc Beginner class was the first off the line and they have been a large class this year with all the kids coming off of 50cc machines.  The course was a little over a mile with real woods trails and a small part of the "kids" track by the parking lot. The hot rod  in this class was Riley Roberts coming from 12th to third by the end of the 40 min race.  Lee Excavating's Landon Lee took the hole shot but one wonders who it would have turned out if Roberts had a better start.  Michael Truver filled in the 2nd spot with a solid ride!

The Otterbach Excavating team of Ken (603) and Eli put a solid race in the morning class.  Kenny the Dad at a rip ole age of 50 and Eli the pup at 16 made their marks on the day with dad getting the overall and Eli taking the win in C class but not catching the ole man as he usually does.  Wally Mika split the pair as the second place finisher in 50+ A class.  Many times overall are not looked at in Hare Scramble racing but it's sometimes fun to see how one stacks up no matter age, class or size of machine.  Tim Farrell pushed hard after some time off racing to finish third in the 50A class and Kevin Finefield on his new Halls Husqvarna took the 4th place honors. "I thought the kid would get me today" said Kenny.  In the end the technical course and experience with courses like that prevailed over the young and energetic Eli.

Countryside KTM sponsored Blake Ryan pulled the hole shot and decided that today he was going to show the riders the fast way around.  Blake has been racing hard all spring and had the endurance that many others didn't have.  Trying to muster a challenge was Travis Ward, coming around on the 3rd lap he and Ryan were neck and neck.  Going through the new section Ward went for a pass but it didn't stick as Ryan is getting better at fending off would be passers!.  On the downhill by the road, Ward starts to slide out, foot kicks out and hits the rear brake assembly breaking it and sending pieces of the cover into the rear rotor.  This locking up the rear wheel and putting an end to his challenge for the lead.  Mike Schuhler seen this and in a matter of minutes had the Ward kid up a running again.  Matt Mcdonald new to the AA class had by this time caught and passed Ward for second.  As the race wore down, Mcdonald and Ward had a fun time passing back and fort racing to the checkers.

Looking at the overall in the afternoon big bike race it's quite evident there will be solid competition coming for the fast guys now.  4 of the top 10 riders in this overall were B class.  WFO's own Tanner Whipple finish up 5th overall with Alex Parks 7th, Garrett Ward 8th and Doug Propper II 9th.  Some of the A class riders were having issues this day, in fact there was a large percentage of riders who found out real fast that brake fluid (or the proper type of) is a major player.  Hills!  When fathers day comes around and it's dry enough to do it, Fox Valley Off Road puts in the hills!  This particular course has 10, varying from steep to off camber to log infested descents.  A new down hill that Hall's Cycle rider Jarred Hall decided to make even more interesting with his "mow over small trees riding style"  Once that was done, not one rider the rest of this race got down that hill clean.  A trail camera over there would have been perfect for America's Home Videos.

Atv's lined up on this hot and dry day with one thing in mind get the holeshot and check out.  First time through the barrels it was found out that the logs had just a little to much dirt taken out in front of them as a traffic jam occurred.  The guys were hitting them logs which are huge to hard they damn near went over the bars!  Chris Breitwieser led through the first lap and Chris Barnes and Kyle Ernst were right there.  As the race unfolded the experience and knowledge of the Fox Valley property helped Breitwieser pull slowly away.  A quick re-direction at the finish line logs kept things going smoother for the whole ATV racing group on this day!

Check out All the photos, results and video's here....... http://www.foxvalleyoffroad.com/hsresults/Results.htm