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Carnegie Hare Scrambles I went back to Ohio and picked up my KTM box van this week and was still feeling tired when I arrived at Carnegie. The start was to take place in an open lot in back of the motocross track. There was a 4th gear straight that funneled down through a fence that was wide enough for two bikes. With nearly 75 people on the line the start looked a bit dangerous to most of the riders. Another thing that was weird was that the 125 A and women were supposed to start on the first row then the 250's on the second. Women and children are supposed to be put on life boats first, not put on the first row of a motorcycle race. That was fixed before the start of the race though. When the gun went off I got a good jump and was about third going through the fence. Unfortunately the rider who appeared to have the holeshot crashed in the first turn and I got hung up with him. That left me in about tenth spot. I believe Jordan Brandt got the holeshot on his 300 KTM. We did a couple of turns on the moto track then went on would have been the grass track if we could go on the grass. After leaving sight of the pits we went up a dirt road that was dusty. I haven't seen dust for quite sometime and when I hit dust I came to nearly a complete stop and two guys blew by me on each side. Right then I knew it wasn't going to be my day. I did manage to make some passes on the first lap and the course was pretty good. The last time I rode was at Hollister two weeks before and that was full on winter mud conditions. Two weeks later we were in full summer dust and heat mode with no transition period. I made it up to third place. The two leaders Bryce Olsen and Jordan Brandt had suddenly opened up a big lead over the rest of the field. Brian Brown had caught up to me on his little 250 4 stroke and was making a lot of noise behind me. After a while I knew he was wanting to go faster than I was going so I pulled over for him and followed caught on to his pace for a while. I settled down into a comfortable pace and could see Jeff Bauer and Jeriah Gurley behind me. I kept a distance in front of them for the rest of the race and settled for fourth. Bryce Olsen won the race ahead of Jordan, with Brian Brown in third. I was fourth then Jeriah Gurley, Jeff Baur, Damian Galford, Craig Wesner, Greg Gahoine, and Nolan Irwin rounded out the top ten. |