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Carnegie Hare Scramble The conditions for Carnegie have never been as good as they were this weekend. Carnegie is either really muddy or dry with only a short window where the traction is ideal. After waiting for the long line at sign ups I went looking for the start. This year the start was good and safe. Brian Spearle got the holeshot, which was bad news for the rest of the racers since Spearle was motivated this weekend. I haven't learned how to start the 4-stroke very well yet and got off to a bad start. I was sort of expecting not to get the holeshot so I planned out a line on the outside on the second straight where I made up a bunch of positions. From there I just tried to pick riders off when they made a mistake or when I got an opportunity. I haven't ridden in a couple weeks before so I took a little time to get the rust off. After going up and down some of the big hills of Carnegie and the off camber grass track we went down a big hill that had a big mudhole at the bottom. I was a little hesitant to find a new line. The rest of the course had more big hills, lots of square edge bumps, a few tricky off camber sections, and some big down hills. At the end of the first lap I worked my way up to the fourth spot. I couldn't see the top three in front of me so I knew I had to pick up the pace. I caught up to Damian Galford at the end of the second lap and managed to squeak by. He stayed right behind me for half the next lap then made a pass where we came together. I followed him for a bit then heard a bike come up on me fast. I hadn't seen anyone behind me but I thought I was in trouble. Later I found out it was Robbie Fouts who was working the event and playing with us. Near the end of the lap I passed Damian back going on the motocross track. Thanks to Joe and Sara Spearle I had a great pit and left the pits fired up to catch up to the leaders. I put in a good lap but then had my rear brake master cylinder start to go out on me. I started to have to pump the rear brake going down the hills but tried to keep a good pace. On the last lap Damian caught back up to me. I held him back on the down hills then would pin it in the open stuff. It probably wasn't the nicest thing to do but I didn't have much of a choice and wanted the position. Damian snuck by me on one of the down hills and that was it. Spearle charged hard the whole race and took a well earned win. Damian finished third and I ended up third. Craig Wesner ran second for much of the race but went way down in the bushes on one of the off cambers while passing a lapper.
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