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Hollister National Hare Scramble It rained for two weeks straight leading up to the race this year guaranteeing a mudder. Brian is riding a Suzuki this year and with a couple weeks practice was comfortable and looking forward to his fifth straight victory at Hollister. I was riding a 200 since it is so light and works good in the mud. We started in the middle of the motocross track again this year. The shotgun was waterlogged so Edd Haymond improvised and with a go-go-go the first national of the year was off. Chuck Woodford got the holeshot ahead of Josh Mclevy and the rest of the pack. Brian was about fifth and I was just outside of the top ten. I tried to keep out of the roost and keep my goggles good so I wasn't trying to rush to pass people. Luckily people were crashing and making mistakes. Brian got hit by someone and went off the cliff of a fireroad. In that crash I also saw Jordan Brandt go down hard. Brian dropped way back but quickly started to work his way back up. I got by him a few others and pretty soon I could only see a couple of tire tracks in front of me. Since it was so muddy we stayed on the fireroads all day long. It was a lot of fun and with the mud there were some slick spots to keep us honest. Near the end of the lap I caught up to Chuck Woodford and Josh Mclevy. I got past chuck and could see that Josh was riding really hard. At the end of the first lap we didn't go through the pits, which I thought was weird. I didn't think we did it right but we were out on the second lap. A couple of miles in I see Josh go flying into the bushes. He buried himself deep and it looked like it was going to take a lot of energy to get going again. I thought that Brian was already gone but I was in the lead. Brian was making up time and after having some fun getting by Spearle and the rest of the pack he was up in the top five. I started to ride better on the second lap. We hit some lappers that were stuck on a hill at the end of the lap also. Kevin Bailey caught up and passed me on a switchback. I pushed and passed him back before getting into the low territory that was all rutted up. Going into the pits the course was just being rerouted into the pits. I was motioned to go around the banners and Woodford went over them and got back into the lead. When we pitted Brian kept out there and got into the lead. I didn't see him go by but got behind Ricky Dietrich. Ricky rides really well for an up and comer and was going really fast. I passed him and managed to get away from the pack. When we got to the downhill section I saw that Brian was in front of me. I caught him pretty quick and thought that was weird so I yelled up to him to see if he was alright. He said he was so I asked why he was going so slow? He didn't answer so I followed him down the hill then passed him when we hit the next road. Now I knew I was in the lead so I tried to push forward. I was feeling good and didn't think that the course was really all that bad. I wanted to win bad so I kept charging ahead. On the next to white flag lap I saw Chuck Woodford behind me. He caught and passed me pretty quickly. Chuck pulled ahead a little bit but I managed to stay pretty close. When we came into the last lap I knew I had to pin it to catch up. Going down the big hill I could see Chuck ahead of me. I pushed hard and caught up to him. I passed Chuck right before the check where there was only about two miles left. Right then I tried to pull away and was going fast. Chuck was keeping up with me pretty good. I wanted to open a little gap before all the muddy ruts at the end of the course. Going into the rutted section I passed the lappers as quick as possible but still couldn't shake Woodford. Leaving the motocross track we had to go through a little hole in the fence. I protected the inside line which led into a little deeper rut than the outside line. Chuck got a better drive out and passed me. I was right on him and tried a last ditch effort to pass him on the last off camber before the finish. I had way too much speed and had my front end wash out. It was tough to get so close to the win but then to miss out on it at the end. I was really happy with the way I rode though and knew that I did what I needed to to win. Brian had some clutch problems but rode through it for third. Chuck took the $1000 bounty ahead of me and Brian on the podium. Ricky Dietrich rode awesome all day for fourth, followed by Nathan Kanney who rode my 450 MXC to fifth. Justin Williamson made the trip from back east worthwhile for sixth, followed by Mclevy, Brian Butler and Brian Spearle. |