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Phantom Scrambles I was looking forward to another race at Hollister since having such a good run at the National. I tried a four stroke for the first time at Hollister but was fairly confident that it would work good on the roads and I would be able to work my way thru the pack after an expected bad start. We had a good rain the night before the race leaving the track a little on the slick side. As expected I got off to a bad start and started working my way up. Everyone rides fast at the start but I was able to make passes as others made mistakes. I was taking it a bit easy since I never really feel comfortable riding the four stroke in the mud. A couple of miles in I was into the top ten I saw a big power slide mark on the outside of a corner. I thought to myself that someone was going fast. Not long after I saw Jordan Brandt way off the side of a cliff. He was way down and it looked like it was going to take a while to get out. The next rider ahead of me was John Wear. I fell over trying to pass him on the inside of a tight corner. We were into the upper section where there are some good long roads and I was able to make up some time. When the course finally left the fire roads and dropped to a steep downhill I saw Spearle right in front of me. He was making some mistake but riding hard as usual. I took an inside line from the year before but when I dropped off onto the road my front end slid out on me. Spearle didn't have anywhere to go and he fell over getting around me. A couple of others passed up also while getting up. Spearle was just ahead of me when we got going but he made a wrong turn at the next corner letting me back by. The course had a really good layout with a good variety of roads and single track. Coming back onto the motocross track at the end of the first lap I only saw one guy ahead of me. Leading was Garrison Gragg who was has really been going fast and was riding a 125 at this race. Fortunately for me he fell on the motocross track handing me the lead. Spearle soon made his way into second place. I opened up about a thirty second lead but Spearle wouldn't let me slack off at all. I was riding pretty good but was being careful on some of the slippery sections. I didn't want Spearle to get close enough to see me for a couple reasons- first if you can see the rider in front of you it motivates you- second I didn't want him to key off me and take my lines. It started to dry out and I was picking up my pace. On the third lap it started to rain again and was getting slick. Spearle caught up a bit and when I came into pit he caught me as I left. Thanks to Joe I had a good pit and got fresh goggles. It was still raining a bit and after a couple of pulls my goggles broke. I had to take the goggles off because the roll offs were stuck and I couldn't see anymore. I don't like riding without goggles but didn't have much choice. I put down another hard lap and opened the gap slightly on Spearle again. I held that gap to the finish and took the win by about thirty second over Brian Spearle. John Wear finished third. I was happy to take the win and look forward to the next race at Shasta. |