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Michigan Hare Scramble When checking out Cycle News I noticed that I was sitting in fifth place in the Hare Scramble series after racing just two of the five races. Brian is right in the championship hunt, sitting just three points behind Chuck Woodford. Upon arriving in Michigan I realized that I would have my work cut out for me. Mike Lafferty was still in town after winning the National Enduro the week before and would be on the front row as well as Doug Blackwell, Jason Raines, Blair Bersano, Nathan Kanney, Scott Summers, Chuck Woodford, Andy Shea, Josh McLevy, David Lyke, Shane Watts, Brian and myself. Actually Chuck, Summers and myself were on the second row. The club decided to put the first row about three feet from the first turn so if you weren't one of the first five riders on the inside you might as well been behind those guys. Or so I thought. I was lined up between McLevy and Brian who were the two riders on the inside. When the flag waved Brian's bike didn't start and I hit the brakes and stalled my bike so I wouldn't hit him. I was off at the back of the pack and noticed Brian wasn't anywhere to be seen. Josh McLevy got the holeshot ahead of Shane Watts, Jason Raines, and Doug Blackwell. This race is pretty tight and I didn't mind being at the back of the pack. I was riding Shane's practice 200 and while I have been riding a 200 lately it took me a bit to get used to this bike at race speed. I still didn't see Brian behind me. I heard that he couldn't get his bike started and had to jumpstart his bike and didn't get off to the second row. He was pissed and started to charge and catch up to the rest of the pack. I started to play around with David Lyke for the first couple of laps. Finally at the end of the second lap Brian caught up to me. I let him by and tried to follow him. I felt comfortable following Brian and was behind him for just over a lap until I made a pass on him and thought I would burn a little energy and pick up our pace. We came into the pits after the fourth lap and had the whole Watt's family there to pit us. Shane had a bit of trouble with his rear brake and pulled in to fix it so he stuck around and helped with the pit duties. His olds were on holiday here in the states and were nice enough to help us out. Shane had his gear on and I thought that we would be seeing him real soon. Sure enough he followed us out of the pits. About halfway through the lap my bike stalled going down a little hill. I couldn't get the bike started and looked down and saw that the clutch line had broken off. I wasn't too happy because I was starting to get in a good flow and still had energy left in me. I didn't want to quit since I had flown out and spent a lot of money to do the race- and I never want to quit any race for any reason. I kept going but had some problems stalling and just navigating the tight trees without being able to slow down with the clutch. Watts was pushing Brian and actually helped him out a couple times. Brian had his bike die and Shane helped him with that. On the last lap he ran out of gas due to his floats sticking and Shane stopped and gave him enough fuel to get to the finish. Jason Raines rode super strong all day and took a convincing win. Second was Josh McLevy who has been riding good after some early season injuries. Doug Blackwell was third, followed by Chuck Woodford, David Lyke, Blair Bersano, and Mike Lafferty. Brian had a tough race and missed out on the top ten. He still has a chance at the Hare Scramble title but needs to get some more race wins. I made the finish, riding the last five laps without a clutch and had a good time racing back east again. I would have like to have a trouble free race and put in a decent result but....that's racing. |