Prairie City

We had quite a bit of rain in early January but the rain let up for a couple of weeks so the conditions for Prairie City would be good.  Record numbers of racers continue to show up for the D-36 Hare Scrambles.  At this race there were about 800 racers ready to have some fun.  Jordan Brandt was showing off his number 1 plates for the first time and looked ready to race.  Brian was also at the race looking for some of that Suzuki contingency.  Once again the club did a great job with the start.  There was a wide first straight that led into a big sweeping first turn.  We had a Le Mans start which meant that we had to run to our bikes. For the second race in a row at Prairie City my 4 stroke didn't want to start and I got a last place start.  Brian Spearle grabbed the holeshot with Brian right on his heels.  I hit the pack a gear higher and was making up positions quickly.  The course led out to the 4X4 area which is faster and not quite as rocky.  The four stroke worked awesome in this section and I was passing people in bunches.  I caught and passed the leaders just a couple miles into the race and passed them on a big straight away.  I couldn't believe I was in the lead since I am usually slow and timid off the start and there was about 70 people on the row.  Once in the lead I made myself slow down since we were going into the rockier slipperier sections.  I tried to ride smooth and not make mistakes which is hard the first lap at Prairie City.  This was a Grand Prix so we had some pavement sections.  With the mud from the bikes and wet cement the pavement was extremely slippery.  After the race I heard quite a few stories of guys getting sideways or worse even going down on the pavement.  I held the lead through most of the rest of the first lap.  The rest of the course was muddier than expected and with the rocks it was really technical.  The guys behind me were keying off me and the top guys were all bunched up together.  Brian was riding smart right about fifth place and was letting the race come to him.  At the end of the first lap I got a little off course and the guys behind me got a good run at me.  Brian Spearle and I got together and locked bars.  I didn't want to crash and did everything I could to stay up.  Spearle and I were stuck together for at least a hundred feet until we finally got away from each other.  We were both scared and took a second to regain our composure.  Jordan Brandt took over the lead with Damien Galford right behind him.  I tried to make a pass on Damien at the end of a long straight but fell in fourth gear on a slippery rock slab.  I was picking up my bike when someone came and hit my bike at full speed.  I yell what are you doing and turned my head in time to see my brother tumbling along the ground.  My bike rolled back a bit while I was getting on it and Brian hit it at about fifty miles an hour.  We were both pretty dazed and took a minute getting going again.  We had a few guys get by us but we were both relatively OK and glad to get out of that crash in one piece.  Nathan Kanney caught us right after that and was riding really good.  We gave him some advice before the race and told him to be careful the first lap.  He took our advice and was picking up the pace as he learned the course.  Brian crashed right in front of me on some rocks later that lap and then came into the pits for a clean pair of goggles and some gas.  I followed Nate for the next lap until we came into the pits for gas.  I passed both Nate who didn't have a dry brake and noticed that Galford was in the pits also.  What I didn't know is that Brian had already pitted for gas and passed me while I was in the pits.  I knew the course by now and was picking up the pace.  I put in a couple of good laps until my front end washed out on some rocks with a lap to go.  I straightened out my handguards and got back on the bike.  When I got to the motocross section I noticed that Brian was in front of me by about a minute.  I didn't know if he had passed me when I crashed or how he got in front of me.  My handguard was hanging off making it hard to turn right so I just settled in for second.  Brian took the win, with me a little ways back in second.  We were the only two that made the seventh lap and put the G Bros 1-2 in the race and the local standings.

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