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FTR Hare Scramble race #4 report page

Glenn Gardner photo

Race 4 was run by the Southwest Florida Trail Riders at the L-Cross X-treme location.

link here. http://www.l-cross.com/about.htm

Walking the track Saturday night I could see this was going to be a fast paced race, with the motocross track being used as part of the course and plenty of open sections, lap times would be low.

Practice

As usual I ran a slow pace in practice and really tried hard to remember where to nail it and where to back off.

The tight tree sections were not that difficult, but there was a mile or so of deep black loamy sand with huge sweeping corners that was difficult to get through with speed.

Half way around a stray Donkey ran right across the track in front of me and another rider, he just missed t-boning it in the side. note to self: watch out for the wildlife!

I take a moment to pray to the God of good starts.

The Start

I planned on it being a 5 lap race for me, so I filled the gas tank to the top and gently rode #26 to the start area.

I had made myself a box to step on and had the kickstart tied back in place ready to kick, this was one start I was going to holeshot.

As I lined up and waited for the horn to signal my start I mentally went through how I would nail the start for the first time ever.

The horn blew, I ran to my bike, jumped on the box, swung my leg over the bike grabbed the clutch lever and kicked it into life in one smooth orchestrated movement.

I pinned the throttle and let the clutch out anticipating the feeling I would get as I hit the first turn in first place.

As I sat there, clutch out ...throttle pinned, Engine turning over at approx 15,00rpm..and climbing, I was going nowhere.

I glanced down at my left hand, yes it was there and yes the clutch was out, I even "let it out" again. I glanced up.

All I could see was everybody else leaving the start line except me, My preparation was perfect except I had forgot to leave the bike in gear.

I have never heard an engine noise quite like it, a bike being stamped into gear with the engine turning over at maybe 1,000,000rpm

it sounded like two trains just had a head on collision.

The race

As I reached the first turn I was not that far behind the rest of my class, I rode around the outside of anyone I could and within 3 or 4 turns was easily up to 3rd.

Some girl rider behind me was screaming wildly at me and even over the noise of all the bikes sounded like she was just about to give birth or maybe picked the wrong time of the month to race a harescramble.

Flat landings = Flat rims

By mile marker 5 I had worked my way up to 3rd and was battling with #101 Dan Dyer on his CRF I passed him putting me up to 2nd.

I caught the leader James Clingan #25 and passed him as he went down on a corner.

A mile or so later he passes me along a rocky whooped out section where I slowed down to avoid hitting the rocks and getting a puncture.

As we hit the motocross track I opted not to double any of the jumps. James was all over the track blocking my lines but on the approach to one of the jumps I passed him for the lead.

As I came through the checkpoint I was up to first place and pulling away.

Take a look, your the leader...

As the laps wore down so did I, my camelback had come undone and was still half full, I could feel it and it was annoying the heck out of me.

That and the fact that I couldn`t get a drink out of it ,so with about 2 pints of Gatorade swinging in the breeze I pressed on.

As I passed the checkpoint on lap 4 I slowed down and tried to get my camelback off, in horror I glanced up and saw the second place rider Michael Sizemore just behind me.

I was now under pressure as my lead had dwindled down to a few hundred yards. I was trying too hard and made a mistake stalling the bike on an incline, as I tumbled down the bank the bike lay upside down.

I lost the lead as Sizemore rode past me, I remounted and tried hard to catch him up but had lost 3 or 4 minutes already restarting the bike.

With a mixture of anger and stupidity I tried too hard and collided with another rider, I went down and as the dust cleared slipped to 3rd as Des Jarvis on his Kawasaki sailed on by.

With less than a mile to go I settled for 3rd place.