Hare scramble #13 report page

Well its Friday night and tropical storm Barry is all over the news. The FTR website shows the race to be ON!

We are so far south that the 5hr 300 mile journey to the race will have to be left until the last FTR update just in case the race is cancelled due to the storm.

I am planning on leaving around 2.00am Sunday morning to get there in time for my 8.00am sign up.

This is what the storm looked like at 11.00am Saturday morning.

It dumped a bunch of rain but had little impact on the dry Florida landscape.

Getting there....

I left home at 2.00am Sunday morning and got to the track 5 1/2 hours later.... but it was well worth the long journey.

My Practice

The Sunday races were going to run in almost perfect dry conditions, as the rain from the storm had almost all dried up when I arrived at 7.30am Sunday.

I set off on my practice lap feeling pretty good and glad it wasn't muddy, about a mile into the course I hit a wet root that sent me crashing into a tree and sending me over the handlebars.

 I had hit the tree with my chest, smashed my chest protector and thought my wrist was also broken. The bike was still upright and wedged solid in the tree.

I sat there for a while so doing the old  "is it broken or not?" examination, 10 minutes later I was on my way again...my wrist wasn't broken just painful.

I limped through my practice got back to the truck and iced my hand. I don't normally get spooked but that get-off sure made me think twice about nailing it through the twisty  forest sections.

My race

Normally I would be pumped about the race, but this time I felt like I could not make up places as the course was pretty tight with a few open areas in which to overtake.

 I am not an aggressive rider so running into riders to get them to move over is just not my style.

I like to set them up for a pass and make my move, but this wasn't the track to do that on.

Again my start was mediocre, as you will see in the video, I get moving past a couple of riders but go down on a corner losing my front wheel in a rut. I remount and play catch-up closing in on my buddy Mark Bordelon, as we go around a tight corner a rider in front of him goes down, he wobbles.... I stop, nowhere to place my foot I topple over down a bank, over the handle bars I go again hurting my wrist even more.

I remount a couple minutes later, start the bike and blast off in hot hot pursuit . As my anger gets the better of me I miss a trail marker go off the trail and get tangled up in some vines.

 I have to do a dead stop 180* wheelie just to get back on the trail, I decide to pull in at the checkpoint and rest my hand. 10 minutes later I get going just having some fun passing the C riders and forget about where I am in my class...its over.

I complete 3 laps at moderate speed and even managed to fall off two more times but at least got to enjoy the trail.

 Check out that sky and how dry the ground is!

There are some other pictures CLICK HERE>>

Helmet cam video from Palatka, shows the start and about 10 minutes into the race.

click on the media player box below to start the video.

Loaded up ready for the 325 mile trip back home. Just Look how clean the bike is after the race was over.

Thanks' again to the FTR workers who made this race a great success.