Apollo (Daytona) Hare  scramble #8 report page

The Apollo race was held on the same weekend as the Daytona Supercross so we set off early Friday morning for a great weekend of racing.

My buddy Steve was visiting from London so we spent all of Friday taking in the action at Daytona including walking around the paddock and mixing it up with the current stars of supercross.

I always enjoy looking at the factory bikes and the way they are all prepared and setup by the factory mechanics.

Predictably, James Stewart won and Ben Townley took a well earned win in the lites class. By 11.00 it was all over and we were driving back to the track.

My race was not until Sunday morning so most of Saturday was spent watching the other classes run their races which was fun to see.

Sunday practice

Sunday morning we were all up early part due to the new summer time daylight saving and the losing an hour of daylight. An early dense fog hung over the course which made my practice lap really tricky, I had to take my goggles off as they were dripping wet with mist. The course was really nice, tight woods, lots of exposed wet tree roots linked with some super fast trails, very sandy and lots of tricky transition areas that crossed over the trails.

The first section of the track was tight and I really needed to get a good start and not get stuck behind a slower rider.

The race

5 minutes before the start my camelback (filled with Gatorade) ended up leaking all over my riding gear, panicking I had to setup my spare one.

So I ended up getting to the line later than usual, this meant I did not have time to hook up my helmet cam and get the recorder setup.

I lined up in the middle of my row and got a good 4th or 5th place start into the first corner.

My bike amazingly started first kick, I proceeded to catch up the leaders and by the end of lap one I was up to 1st place, The 2nd place rider was right with me and so I decided to let him by so I could see what his bike handled like, I followed him for a while then accidentally overshot a corner, by the time I got going he was way ahead of me.

I ran in 2nd place until the last mile or so on the last lap when my leg started cramping and I slowed down a lot, I got overtaken and could only manage to finish in 3rd place.

This is not me going round a corner its leg cramp.   

1st, 2nd and 3rd place riders !   

There were some serious injuries at this race and I hope all the injured riders are doing OK.

Thanks to the Apollo club for a great weekend and an awesome course.

Dave