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Old 10-30-2007, 08:24 PM
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Boomhauer Boomhauer is offline
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Thumbs down Zars Ranch Hare Scramble

Well about a month ago a riding friend of mine talked me into doing my 1st & only Hare Scramble. You will understand after the ride report.

After my friend had talked to me about this HS I was stoked to do it just because the property they were holding the race on was suppose to be an awesome place. I tried talking Girard into doing it with me but he declined.

So last week I spent a few nights wrenching on the bike and getting her race ready. Saturday rolls around and I prepare all of my gear & my bike while waiting on my friends phone call to say that he was on the way to my house. Well he calls and I start loading up my truck. He arrives and I hook up to his trailer and we head to Floresville, TX.

We arrived at the race site just in time to register, unload the bikes and get suited up for our 1 hour practice. I signed up for the Open C 2 hour class. During my 3 laps of practice I searched for alternate lines to make passing easier and there were few to be found. The 6 mile track was pretty tight with little room for error or passing. Please keep in mind this was my 1st Hare Scramble!

I made 3 laps and felt pretty good about the course lay out. I then headed over to the starting line to practice my starts. Once again I felt pretty confident in my ability to do well. In the previous weeks I had my game plan all laid out in my head about the start of the race. I would let all of the crazy hardcore racers race to the 1st turn, take one another out, and then Boomhauer would pick them off in the woods. Let's see how this plan plays out for me.

After practice we walk around and talk to some folks that we know. I did notice several Gasers at this event. We head back to town to register at our hotel & eat dinner. Sunday morning starts out for us around 6:00AM. We grab a shower, load our gear, and head to IHop for breakfast. After breakfast we head to the race grounds.

We arrive and head to the starting line to watch all of the 1 hour folks take flight. I watched a few laps and then headed over to my truck to get dressed and make the final preperations to the bike. While walking back I noticed a Gaser 4 stroke who belongs to our brother Sandervant here on this forum. We chat for a few minutes and then it is off to grid up for our races. I might add that he was a really nice fellow.

As I watch the classes in front of me take off I made a change in my so called plans mentioned above. Due to the tightness of the track lay out and the minimal areas given for passing I decided that I was going to have to race to the 1st turn and take whatever position I landed in and work from there. During practice I noticed several other guys in my class were trying to race me so I figured during the race I could hold my own and place well being as how I am use to tight races doing enduros.

I killed the bike and put it in 2nd gear and waited for the green flag to come up. When it did I kicked the bike and off I went. I was in about 4 or 5th place to the 1st so called corner. I will post the short video in the videos section here in a bit. The 1st corner was not really a corner it was a small dog leg to the right and then into the real corner we would go. Well as I got to the real corner I noticed I was in 3rd place and the 1st & 2nd place guys were tangled up at the bottom of the berm so I decided to take the high side and pass them both up. Well everything was going great. As I stuck my right foot out and started to lay the bike over & gas it I heard a bike coming at me WFO. Next thing I knew I was laying in some cactus about 10 feet from my bike. I moved around and nothing felt broke. As I came to my feet I noticed a Yamaha laying on top of my bike. The rider of that bike came over and asked if I was okay. I told him I was and he appologized and said that he had stalled his bike and this caused him to hit me. Okay yeah right I replied.

He picked up his bike and tore off. I picked up my bike and noticed my right side air box plastic was broke and hanging from the bike. I was now in last place and tried to piece my bike back together in order to get back into the race. I kicked the bike back to life and headed out on my mission. The 1st lap I just tried to regain myself and calm down and get into my normal racing groove. Upon doing this I managed to pass quite a few people in my class. They were nice enough to pull out of my way. However I ran into the typical HS asshole who will not move out of the way.

On my 2nd lap I had shaved about 5 minutes from my first lap but now my right arm was in pain. I pulled off to check it out and my arm was swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. Not wanting to risk more injury to myself or other riders I called it quits. I got back to the truck I started looking over the damage to my bike. The right side radiator was smashed in, the air box cover was broke, my forks were tweaked, and my swing arm was dented and gouged, and last but not least my CDI box had a crack in it and it was laying loosely in the air box.

Looking back on it now I should have entered the B class where the riders are a bit more seasoned if you will and know how to race & keep it clean. I do understand this happens but not like what happened to me.

Over the 3 years I have been doing enduros a few of my friends have tried to get me to do Hare Scrambles and my reasons then & now for not doing them is the mass starts. I am not knocking any of you guys for doing them. My cup of tea is Enduros & that is where I will stay.

Happy Riding,
Boom


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  #2  
Old 10-31-2007, 09:33 AM
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SpeedyManiac SpeedyManiac is offline
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Bummer man. That's typical of C class racing - the starts are chaos. The B class is better, but there's a pileup every now and then. Things don't get good until you get to either the Vet classes or the A class. Vet riders are usually pretty courtious and A riders know you can't win off the start of a 2-3 hour race. I do hope you try another harescramble. The races are a lot of fun. If you're worried about the start chaos, hang back a little bit and watch the fun as guys take each other out in the first turn.
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