Last weekend was the sixth race of the NMA Off Road Series, the
Toasted Hare Scrambles held at Hannegan Speedway, the Mt. Baker M/C’s
track up near the Canadian border in Bellingham, WA. This is the first
of 3 races at this track this season, but that’s OK because the club
lays out very different courses for each event, with very creative use
of their permanent MX track and the 100 acres or so of woods they have
around them. This time they used the MX track in 3 sections mixed
throughout the lap, so we got to watch the racing 3 times in each 18 –
20 minute lap. The track is a nice mixed clay/sand/wood chip layout
that packs down into a pretty hard groove. The woods are a labyrinth
of trails through the trees and underbrush that grow out of the mostly
greasy grey-black clay based soil of the area. When it’s wet it’s
really slippery. Back in the trees it’s almost always wet in some
places, and with the weather we’ve been having this year (wet even by
Pacific Northwest standards) it was pretty much all wet. Another fun
thing about wet clay is, of course, the awesome ruts that form up. Yee-
HAH!
We went up the night before to save ourselves the 3 plus hour drive on
race morning (I hate doing that, and that’s one of the main reasons
for owning the trailer). The club held an Arenacross race and a
separate-but-intermixed-in-the-schedule Endurocross race Saturday
night, so we watched the racing and helped flag a little bit. The
weather Friday and Saturday had been really nice, warm and sunny. I
was flagging Saturday night until 11:00 wearing a T-shirt and no
jacket. We were hoping for a relatively dry race Sunday morning.
I woke up Sunday morning to the unmistakable (and unwelcome) sound of
rain on the trailer roof. Fortunately it only dropped a few good
showers on us and drizzled a little more off and on for a couple of
hours, but mostly held off for us (the short course race after Scott’s
wouldn’t be so lucky…). Scott’s race lined up under threatening grey
skies, but they held their water for the most part until later in the
day. They start the race in class lines on the MX track start
straight, Scott’s Open A class being the second wave behind the AA
class. The AA’s started right on time at 9:30, and as soon as they had
cleared the moto track (for the first time) Scott’s wave got flagged
off. As usual in a dead engine start, Scott got an outstanding jump
with his Rekluse clutch (you can kick it over in gear as your hands
are moving from your helmet to your bars so the bike launches as soon
as you can grab the throttle, which is about the time most everyone
else starts the process of firing up the motor). Scott got a great
launch and was in position for a tasty holeshot until he missed his
first shift. DOH! We just got him new boots (Gaerne SG-10), which he
had worn around the house a little and pronounced so comfortable that
they didn’t need any more break in time; unfortunately, other than
putting from the truck to the starting line, the start was the first
time he tried to shift with the new boots. After that one missed shift
he claimed the boots were perfect for the rest of the day. Anyway,
that missed shift buried him in the pack, and he squeezed through the
first turn in about 9th place. The next time they came back onto the
track (about 1.5 miles into the course) Scott had moved up into about
7th. It immediately became hard to keep track, because Scott’s buddy
Brent Larson lit up the course, and by the time they had completed
less than ½ lap he was already working his way through the AA wave
that had started with about a 30 second lead on his class. This put
other guys not in Scott’s class in the mix right away, and since the
NMA doesn’t enforce their class letter designator rules or any
nameplate background conventions, it gets tough to keep track of
positions once they start mixing it up. When they came back to the
track at the end of the first lap Scott had caught up to his old Open
B class nemesis Nick Lathrop (who has been beating Scott all season
since they both moved up to the A class). The course came out of the
woods, ran down the front straight of the speedway circle track right
in front of the stands, went through the final check, then made a U-
turn and ran backwards through one long lane of the Endurocross track,
then came backwards down the start straight (backwards from the start
direction, but the start’s the only time they used it “forwards”) pas=
t
the pits, then through the first section of moto track like the start.
Scott and Nick hit the check barrels almost side-by-side, and Scott
got the jump coming out so he narrowly led Nick through the EX
section, then he pulled a small gap on him over the jumps of the MX
track. They left the track with Scott holding about a 10 yard lead.
When they came back on the track about 1/3 lap later Scott had 50 or
60 yards, and from there he continued to stretch it out. Scott pitted
at the half way point, reported everything was going fine, and charged
back into it. I took advantage of the low chance of needing a pit stop
now and the presence of friends in the pits that would take care of
him if he did need to come back in to walk out into the woods and
check out the race a little bit closer. The first place I went to was
a small uphill shortcut that we had been warned about the night
before, so Scott and I went out at about 11 o’clock at night with
flashlights to check it out. The course dropped down a short hill and
rolled around an off camber turn at the bottom, and just as you were
exiting the off camber turn there was an arrowed “shortcut line” that
went straight up a steep, rooty bank about 30 feet high. The main line
went forward a little farther and looped more sedately back around to
the top of the shortcut. The shortcut would save a rider about 80 –
100 yards of trail, but the roots on the hill gave the “shortcut” a
pretty high “risk of delay” factor. I spent enough time at the hill to
watch just about the entire race come through, probably on their 6th
lap for the guys that had stayed on the lead lap. Out of the 83 people
that lined up for the start, there were 6 that used the shortcut.
Scott was one of them. Of the 6, only 2 made a clean pass up the hill
without getting off to push. Scott was NOT one of them. 3 of the 4 non-
clean climbers jumped off the first big root step, landed most of the
way through the last big root step where they immediately jumped off,
gave a quick push over the last root, and took off. Scott was one of
them. The last guy up, riding a BMW 450, tried to power up a bad line
for a little too long, slid his rear end into a really bad place off
the edge of the hill (no danger, just really stuck), and I took pity
on him and gave him a tug up to get him moving again. Every one of
those 6 people passed or pulled away from the people around them when
they turned up the hill, even the BMW guy (though he would have been
screwed without me there). Scott said when he got there on the first
lap there was a stack of AA guys 3 deep at the bottom of the hill
blocking the line we thought he wanted to use the night before. I
think quite a few tried to use it early on, judging from how much dirt
was chewed up on the hill, but most probably got stuck and didn’t try
again. Their loss, it was a killer line.
Anyway, Scott continued his steady ride right to the finish. I was
thinking he was 5th or 6th, but we were pleasantly surprised when they
posted results and showed him in 3rd! Before the protest period was
over one of the other guys in his class got them to recount his
punches, moving him in front of Scott to third and putting Scott in
4th for the day.
All in all, a good day. Scott and his mud-encrusted bike were both
undamaged.
I think this puts Scott into 4th place in the series points standings
now, with 6 races to go. We’re happy with his progress in his first
year running with the big dogs in this off road stuff. If he’s not
careful he’s going to get himself booted up to the AA class for the
Enduro series next year, because the speed he’s learning to carry
racing the Off Road stuff is helping him big time in the Enduros,
where he currently holds a 33 point lead over second place in the Open
A class, and he keeps finishing in the top 10 overall (5th OA the last
2 series races).
After he changed clothes we wandered back out into the woods to watch
the short course race. It had started to rain, not drizzle, when the
short course race was on the line, so we knew the woods would be
entertaining. He lead me to some of the “better” rutted sections, with
2 foot deep greasy ruts spread all the way across the trails, and most
of the ruts containing multiple steps from running into the roots of
the abundant trees. Amazingly, we watched rider after rider dive into
these nasty ruts and completely ignore beautiful lines along the edge
of the trail with no rut, no mud, and no root steps. Target fixation
is a bitch.
We had a blast, stayed way later than we probably would have normally
watching the C riders, and got home really late and tired.
Thanks for reading.
Tim H
Good stuff as always!
Mike Baxter
wrote:
>Last weekend was the sixth race of the NMA Off Road Series, the
>Toasted Hare Scrambles held at Hannegan Speedway, the Mt. Baker M/C’s
>track up near the Canadian border in Bellingham, WA. This is the first
>of 3 races at this track this season, but that’s OK because the club
>lays out very different courses for each event, with very creative use
>of their permanent MX track and the 100 acres or so of woods they have
>around them. This time they used the MX track in 3 sections mixed
>throughout the lap, so we got to watch the racing 3 times in each 18 –
>20 minute lap. The track is a nice mixed clay/sand/wood chip layout
>that packs down into a pretty hard groove. The woods are a labyrinth
>of trails through the trees and underbrush that grow out of the mostly
>greasy grey-black clay based soil of the area. When it’s wet it’s
>really slippery. Back in the trees it’s almost always wet in some
>places, and with the weather we’ve been having this year (wet even by
>Pacific Northwest standards) it was pretty much all wet. Another fun
>thing about wet clay is, of course, the awesome ruts that form up. Yee-
>HAH!
>We went up the night before to save ourselves the 3 plus hour drive on
>race morning (I hate doing that, and that’s one of the main reasons
>for owning the trailer). The club held an Arenacross race and a
>separate-but-intermixed-in-the-schedule Endurocross race Saturday
>night, so we watched the racing and helped flag a little bit. The
>weather Friday and Saturday had been really nice, warm and sunny. I
>was flagging Saturday night until 11:00 wearing a T-shirt and no
>jacket. We were hoping for a relatively dry race Sunday morning.
>I woke up Sunday morning to the unmistakable (and unwelcome) sound of
>rain on the trailer roof. Fortunately it only dropped a few good
>showers on us and drizzled a little more off and on for a couple of
>hours, but mostly held off for us (the short course race after Scott’s
>wouldn’t be so lucky…). Scott’s race lined up under threatening grey
>skies, but they held their water for the most part until later in the
>day. They start the race in class lines on the MX track start
>straight, Scott’s Open A class being the second wave behind the AA
>class. The AA’s started right on time at 9:30, and as soon as they had
>cleared the moto track (for the first time) Scott’s wave got flagged
>off. As usual in a dead engine start, Scott got an outstanding jump
>with his Rekluse clutch (you can kick it over in gear as your hands
>are moving from your helmet to your bars so the bike launches as soon
>as you can grab the throttle, which is about the time most everyone
>else starts the process of firing up the motor). Scott got a great
>launch and was in position for a tasty holeshot until he missed his
>first shift. DOH! We just got him new boots (Gaerne SG-10), which he
>had worn around the house a little and pronounced so comfortable that
>they didn’t need any more break in time; unfortunately, other than
>putting from the truck to the starting line, the start was the first
>time he tried to shift with the new boots. After that one missed shift
>he claimed the boots were perfect for the rest of the day. Anyway,
>that missed shift buried him in the pack, and he squeezed through the
>first turn in about 9th place. The next time they came back onto the
>track (about 1.5 miles into the course) Scott had moved up into about
>7th. It immediately became hard to keep track, because Scott’s buddy
>Brent Larson lit up the course, and by the time they had completed
>less than ½ lap he was already working his way through the AA wave
>that had started with about a 30 second lead on his class. This put
>other guys not in Scott’s class in the mix right away, and since the
>NMA doesn’t enforce their class letter designator rules or any
>nameplate background conventions, it gets tough to keep track of
>positions once they start mixing it up. When they came back to the
>track at the end of the first lap Scott had caught up to his old Open
>B class nemesis Nick Lathrop (who has been beating Scott all season
>since they both moved up to the A class). The course came out of the
>woods, ran down the front straight of the speedway circle track right
>in front of the stands, went through the final check, then made a U-
>turn and ran backwards through one long lane of the Endurocross track,
>then came backwards down the start straight (backwards from the start
>direction, but the start’s the only time they used it “forwards”) past
>the pits, then through the first section of moto track like the start.
>Scott and Nick hit the check barrels almost side-by-side, and Scott
>got the jump coming out so he narrowly led Nick through the EX
>section, then he pulled a small gap on him over the jumps of the MX
>track. They left the track with Scott holding about a 10 yard lead.
>When they came back on the track about 1/3 lap later Scott had 50 or
>60 yards, and from there he continued to stretch it out. Scott pitted
>at the half way point, reported everything was going fine, and charged
>back into it. I took advantage of the low chance of needing a pit stop
>now and the presence of friends in the pits that would take care of
>him if he did need to come back in to walk out into the woods and
>check out the race a little bit closer. The first place I went to was
>a small uphill shortcut that we had been warned about the night
>before, so Scott and I went out at about 11 o’clock at night with
>flashlights to check it out. The course dropped down a short hill and
>rolled around an off camber turn at the bottom, and just as you were
>exiting the off camber turn there was an arrowed “shortcut line” that
>went straight up a steep, rooty bank about 30 feet high. The main line
>went forward a little farther and looped more sedately back around to
>the top of the shortcut. The shortcut would save a rider about 80 –
>100 yards of trail, but the roots on the hill gave the “shortcut” a
>pretty high “risk of delay” factor. I spent enough time at the hill to
>watch just about the entire race come through, probably on their 6th
>lap for the guys that had stayed on the lead lap. Out of the 83 people
>that lined up for the start, there were 6 that used the shortcut.
>Scott was one of them. Of the 6, only 2 made a clean pass up the hill
>without getting off to push. Scott was NOT one of them. 3 of the 4 non-
>clean climbers jumped off the first big root step, landed most of the
>way through the last big root step where they immediately jumped off,
>gave a quick push over the last root, and took off. Scott was one of
>them. The last guy up, riding a BMW 450, tried to power up a bad line
>for a little too long, slid his rear end into a really bad place off
>the edge of the hill (no danger, just really stuck), and I took pity
>on him and gave him a tug up to get him moving again. Every one of
>those 6 people passed or pulled away from the people around them when
>they turned up the hill, even the BMW guy (though he would have been
>screwed without me there). Scott said when he got there on the first
>lap there was a stack of AA guys 3 deep at the bottom of the hill
>blocking the line we thought he wanted to use the night before. I
>think quite a few tried to use it early on, judging from how much dirt
>was chewed up on the hill, but most probably got stuck and didn’t try
>again. Their loss, it was a killer line.
>Anyway, Scott continued his steady ride right to the finish. I was
>thinking he was 5th or 6th, but we were pleasantly surprised when they
>posted results and showed him in 3rd! Before the protest period was
>over one of the other guys in his class got them to recount his
>punches, moving him in front of Scott to third and putting Scott in
>4th for the day.
>All in all, a good day. Scott and his mud-encrusted bike were both
>undamaged.
>I think this puts Scott into 4th place in the series points standings
>now, with 6 races to go. We’re happy with his progress in his first
>year running with the big dogs in this off road stuff. If he’s not
>careful he’s going to get himself booted up to the AA class for the
>Enduro series next year, because the speed he’s learning to carry
>racing the Off Road stuff is helping him big time in the Enduros,
>where he currently holds a 33 point lead over second place in the Open
>A class, and he keeps finishing in the top 10 overall (5th OA the last
>2 series races).
>After he changed clothes we wandered back out into the woods to watch
>the short course race. It had started to rain, not drizzle, when the
>short course race was on the line, so we knew the woods would be
>entertaining. He lead me to some of the “better” rutted sections, with
>2 foot deep greasy ruts spread all the way across the trails, and most
>of the ruts containing multiple steps from running into the roots of
>the abundant trees. Amazingly, we watched rider after rider dive into
>these nasty ruts and completely ignore beautiful lines along the edge
>of the trail with no rut, no mud, and no root steps. Target fixation
>is a bitch.
>We had a blast, stayed way later than we probably would have normally
>watching the C riders, and got home really late and tired.
>Thanks for reading.
>Tim H
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> undamaged.