D36 - 2008 Clear Creek AMA NATIONAL Hare-Scramble

Round 1 of the AMA National Western Hare Scramble series & Round 3 of 13 District 36 Cross Country Series

You can see me in the background on the tires (#75v) just coming into this mess of rider's caught up in the Enduro-cross section

After weeks of miserable rainy, flooded and dreary conditions, the sun decided to come out in perfect timing for Round 1 of the "2008 AMA National Western Hare Scramble Series" (in conjunction with Round 3 of our local D36 Nor-cal Cross Country series). The private plot of land next door to famous "Clear Creek Recreational Area" that the Salinas Ramblers M/C club owns was the perfect spot to host the National race. It's known for being very difficult terrain and just overall hard riding so I believe thats why we saw some of the fastest riders in world decide to test there skills against the track... Ty Davis, Justin Soule (Factory KTM WORCS/GNCC)... just to name a few.

"Zip-Ty" Davis rallying the 16" diameter cement pipe Enduro sections - making it look easy

This being a National round of the AMA west series we saw entries from as far east as Texas as well as Utah, Arizona, Oregon, and the other western states. The racing format was simple - Pro/AA/A open/A-Vet race was the main race of the day and we rode for over 3 hours until the checkered flag was thrown.

Charging the rocks and passing about 5 people at once - Clean!!!

The 10 mile course was a mix of super tight, narrow off-camber trail sections appropriately named "Charlotte's Web", a 1 mile Water fall section named "Cry Baby Canyon" which caused a bottle neck in the first lap with even some of the best riders in the country, a few high-speed fire roads with blind rises and an Enduro Cross section where all the Fans hung out and watched as riders either made it through CLEAN, or were gobbled up either in the crisscrossed logs, cement pipes, 6' tires, or 50' stretch of massive boulders.

Steve Varni fully committed to making it over the Tractor tires

As for the start... nothing fancy or tricky. The only issue about the start is that it only had about 50' of straight then 2 narrow back to back hairpin turns to slow and break up the pack. Sounds easy... but add 30 something riders and lots of nerves and you get a sketchy first 30 seconds of the race 3 hour race. I ended up with an OK jump off the line maybe 15th or so, but after setting up the 2 turns I left the starting area in about 5 or 7th place.

One of the few place to relax... off the ground!

The Lap times were in the 30-34 min range but sometimes felt like 50 mins and other times like 15 mins because the layout was not super hard, but it was very mental. Every time you felt like you could sit and re-group, there was another section that needed full attention. I did not wreck bad ever and had a very good race considering the 3+ hours of riding. Pits worked out very well because for 3+ hour race a gas stop is needed and with IMS quick fill, the stop only took about 10 seconds for 2 fresh gallons of Fuel and new Utopia Goggles! I finished at the checkered flag in 8th place, but after all the National classes were scored I was 12th out of 27 and 63 out of 124. The Vet Class was filled with alot of out of state riders I never race against but in the end I was stoked because a majority of the guys I do race with every weekend, finished behind me!

Varni's start (#31A far left)...making it clean around the 2 bends

Another one of Durban Racing's riders made the event too, Steve Varni and it was his maiden B class race, racing in B-vet... The B race was held after the AA race and on the same course, so you can image how BEAT up the track was. They raced the A-senior (40+) along with the B class and after the first lap alot of the track was rerouted because of massive bottle necks at the waterfall and track hold ups because of the amount of people on the course.

Steve enjoying some of the smoother sections...

At the end of the almost 3 hour race, he finished up 6th out of about 20 people which is an awesome accomplishment for a first try in a new class of racing! With a slight mishap of a tree snagging the valve off his water pack, he had to race about 3/4 of the event with ZERO water to drink or just rinse the dust out of his mouth!...BUMMER!

The National Format messed up the race-day timing for another Durban Racing rider. Chris Bridgman - C- VET. He had to race Saturday afternoon with zero support from the rest of our team but luckily his # 1 fan, Jen was there to witness his WIN and celebrate! YES...Chris WON the C-VET class in his 3rd race of his career in D36. Out of over 30 riders he took 1st and top 5 in the OVERALL. Good work and killer ride! Because of the Saturday event, we didn't have any photos of it... but its TRUE! He's got the Plaque to prove it! Great RACE! At this rate, he'll be battling for a B-class spot in no time!

The perfect conditions made this HARD race very manageable and fun - I guess thats where having a great relationship with RED BULL comes in handy too...

Thanks to all the 2008 sponsors:

• DH Cycles (Modesto's KTM dealer)
• Durban Racing
• IMS Racing
• FMF
• RED BULL
  
• Utopia Optics
• Cycra Racing
  
• Power Sport Graphix
  
• Cruz Tools
• Fringe
  
• Sierra Utility Sales
• Garvey
• and My lovely wife, KELLY!!!
  

Cheers'

TONY PALANDRANI #75v