Hot and Steamy Fathers Day

06-17-07 MSR, ANSWER, Pro Taper Hare Scramble Series

 Fox Valley Off Road Rnd 2/5 , Wedron Illinois

A really hot Father’s Day. (Happy Father’s Day.)

Two hundred plus showed up to race the second round of the five round series, at Fox Valley Off Road on this Sunday morning. First they were greeted by the courteous personal at the front gate and then they were greeted by the not-so-courteous blistering sunlight.

Once again Team Fox Valley / Megacross worked well into Saturday night to construct a tough but fair tract through the riding park. Utilizing all of the natural terrain available, the crew laid out trails through the tight woods, rocky creek bed, supercross track and slippery hills. The ever present spectator log was back in business but the man with the hat tossed in a clump of tree trunks to greet the bikes and this clump had no courteous ‘Sally trail’. The clump was situated just outside of the electronic scoring antenna so that racers had to negotiate the winding trees that slow up the riders through the scoring area and then they had to build up steam to get up and over. The riders had it down pat after a lap or two but it sure had them worried at the rider meeting that was held right in front of it. Questions were asked about getting around it and the boss just told them they were going over it.

At race time the 25 quads had first honors and they blasted off into the woods with the courteous drop of a hat (we never get tired of that gag) ‘A’ riders Shea Dickson and Forest Burkitt led the way, never looked back, and clocked themselves top dogs.  4 Wheel 35 placed Jim Hanchett and Kevin Johnson followed by David Brooks in 4 Wheel B and Jacob Swezy in C.

After the quads finished I tried out my new Father’s Day present, a digital voice recorder, unfortunately, what was recorded cannot be transcribed here as this story is on a family friendly web site. In short there were numerous comments on the heat, the competition and the reliability of the machines.  Some very un-courteous remarks.

The big story is WOW check out the little kids on the beginner track! 17 65 beginners, and 18 50cc beginners. Looks like that course will have to be improved and lengthened! Over running the score girls, and making it very interesting at the awards table. Many new riders tried their hand for the first race of their early careers!

Over on two wheels, Keagan Schmidt in 85 brought home yet another first place plaque for the Schmidt family to hang up. I have to ask his dad where he keeps all those plaques he and his kids rack up. Scotty Sexton of course was right there the whole race to make interesting. Alec Perry, and Tony Spizzirri took third and fourth. Watch as all these 85cc riders make a big influence on the big bike classes in the future. Alec showed up a a local SX race a few weeks ago and had an impressive ride and finishing second in a stacked class

Halls Cycle's Jarred Hall went through the scoring barrels first on the first lap of the 65cc class. Travis Ward falling on the second hill and going off course took some time to regain speed to get back in the race. Ian Bellar on his trusty KTM kept both riders in check and honest to the end. Jarred later in the race missed fired on a hill by the mx track and found out going backwards down a hill can make for an interesting crash. Getting back up, dusting himself off and finishing third, Ian finished second, with Fox Valley Cycles Ward taking the win. We must give kudos to Jimmy Lanute, he has improved a bunch this season, getting to the finish line in one piece is all we ask and he did it again! Couple riders Riley Schuhler, and Josh Seibert found a big mud hole with huge logs, both had a less then stellar day, but will rebound and be in the hunt next race!~

Thumpers, air cooled play bikes in a class designed for fun. The bunny boys started out as big guys on small bikes and ended up as hot sweaty big guys on hot sweaty small bikes. David Hayes and John Conley sweated out the course and brought their sweaty machines in one, two over the thirteen other hot, sweaty Thumper pilots.  Mr. Hayes of Megacross plus class fame and arch rival of Mr. Conley, put a pass on going up the big hill next to the road. Hayes was relentless as he screamed the small thumper to it's limits and made the pass stick. Good thing he borrowed the machine from Mr. Conley, who likely now needs to set valves and fine out how to "tweak" his own machine to keep up "next time". Wonder if this will turn out to be a race contest for these two that will last for awhile? In the interest of irony, how is it that ‘devil guy’ Larry Barker and his number 666 devil bike were driven out of competition by the heat? I thought those purgatory guys liked it hot.

Trey Verardo and Dan Janus set the pace for the big bikes, Jay Hall, as a last minute entry carved out a path (once with his head) for third in AA and lucky thirteen on the day. Jay put a new stripe on his helmet, when he got up from hitting that low tree, he noticed some orange on his lid.  He had hit that thing so hard that it took the color right out of the arrows! Ringing his bell that hard Jay limped in for a finish and a massive headache.  Kiel Mueller from 86- Open A stayed with the leaders while Bill Heitman led the group from 30 A.

Kenny Otterbach led the "light"40 A class around for his continuing good finishes this season.  Jeff Oldenburg took second for one of his first outings in the A class. Kenny chose his trusty ole KDX over the CRF450x for this tight and slower course at FVOR.  Seems like 95 degrees and being a little older then some dirt makes for many to sit out and wait for a better day! 

Todd Moreland,  and Radek Bahick carded first for 30B, 201-Open B.

Jeff Tazber kept Ben Schmidt from cluttering up the Schmidt home with another first place plaque.,Jeff beat Benny by one tenth of a mile per hour as the two ran 86-200 C at 14.18 mph average speed. My personal favorite rider in that class managed to not stick herself in any mud bogs this week, stayed on her bike (most of the time) and only had Jim Schmidt pick her up three or four times. I do believe she is getting the hang of this.

Jorden Bright and Danny Brackney chugged through the day to bring in 86-200 B class.

 At the end of the day, the water tanks used to water the track, were put into service to cool down some overheated riders. Again, I fired up my recorder to get some interviews after the bikes came in and while the language appeared to be courteous I really could not understand any of the grunts, moans and panting. It may have been a hot day but as always the riders and spectators had a good time, the crew did a great job, the electronic scoring system worked flawlessly (again) and the courteous people at the concession stand had plenty of cold drinks, ice cream and Sno-Cones ( five flavors, my favorite is grape).

One last note, check this picture out and then decide if there was ANY question on which direction to go???? 16 riders this day found tape wrapped up in their spokes, brakes, etc..... Check out long first lap times, this is where the confusion started!

Stay tuned to our web site for information on upcoming events and don’t forget to mark your calendar on July 29th. FVOR will be hosting the third round of the series and lets hope for some cooler weather!