Welcome to the third installment of Your Race Reports! This feature relies on you, the racer and fan for its content, so if you have a race report you want to send, use our easy submission form here!
This week’s featured race reports:
Ian Blythe | Ryan Flaherty | STS Motorsports | Jared Bolton
Ian Blythe Race Report-WORCS Round 5, Milford CA
Rocks!
I love them but couldn’t ride them to save my life until about 1 hour 10 minutes into the WORCS Pro/Pro 2 main in Northern California this weekend. It was at that point when I finally started looking ahead, picking good lines, and flowing for the first time of the weekend.
I have spent the last few weeks practicing a ton of motocross and I went into this racing feeling better than ever on my 450, but on Thursday at noon I was facing the 16 hour drive solo. Luckily my good friend Colt Jones called me up and announced that he wanted to come to the race and help me drive and the trip was immediately looking up. Colt and I arrived around 10 Friday night. Practice in the morning went well, but the 450 A race was another story. I ended up a disappointing 8th. We walked the pro only sections that consisted of a gnarly rocky climb, a tight steep canyon and an uphill waterfall section. Off the start I had a really good jump but got pushed wide in the first corner and came out around 5th. I was definitely riding stiff and wasn’t flowing until around 1 hour 10, but then it was like something clicked in my head and I was confident and smooth again and I was starting to make up some ground. Then I got a little too confident and maybe a little too loose. One of the Pro only sections had a 10 foot face on it and the run up to it was getting pretty torn up. Instead of timing the bumps I kind of just skimmed them and hit the waterfall face way too hard. I got sketchy and my feet came off the pegs when I landed my front wheel came down on top of a rock and my body was hanging off the back. The front wheel bounced and my extended right arm got cranked up by the handlebars and dislocated. I landed on my feet but I knew my shoulder was out. Took a deep breath and rolled my shoulder forward and felt the satisfying clunk of my shoulder going back into place. I got back on and kept pulling on 3rd and 4th but ran out of time still 15 or so seconds back, finishing 5th overall. My shoulder doesn’t feel so good today, it’s back to rehab. Should be fine for the next round though so no big deal! All things considered I think I had a solid race, definitely room for improvement but I am pumped for the next few rounds!
A lot of people have come through for me this season and I want to thank all of them. Valcom Motorsports, KTM, Stillwell Performance.com, TheORC.com, OffroadChampions.com, Motorex, Fly, AXO, Bell, Easton, Topar, Rekluse, Racetech, Carbon Raptor DLC, Enduro Engineering, Steve Hatch Racing, Mapleton Hills Orthopaedics, Harris Used Parts, OrangeJuice.com, IMS, FMF, ZLT, Rampart Drywall, Aactive Sattelite, and most of all my Mom and Dad. Special Thanks on this one to Scott Bright and Colt Jones.
Ryan Flaherty – Carolina Adventure World Mid-East
Ryan Flaherty
Round 6 of the Mid-east Harescramble’s was held in Winnesboro, SC. The track is about 50 ft. from the entrance of Carolina Adventure World. The track was fun but the parking there is very tight. The weather was good and the rain held off plus the heat wasn’t too bad.
I get to the line and notice that our row has moved from the last row up behind all the B riders. The only problem with that is you don’t have as much time to wait on the line and warm the bike up. So my row came up (schoolboy) and my bike starts up first kick when the flag waves. But I guess I get all anxious and always let the clutch out to fast and stall it. This race I wasn’t last off the line, I was second to last off the line and wasn’t too far back.
First lap was going pretty good, didn’t push it to hard just wanted to get through the first lap. When I get scored I noticed I was in 10th. At the very start of the second lap I stalled the bike right before the first creek crossing letting faster riders go by. I sat there for a good while trying to kick it and luck. Thankfully some spectator came and got it started for me. Later in that lap or maybe the 3rd I was getting over to let a faster rider go by and got crossed rutted and fell down taking the rider behind me down too. I landed right on my wrist and bruised the lower part of my palm pretty good. Luckily the bike started up right away and I continued on. I noticed I had moved into 9th after another lap. 3rd or 4th lap I pitted and changed goggles and took some Cytomax to drink which helped tremendously. After that lap I moved into 8th, I saw each lap I keep moving up positions and that helped me keep going. I get the white flag and I felt pretty good, when I came back around I was in 8th which is where I finished and I was pretty happy with that.
Now we get a few weeks off and then it’s off to Woodruff, SC for the last race of the first half of the season. (Photo by, Angela Horn) » Back to top
STS Rider John Day
STS Rider John Day
STS Motorsports – NETRA Hare Scramble Round 3
Rd. 3 of the NETRA Hare Scramble brought out the likes of Nate Kanney, Jake Korn, and Bob Santheson along with the usual AA fast crowd. STS Motorsports rider Jim Senecal would find trouble early with fuel line issues. He would work his way from 21st to pass for third on the final lap. Senecal is riding real well and is certainly looking to defend his championship!
STS Motorsports rider John Day would grab his third holeshot in a row and settle into third until Senecal would pass him on the last lap. He would end up in fifth for the day but not after a close battle with 4th.
STS Motorsports rider Bob Santheson would find his way into the pits after the first lap for suspension adjustments. Bob rode aggressive until the last lap where a few minor mistakes would set him back to 7th. Bob Santheson will be at the Somerset, PA GNCC looking to break the top 10 in the XC1 class.
For more information on the STS Motorsports team, visit STS-Motorsports.com » Back to top
Jared Bolton – NCHSA Round 4: Flat Rock
Jared Bolton
Let’s start this report off by going to the end of the race… I realized that I have become out of shape, starting to get fat and just plain slower (if thats possible)
This race was the first time I’ve rode since The General GNCC back at the beginning of March. Now, 2 months can go by pretty quick but if you spend those 2 months doing zero riding and almost no training or anything, even a little 2 hour race will be tough.
I decided to race the Unlimited class in the Afternoon race. For those of you not familar with the NCHSA series, they do it backwards from nearly every other series in the world. Pro/A/B race in the Morning race while the Vet/Sen B classes, C and Unlimited classes race in the Afternoon. I hadn’t ridden the Afternoon race in like 4 years (with the exception of riding sweep at one race) so I thought it might be fun.
I pulled one of my 2 typical style starts. I’m always either up front, or dead last… This time it was dead last. Except something was odd… I actually passed about 4 people before we made it into the woods.
Less than 1/4 mile in we hit the first bottleneck. Well I’m not having NO part of this so I just hotline past some of these guys, take a wide line and get on through. Why there was such a bottleneck there, I have no clue.
After that I spent the next mile or so trying to remember how to ride. Everything felt really weird after being off the bike for so long. I even pumped up a little bit, I never pump!
About a mile after the punch (yes, NCHSA still punches handlebar tags) there was another massive bottleneck. Basically there was a small stream across the trail, which was now a little bit of a mudhole, then a sharp uphill right hand turn across a rock face. I remembered this turn from racing here 10000 times before so I knew where I had to go. As soon as I got a clear shot I took it, made it right up with no problem.
I finished out that lap still trying to remember how to ride haha… Lap 2 started out slow as well, but towards the end I started to feel more and more comfortable on the bike. Finally on the 3rd lap I had adjusted pretty well and started to pick up a little more speed. I spent a good part of the 3rd and 4th laps trying to pass some guy from a few rows up. No matter how much I yelled or revved he wouldnt move… Finally I’d had enough and made a sketchy and aggressive pass going into a sharp left. I don’t think I took the guy out but I know I made contact with him.
The 4th lap ended up being the last one and I had a few points that lap where I felt kinda sorta fast but still just couldnt ride like I was 4th months ago.. Which, I still sucked then, so basically I suck worse than I have in a long time haha.
Anyway, when it was over I ended up 4th behind my buddy Trevor, who is a Pro rider in the NCHSA, second was a former motocross pro rider and third was some mini kid.
I’ve gotta give a shout out to Chris Bach and Ben “B-Pain” Weathers for giving me some encouragement during the race. It made my slow butt feel slightly less slow. Also, props to Rob Beacham from Passion4Dirt for managing to get at least 1 photo of me where I don’t look totally gooned out.
Next up will be the SORCS 8 hour team race at Hill Farm in Sparta Georgia. I’ll be riding with my friend Katie Norton, her dad Clinton, and probably another rider.
Good luck to everyone in their upcoming races.
-Jared Bolton