"Kevhead" Kevin Johnson Quad B class 3rd place, takes his turn on the log! Nothing like muscling a 300 pound machine over a log at 9am on a Sunday morning!
Mother's Day Fox Valley Hare Scrambles Opener,
Smith, Busz, Jones, Lancaster Shine.
by trackman/ photos' by Mandy
Who would have thought that Mother's Day would be such a great day for racing! Year after year mom's get to have a "Saturday night" out on the town so dad and the kids can make Fox Valley Off Road's first Hare Scramble of the season. Starting off the day was the quad classes. Surprised was the youngsters who had to deal with a "40" something postman from the northern IL. "JD" ( James Stevens) holeshotted and lead the field, with Dan Jones and Kurt Demay in tow. Both Demay and Jones struggled a little on the early laps but around lap 2.5 Jones found a spot and passed for the lead. Demay finally got around JD and pushed hard to catch Jones. In the end Jones held on for the win and Demay second, and the ole man finished third.
"Kevhead" Kevin Johnson Quad B class 3rd place, takes his turn
on the log! Nothing like muscling a 300 pound machine over a log at 9am on
a Sunday morning!
50cc classes took off about 30 minutes after the quads got under way. Separate track and good heated competition was the order of the day. Jared Hall on his Hall's Husky and Randy Bailey, Cole Evans rode hard swaping the lead. The little course was tight but the kids mx track provided places to pass. Baily finished 1st with Hall and Evans directly behind only seconds apart. Determination could clearly be seen on these little guys faces, watch out some day they will be headed up rock creek!
Jared Hall (15) with the Holeshot 50cc class. 65cc Blake Bradford (103)with the holeshot, dead engine starts make for interesting takeoffs!
New for 05 was the 65cc class to run the bigger course with the 85cc and women. However no one signed up for that class and the 65's that were there opted to run the smaller course. Kyle Holder (Kaw), Blake Bradford (Suzuki) and Travis Ward (Fox Valley Cycles Honda) lead the field. The three diced for a few laps, with Ward taking the lead midway through the race. Bradford kept him honest til the checkers, Holder was there to make sure Bradford didn't slow the pace all finishing less then minute apart. Joey & Jimmy Lanute finished out the top 5 with Joey taking the nod. Jacob Damron finished 6th with his second race ever.
85cc class running approximately half the big bike course had some very though sections. Off Cambers were the order of the day along with the dreaded log crossing at the finish line barrels. The optional " SALLY" trail which was named after a FVOR team rider who we caught last season going around it. Eric Busz never looked back as he bested the field. Women's class was won by last lap log heroics as Chelsa Marfell opted to take the challenge and it paid off for the win. Thersa Lanute going down early in the race caught Marfell on the last lap but didn't make the pass.
Determination can best describe Keagan Schmidt (301), he isn't the biggest kid, ///////// The ever famous rock creek traffic jam.
but that 80 went over that (@&*%$#) log every time either by wheelieing or dragging it over!
Big bikes left the line on time. Hard to believe but after a long morning of racing the crew at FVOR stayed on time for the first event.....very cool. The Smith's came this day and are pretty fast, unrelated, these two young men who don't try to fool the score people but Jeremy Smith and Jeremy Smith are known by #18 and #94! Gas Gas mounted #94 was the winner this day, with the Yamaha mounted # 18 Jeremy not far behind. The ever aggressive Keith Grench filled the podium. Off the line the 40 A class turn up a hill out of rock creek and ended at the wrong check, practically the whole class did this little detour so once they figured out the misque, they rode very hard to make up a half lap. Nothing like 5 minute head start for the eventual winner Tanner England who was the only 40 A rider to pull 10 laps and had a bad holeshot did follow the other riders but stayed on course for the win. Wally Mika rode hard and passed through all the trail riders for second. Mike Schoebert took third.
AA and A class start, one could never imagine they are that critical in a 1.5 hour race!
Welcome to A class Mr. Keith. We can no longer call you our team "sandbagger". That's resident FVOR team rider Jesse Keith on his Hall's Gas Gas found out that the other ole fast guy out there Jay Hall ( the boss) can go pretty quick. Now these two placed 4th and 5th, but considering Hall was completely "cleaned" off his bike, taking a stick to the head (which required 7 stitches Sunday night). Of course taking the time to rip the branches out and make sure no other rider caught that same way, he let the field get some time out in front. Putting on a charge, last lap Hall passed Keith for 4th. Steve Stuenkel made short work of rock creek this time out. Dodging all the carnage as it became it's usual slick, ruff, and technical pain in the rear. Kiel Mueller (past 80cc star) stepped up to give the past MX rider Stuenkel a run, Mike Armstrong new to the A class prevailed in Third.
Tim Lancaster winning 30 B was hard pressed to make the day. Pulling double duty, racing stadium mx the night before at Pecatonica, then getting home late and scrambling to make his Suzuki a "trail bike" again. Lancaster coming around the first few laps in third stayed consistent and took the win by a 3 minutes. Jerry Oksas was the only other 30 B rider to pull 9 laps.
Racing at Fox Valley Off Road this day was a technical and fun day, times were met, scoring was slow but corrected. Computer technicians were on hand so now they "see"!
Next event is Father's Day, including MegaJAM! drags, mud bog, bike classes, HS racing..... as always it's slated to be a fun time!
Sometimes there isn't any room so ya just HAVE to take the "Sally" trail!/// Josh Rhodes hangin though in the mud.