DMC National Report

Last Sunday, January 22, was the first round of the 2017 Hare and Hound National
Championship series at Anderson Dry Lake (well, more like dry-ish with the
recent rain) put on by Desert MC. 2 40mi loops of desert racing fun. I wisely
signed on as the Pit Captain for this one, ably assisted by Darrell Moore. We
had 4 racers on the board......long lost member Kevin Bentley, his buddy Tony
Kennedy, and father/son Joey and Clayton Gardner. A group of the Bishop
division of the club was planning to come, but various thing, including massive
snow at Mammoth caused them to cancel. Kevin has raced a lot, but hasn't been
out in years, but for Tony and I think the Gardner's it was a first desert race,
and all checked the 2 loop box. So let that sink in.....first desert race, DMC
(read CHALLENGING second loop), and a NATIONAL. It was an eye opener for them
to put it mildly. Everybody made it in for their pit in reasonable shape. I we
tried not to scare them too bad with tales of what lay ahead on loop 2. Kevin
finally finished without too much drama, then Joey finished with eyes the size
of saucers, mumbling something about rocks, hills, and rocky hills. No idea
what he meant : ) Clayton and Tony were no-shows. Ah crap. Cutting to the
chase....Clayton ran out of gas about 10 miles from finish, and when he finally
made it in seemed no worse for wear (he's 17 so....). Tony apparently dropped
his bike several hundred time out in the previously discussed loop 2 rocky hills
until he finally managed to make his radiator non-water tight. Ended up at the
last check on the course, and got a ride back to camp. So everyone survived to
ride another day. The top four finishers were on each other's back fender all
the way to the finish chute, with Ricky Brabec winning by inches over Taylor
Roberts. The desert is soaked, but we only had on and off showers all day so
not terrible. See ya in the desert soon, take care.