NETRA HS, Indian Ridge, Eastford CT

Got One:

Since the JDay series is still on summer break, we decided to hit another NETRA Hare Scramble, this one was at Indian Ridge in Eastford, CT…just about 45 minutes from home.

We have never been to this venue, so I was a little anxious as I just didn’t know what to expect. This place was cool…the start was at the bottom of a sand pit, kind of in a bowl…reminded me a little bit of the start at Erzberg. I was excited, finally a place with sand, something I was actually familiar with. The heat was going to be a factor again, but it wasn’t as humid as last weekend, so I wasn’t too worried. I did my work during the week, my confidence was high.

I had to sign up for 250 B again (same as last week) since I don’t race enough NETRA to point up to A and they don’t recognize the JDay series points. No worries though…I was racing the same guys I always do…we are all in the same boat as far as that goes…so you have at least ½ of the B class loaded with JDay A class riders.

 

Race time. I hit the starter button on my Husky and yet again…for the second time in a row…my bike started pretty well. No, not a hole shot, but close. The first right hand turn was wide and sandy, and I was on the outside of the pack and no one seemed to want to come near me. I put my best Wisconsin ice riding face on and simply flat tracked it, never letting off the throttle. It felt great to be able to hang it out for a change (I haven’t gone sideways in a long timeJ). This moved me up to 3^rd place, as we entered the mogul field and then the woods. I was pumped. I worked my way up to 2^nd pretty quick and settled in. The course had 3 really cool rock gardens (I’m starting to dig rocks), an extreme section (that one was actually pretty easy), and some really nice flowy trail where you could open it up a bit and it made for good passing.

The first 3 laps went well for me, I was in 2^nd when I got the sign from dad to come in for a pit stop. Dad had things lined up awesome. My friends Nick D. and Matt C. were handling goggles & water, Dad handled the fuel. This was probably our best pit stop ever. I think I got in and out in 15 seconds or less, and I had the leader in sight, as he had pitted right in front of me. I went back out to enter the extreme section when I made a little mistake…actually it was a big mistake. On a drop off I grabbed a too much front brake and went over the bars…that was a pretty good get off (wish I had that on video)….I was lucky I didn’t get hurt. I picked my bike up, fired it up and couldn’t help but laugh about this stupid mistake.

When I went through scoring on this lap I was about 40 seconds behind the leader, still in 2^nd. Good. Throughout the race dad gave me the lap times and distance off the leader, I knew exactly what I had to do. I caught up and set up for a pass for 1st when I hit his rear tire (he had gotten stuck) and I tipped over, no biggie, but the pass didn’t happen right there, and I broke my right hand guard in the process. I threw it to the side (let me know if you found a hand guard with a red shield), and pushed hard to try and catch up and after 2 hours and 40 minutes of battle, on one of the most fun courses I have raced so far here in New England, I finally saw the checkered flag.

 

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what happened, when I went through the finish I thought I was in 2^nd, but because of something along the lines of Highpoint B and some rules I don’t really know, I ended up in 1^st place….I’ll take it.

 

The biggest lesson I learned from this event is that I do need to get stronger yet. I think the mountain bike will see a lot more use and I might need new running shoes…

 

Thank you to the hosting club (Tri State)...what an awesome course and event!!!!

 

Thank you to my awesome sponsors, Kenda tires (the Washougal was the perfect choice for this race), Fly racing for the “cool” gear, Panic Rev for keeping me safe, EKS brand goggles, mom & dad, my grandparents, and of course my sister for coming out…as I said in the past…it is cool to have family support!

 

Thanks for reading and taking an interest – if you would like to help, please share my blog….my sponsors like the exposure!

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

Crest Whitening commercial - audition

 

NETRA Cherry Bomb Run, Chaplin, CT

This weekend we decided to hit another NETRA Hare Scramble, the Chaplin Cherry Bomb run, hosted by the CT Ramblers. This race location was only about 45 minutes from our house, so I didn’t even have to get up early.

We got to the site, set up our trailer and the “Fly Racing” EZ UP to get some shade, and the sweating began. It was in the mid 90’s before noon…this was going to be tough.

Since I don’t race enough NETRA events to accumulate enough points to move up to the A class I signed up for 250 B…and…raced against a lot of the same guys I usually race in the A class at JDays…apparently we all have the same issue. After much joking around at the start, it was time to get serious. I picked a spot on the very left of the line as the starting straight was super short and there was a 180 hairpin turn at the end. Considering my recent struggles with starts I figured I can either squeeze everyone off if I do get a start, or pick a good line to avoid the anticipated turn 1 pile up. The flag dropped and drum roll…I got a start. I was in 2^nd going into turn one, then I got stood up a little bit by a guy on the inside and had to back out of it (hello fence post), but I still came out ok and settled in in 6^th or 7^th place. I was happy…this is a 2+ hour race, I have plenty of time to make some moves.

We got to the back section of the course and everyone had talked about how nasty it was…no kidding…that section was rough. The mud, rocks and roots made it a little bit of a gamble every time through….for everyone. I was lucky, my good friend Steven was back there to help. He likes mud, and it shows. He was awesome…helped me out of this mess several times and saved me lots of energy…Thanks buddy!!!

Anyway, back to the race…I had worked my way up to 5^th place and was about 40 seconds behind the leader. I found a great rhythm things really started to flow – I know…”NETRA” and “FLOW” are 2 words you usually don’t associate with each other. I got up to 4^th and even 3^rd place over the next 2 laps when it was time to pit. I had no issues, the bike ran great so this was an easy pit stop…water and fuel and I was out of there.

Of course it wouldn’t be a good race if it wasn’t for problems…the back section got me. I got stuck badly, and needed all of Steven’s help to get out. In the process my goggles got all messed up, so I threw them to my sister and mom, they were both back in mud section cheering guys on.

Once I got out of the mud and back on course I flew into the pits for goggles. Dad was ready, not sure how he knew, but it was a 5 second stop at the most. I went back out but had dropped back to 5^th again. This was a little past the half way mark of the race, I figured I had 3 laps to go. Dad kept telling me to trust my conditioning and sprint to the end! So I did. I hit the mud section again, and got through ok, but I must have hit a rock in the process…my chain guard got bent badly. I tried to ride with it, but it pulled the chain right off. Somehow I got it back on and jumped off the track and on to a service road, hoping it would take me to the pits. I rolled in, and dad and a couple of guys went to work…I was lucky, someone had a big enough crow bar with him to get things straightened out, so I could go back and continue the race. I had to ride back to where I jumped off course, so I wouldn’t get DQ’ed. When I came through the pits again, the entire pit row cheered for me. These guys were cool…first they helped us out with the bike and then they gave me some “magical gogo” to push hard for another lap. I had dropped to 7^th because of my troubles, and really wanted to get back a spot or 2. I was super motivated and pushed my bike and my body to the edge and was able to make up over 2 minutes to make a pass for 6^th, with 5^th place only about 20 seconds in front of me. I was pleased with this. Yeah sure, a top 3 would have been nice, but that would have been easy…I got a 6^th place…the hard way. I’m good with that.
 

Thank you to my sponsors, Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Panic Rev, Halls Husqvarna, EKS Brand goggles, my mom and dad, and my grandparents…Thanks sis for coming out (loved the sharpie numbers)…its cool to have family support.

Thank you all for reading and taking an interest, as usual, please share if you would like to help…my sponsors like exposure J

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

Steven and my sis

 

River Rush II - JDay GP

This weekend we got to go back to Huntington, MA for the River Rush II JDAY race. I was looking forward to this as I had some “redeeming” to do from the last showing at this venue.

The course looked awesome as usual, the extreme section looked doable, the temperatures were brutal. Man was it hot. Regardless, I decided to sign up for 2 classes anyway and test my endurance and willpower.

My 1^st moto was the Junior moto 1.

We’ve been working on the Husky to try and figure out how to get it started better so I don’t have to come from dead last every time. Unfortunately we still have some work to do on that as I didn’t get a good start. I had to come from behind and work my way through the pack to get up front. Fortunately the course layout allowed for great passing, so when it was all done I ended up in 2^nd place for the moto. Good enough, I felt confident and comfortable on the bike and was ready for the first A250 moto.

Maybe I’ll get a start this time?....nah…my Husky decided to decline to start right away and I took off in dead last.

The Husky is apparently really bad at starts, but it is really good at catching up! I worked hard, ignored the heat and arm pump and started picking people off. On the last lap I was in 10^th place when we entered the xtreme section, and 9^th was right in front of me. I decided to pressure the guy into making a mistake, and on the last turn when we exited the log infested sandy section I got by him to take a 9^th place for the moto. My goal has been to get a top 10 in this class, I was on the right track and felt great about it.

Photo: Roger Cameron from magicalgogo.com

Back to the trailer – time to cool off! I went down to the river and jumped in, trying to get my body temp down and get ready for Junior moto 2. I had about 40 minutes to get ready. Dad worked on the bike, loaded me up with electrolytes, a little bit of food, and kept me on schedule. Time to go.

I lined up in the same spot I did for moto 1, and….drum roll….got a last place start again. Ok, same story. Work your way through the pack and see if you can catch the front guys. I got up to 2^nd place and had 1^st in my sights when I got caught behind some lappers in one of the few spots where it was just not possible to pass. With only a half lap left, there was just not enough time to catch the leader, so I settled for another 2^nd place, taking 2^nd overall in the Junior class.

Back to the truck, cool down again and get ready for moto 2 A250. I started to feel the heat a little bit, and the track was getting rough. The breaking bumps started to get huge, the roots and rocks got nasty, and now it started to rain to make things nice and slick. By the time I went up to the line for my last moto, the rain stopped and the humidity was awful, I could not wait to get this thing going so I can get some air flowing J. Come on Husky – let’s get a start!!! Almost…not ideal, but this time at least I wasn’t last off the line. I rode the 1^st two laps hard to see if I could find my groove, but had to start to back off here and there as I was starting to get tired. I worked as hard as I could and figured that if I can maintain my speed, I should be able to get close to the top 10 at the end. Mom kept writing motivational stuff on the pit board, and dad kept encouraging me every time I went by. On the last lap dad pointed to the guy in front of me…he was in my class, and just as in moto one I decided to try and pressure the guy with a last effort on my end, hoping he would make a mistake and open the door for me to get him. It worked out, he fell on one of the logs trying to keep me behind him and I passed him for 10^th place. With a 9^th in moto1 this gave me 9^th overall…so far my best result in A250 here in the east. I was exhausted, but felt great…off into the river…

 

Thank you to my sponsors Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Panic Rev, EKS brand Goggles, mom & dad and my grandparents.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth