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 2nd 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 6th or 7th place. I was happy…this is a 2+ hour race, I have plenty of time to make some moves.
Anyway, back to the race…I had worked my way up to 5th 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 4th and even 3rd 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 5th 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 7th 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 6th, with 5th 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 6th 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
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| Steven and my sis |
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