Hard Knox NETRA HS in Blandford, MA

Part of my awesome pit crew

This Sunday’s race was held at the ski area in Blandford, MA. They actually let us use the ski runs….totally awesome! The hill climbs were challenging and fast, the downhill switch backs were slippery and almost every turn was off camber. Once the track was burned in a little bit there were some small ruts but nothing deep or long enough to really lean it over, but if you missed it, you were going for a ride on the grassy corners. Overall the course was really fast, and had a little bit of a JDAY GP feel to it.

Since both of my Huskies are still broken I had the awesome opportunity to race Brian Dussault’s second bike, a KTM 250 XC 2 stroke. Honestly, how cool is that…the Dussaults let me borrow their bike so I could go race. Thank you guys so much!

I got a decent start, went into turn 1 in 2^nd place, but dropped back pretty quickly as I was still trying to figure out the bike and get used to it. On top of that I had major arm pump which made it hard for me to hang on and push. I settled in at 5^th place for the 1^st hour of the race, I just could not quite get the right groove, and I think I was just waiting for the right moment to turn it up. Just about when I realized that I only had about 1 hour left, dad pulled me into the pits to gas me up, throw some water at me and sort of wake me up…”Are you going to start racing anytime soon?” Man that ticked me off, mostly because I knew he was right (dad knows how to push my buttons).

Photo by Art Pepin - Off Road Paparazzi

I left the pits mad, and went after it. I had a lot of ground to make up, and I wasn’t going to come back without leaving everything out on the track. I started to work my way back into this and got a pit board from dad that I was only 30 seconds off. Good…I was moving forward. With two laps to go dad hit me with another pit board message…”ALL OUT NOW”…I realized that I was running out of time. I upped my speed again and actually caught up to John Maier, but couldn’t pass him, he needed a 3^rd to lock up the A open championship so I followed him in and John rides a “wide” bike so he is hard to pass J. The most telling story of this race was that my fasted 2 laps were my last 2 laps of the race. This just proves again that my fitness is there, now if I could just start a race the way I finish, my results would be much better.  I ended up in 4^th place in A-Open and 11^th place overall. I definitely had more in me, but considering that I rode a bike I wasn’t used to - this was a 2 stroke and not my 4 stroke - I am happy with it.

Photo by Art Pepin - Off Road Paparazzi

Hopefully we can get my bikes sorted out this week, so I can get some seat time in. I do think I am going to switch back to a 2 stroke in the very near future. 

Again, Thank you to the Dussaults for hooking me up with the KTM this weekend – you guys rock. Dave, you guys put on an awesome event, hopefully we get to come back to this venue again. 

Thank you to my awesome sponsors, Kenda Tires, Fly Racing, Magical Gogo, Eks Brand goggles, FMF Racing, Panic Rev Ministries, Off Road Paparazzi for the photos, mom and dad, my sister Haley and my grandparents.

Thanks for reading

Hunter “747” Neuwirth