Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HARE SCRAMBLE AMA N ational C hampionshipHare S ble Series cram Rou d4: S asta Dam n h cha rged in to it an d got stuck," sai d Da vis. "A guy fell over into me and I got s tuck and both Steve an d Rodney ,. go t by. I reeled the m back in once I go t o u t of th ere but o n n ext loop we all thr ee had to sto p at the bottom becau se the hill wa s packed again , The three of u s were just ki nd of sitting there and waiting!" Davis finallv initiated a conti nuance by shooting through a ga p off to th e side hill and making it to the top of the mound . "At tha t point I was thi nking, ' W ha t goes arou nd co mes a ro u n dl' " laughed Da vis of the change in bott len eck fortun es. "The lap bef or e I was stu ck ther e and now I wa s hoping that Rodn e y a n d Stev e would get s t uc k there for five minu tes. But I think they bo th followed my lines and got up the !r hilL" The trio would comm ence dicing from th ere, pa ssin g back a n d fo r th numerous tim es b ef or e Smith fina lly caug ht the first bad br eak of the after- • noon. "For th e first three laps it was me, Ty and Steve go ing back and for th but then I got a rock stu ck up in my chain gui de and I had to sto p," Smith sai d of his misfortune. "I actu ally tho ugh t the rear brake was overheating at first but when I stop ped it I sa w that it was the By Davey Coombs REDDING, CA APR. 21 ea m G reen's mu ltitask off-road ace Ty Davis had a free weekend recently so he d ecided to go participa te in the AMA Natio nal Hare Scrambles Series eve nt at Shasta Dam, near Redding, California . But instead of spending his Su nday trailing around and enjoying the Northern California scenery , Davis ended up in a tou gh , three-hour-long fight with Team Suzuki's Steve H atch a n d Rod n e y Smi t h befo re secu ring the well -earned overa ll win. . " I jus t w ent up there to Reddin g becau se I heard it wa s a great race and I didn't have a ny thing else to do that weekend," said Davis, 27, of his cam eo appearance in the AMA National Hare Scrambles Series. "I' m con centrating on the National Enduros and the Hare & Hound Series. It turned ou t to be a rea lly fun , reall y tou gh race." Davis pilot ed a Don Ga llag he r- p re p ped Ka w as aki KX250 with ad d itiona l su p port from Team Gr een , Moose, Oakl ey, FMF, BelRay , Tsuba ki , Sh o ei , Ren tha l, Ac me, Brak ing, Wiseco and Du nlop. By vi rt ue of his two wi ns, a th ird p lace, a n d a s ixt h- pla ce in th e fo u r events to d ate, Smith leads the current AM A Na tiona l Hare Scrambles stand ings . Hatch shows three second- place finishes in his three outings but plans on fo cu s ing m ore attention on this serie s later in the sea so n. "I just kin d of went to Shasta Dam to have fu n, too," said American Suzuki / Moose/FMF / T rellebo rg- ba cke d Hatch, w hose weeke n d in Ca lifornia sta rted ou t' as a working vacation but turned in to a supercompetitive even t. "I though t th at th os e guys ou t th ere wo u ld be rea lly fast since it was California a nd that's where both Ty and Rodney are from, but the rain made it kind of muddy and made for some bot tlenecks and stuff. It was a tough race ." A steady drizzle d ampened the close to 300 riders at Sha sta Dam but not the spirits of the or ganizin g cre w, w hi ch w as made up of members of the Red di ng Dirt Riders . A winding trail of abo u t 10 miles per lap was full of tight woods sections a nd a few nasty hillclimbs. Ther e was also a wide, fas t road section of about two miles in le ngth, b ut t he mud s lowed eve ryones progress cons iderably. " Th e mud ma d e it challe nging, mu ch more so than it wo uld ha ve bee n if i t were dry," sa id Da vis afte r th e ra ce . "There was a lot o f hi gh -sp eed stuff that would have been fu n in the dry but the mud d efinitely slowed the pa ce down. It w as still pretty fun . "The track the y have here is usu ally 30 miles or so, but I th ink that la nd closures and stuff have shortened it a lot," ad ded Davis, who hail s from Hesperia, Ca lifo rni a . "T he lo op fo r this h are scram bles was about 10 mil es. I actua lly prefer the lon ger laps because after rid ing a few G NCC (Gra n d Na tio nal T Cross Coun try ) races I'm sick and tired of having to lap people a ll the time." Ir o n ica ll y , th e lap ped traffic would play a role in the ou tcome of this event that pro ved to be in Davis' favor. Th e AA riders left in th e first ro w with Sm it h snagg ing th e holes h ot in fro n t of Da vis. For ap proximately one mile Smith led the field befor e d rifting wi de in a corne r and allowing Davis to slip by for the lea d . Davis would then cont ro l the front posit ion for the rest of the first lap, but w hen they returned to th e firs t s teep uphill section the tra il was blocked . "T h ere was a b ot tl en e ck a n d I (Above) Ty Davis dropped in on round four of the Nati ona l Hare Scramble ser ies and took the win , desp ite heavy chall enges from both the ser ies po ints leader Rodney Smith (ri ght) and Suzukimou nted Steve Hatch .

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