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AMA/NETRA Hare Scrambles Series, Round 10
By Cheri Alix
.
ALTON, NH, AUG. 30
fter many setbacks - from severe
win te r w eather knocking down
trees and blocking large sections of
trail to land disputes - th e Rocky Mountain Har e Scra mbles finally went off, and
Patrick Timothy topped the field afte r an
ea rlv ba ttle wi th Tom Norton, who later
suff~red mechanical trouble and finished
seventh. Ken Law finished second, with
Chris Pan zella th ird ove rall.
The club laid out a 16.5-mile course
consisting ma inly of cart roads, snowm obi le trails and cross cou n try skiing
trails. The trails con tinually ran up and
dow n the hills, with se vera l washed-out,
roc ky downhills . There was one brid ge
tha t w as more than 100 feet lon g, crossing a nasty, swam py mud hole.
Jus t three days befo re the race wa s to
ge t und er way , the origina l sta rting area
w as bl ock ed b y a d is grun tl ed land
owner, forcin g th e club to fin d a new
location. Parkin g was tight at th e new
loca tio n, but wi th th e low turnout of
o nly 175 riders , everyo ne m an aged to
fmd a spot.
Th e rid ers lined up Blackwat er style
a t 1 p .m ., Expert s , A ma te u r s and
No vices combi ned, and with onlv a 13mi n ut e d el ay , the flag was dro pped.
Mid town Kawaski/Clarkie-Steelhy / CCycle /Specro /FMF-backed Timothy
was the only rid e r on the front row.
Brian Tu cker and Law followed on the
second row, with Tom Norton on the
third row. Tucker immediately go t a flat
front tire and had to return to the pits.
No rton qui ckly got by Law and hooked
right up with Tim othy.
"I came up to the mudhole an d there
w ere tw o specta to rs stan di ng o n th e
side, pointing," Timothy said . "I got tun-ne l vision looking at them and didn't see
the brid ge go ing over th e mud o n th e
left si de . I w e nt right for th em a n d
slammed to a d ea d s top in th e mud . I
just caug ht No rton in th e corner of my
eye, cros sin g over the bridge. I jus t went
'n u ts whe n I saw h im cru ise ov er the
bridge. I just ripped my bike out of the
mud ."
It took a while for Tim othy to get his
bike out and cro ss the mud, but Norton
wasn't going any w he re fast.
"Once we go t off th e Junior course,
th e trail was co m ple tely virgin - not a
mark on it - and the branches were hanging Over everywhere, making it difficult
to see the arro ws ah ead ," lorton said.
"If you wen t fast, you'd get killed . So we
had to just plu g a lo ng . Timothy ca me
flying up behind me and got right on my
tail, so I moved over and let him go . Not
a hundred yards later , he put his hand
up and let me lead again ."
Th e two riders ju st hung tog ether
unti l the final mile, wh en they came back
onto o pen tr ail. Timothy gra bbed the
·lead, com ing around just second s ahead
'of orton. Both riders stopped to pi t for
'gas and came ou t side by side. In third,
some three minu tes behind, was Law . It
was a n a ll-ou t ba ttl e fo r fo u rt h p lace
be tween Expe rt 250cc riders Josh Hackett, Dennis Decker an d Jeffrey Staples.
The trio came arou nd wit h less than five
seconds between them.
By th e second lap, the g roove was
'made and th e rid er s sta rte d picking up
the pace, Timothy go t ou t in front and
'p u t 20 seco nds on No rton at the end of
the second lap. But it was n' t over yet, as
,on adjus ted time No rto n on ly had to fin.ish within 10 seconds of Timothy. He had
.c)osed to within th is tim e not halfway
i!1to the final lap when disaster struck.
"I bounced off a rock and the ba ck
sta rted on the seco nd row but took the
lead early an d put more than 25 seconds
o n second-placed Ryan Dellagh elfa by
th e end of the firs t lap. But the race had
just begun and by en d of the seco nd lap,
La ngenback had De llag helfa and
Tho mas Sheeha n kn ockin g on his rear
fender. The race wa s tigh t at the finish,
with Langenback taking the checkered
flag just a seco nd ah ead of Dellaghelfa.
Sheehan ran into problems on the fina l
lap and finished third a minute behind.
In the Mini class, Paul Dellaghelfa
ju m p ed o u t to a 13-sec ond lead o ver
Willi am Rowe , but Rowe ca me back
s tro ng and passed Dell aghelfa to run
away to victory wi th a four-minure margin over second- placed Scott DeCos ta .
Dellaghelfa d ropped bac k to third .
Heidi Landon wa s th e on ly rid er in '
the Wom en's class to finish all four laps,
taking the class wi n.
,:Rocky Mountain Hare Scrambles
Alton, New Hampshire
Results: August 30 , 1998 (Round 10)
G RN D CH AM P: Patri ck Timothv (K.1W).
Q /A A: C h ris Pa nzella (Yarn ).
•
O/A B: Lome Gora ln ik (Yam ).
O/A C: j ust in Davidson (Ho nl .
AA : 1. Pa tri ck Timo thy (Ka w ): 2. Ken L.1 W (Yam) ; 3.
Tom Norton (Ya m ).
250 A: 1. D.J. u- (Hu ~) ; 2. De n nis Dec ker CKTM ); 3.
t
jeffrey Staples (Ya m ); 4. JU!'o h Ha ck ett (Hen): 5. [u... in
Pro ven ca l (1G. W).
1
'
200 A:.. 1. Chris Cris p in tH o n): 2. [iarrny Edm o nd s
(KTM) ; 3. Na tha n Ke nney (Su z ): 4 . St ove Fo rm a ne k
(He n): 5. Drew Ca rpenter (Suz ).
VET A: 1. Sco tt Raym ond IKaw ): 2. Robert Ca rlso n.
3. Chris Simpson ( Ka w ).
O PEN A: I. Chris Pan zella (Yam) ; 2. Dan Salomone
(K
'TM); 3. Robe rt N orth (Y.1m) ; 4. Pete Byrne (Yarn).
SR A: 1. j errv Rand a ll (Ya m); 2. Rob...'1't Whik> (Hon).
250 B: 1. Todd Hamilton [Ho n): 2. Mikl' Ca rpe m ro
(Ho n); 3. Robin Al lso p (Yam); 4. Larry Silvia tKaw ): 5.
Kei th Bonev (H o nl.
.
200 8 : i . Keith Ca llaha n (Kaw); 2. Ch.Jrll~ Ha thawav
(Ho n): 3. Da vid Popielsk i (Hen): 4. Scott Harwood
(H on): 5. Ma rk Griffin (H en).
. O PEN B: 1. Lo m e Coral n ik (Ya m ); 2. Dou g Fo x
(H on ).
end of mv bike slammed sidewavs into a
tree ," Norton said. " It wasn' t th~t bad of
a h it but it broke m y cha in g u ide. It
made that ins ta n t gri nd ing so u nd that
makes your stoma ch sink to your feet. I
had to ta ke m y rea r wheel completely
off. Luckil y I had my fanny bag and two
swee pe rs w ho had jus t p a s se d m e
turned aro und to help. But [ lost almost
10 min ut es."
.
No rto n finis hed the race but not un til
after sev era l ride rs passed him, movin g
him back int o seventh for the day.
Timothy went on to tak e th e checkered flag, tying up the yea r-end cha m pions hip points wi th No rto n. It will be an
interesting final tw o ra ces.
Law took seco nd overall for the day,
ju st edging o u t third-place fin ish er
Panzella by three se co nds. MSR /Wil-
lows MS /Lyo ns a nd Bill ard s-back ed
Panzell a s ta rte d o u t on th e ninth ro w
and had quickly moved himself up into
the pack, coming arou nd in sixth place at
the end of the seco nd lap .
"I knew it was going to be a long da y
and th e co u rse wou ld take its toll o n
e ve ryo ne," WR4 00-m ounted Panzella
said . "I kep t pick ing off riders each lap,
two or three at a time, and o n the fina l
lap I just we nt for it. It must have bee n
my fas test lap of the day."
Alo ng with tak in g th ird ov era II for
the day, Pan zella also earn ed himself the
Expe rt-class ove ra ll. VMR/Spec tro's D.J.
Lis finished fourt h overa ll and took firstplace honors in the Expe rt 250cc class.
The Junior class, run ea rlier in th e day
on a 6-mile loop for four laps, was won
by Robert Langenba ck . Langenb ac k
VET B: 1. jeff Pica rd (KTM); 2. Bria n Bre wer (5oz);
3. Ja mes St. Laurent (KT M ).
4-STRK B: 1. Stare Arne!' (He n ): 2. Jim w al sh (Suz );
3. Bill Reis s (Suz ).
SR B: 1. Pat Fogarty (Hon ): 2. David Ken ney (KTM ).
250 C: 1. Kevin Fahev (Ka w) : 2. Da vi d Mau ri ce
(Ka w ): 3. Jett Palesky: 4. uui Kelt y (Hun).
200 C: 1. Jeff Ducha ne : 2. Tudd Harris (K. W); 3.
1
Ch ar les Gero u x (Ka w ): 4. Sco tt Co tle r (Kaw ): 5 . Car l
Ametta (Ka w).
OPEN C: 1. Brian Robarge (He n ): 2. Dav id Ya rosis
(J