AMA National Hare S c r a m b le s S eri e s
R o u n d 7 : S a lu k i National
Jason Raines turns an
early lead into a win with
two rounds remaining
S T O RY BY L A NC E M A RT I N
P HO T O S BY R O WA N T RE F Z
CRA ORCHARD, IL, SEPT. 14
B
e a m Am Pr o Yam ah a ' s Jaso n
Raines was the leader of the pack
at round seve n of the AMA Na tional
Hare Scra m bles Series, hosted by the
Little Egypt Off-Road Motorcycle Club.
Raines was fift h off th e start and went
right to wo rk, moving to the front.
Te a m G reen Kawasak i 's Fred
Andrews led the fie ld in t o th e woods
with KTM's Shane Watts and Honda m ounted Doug Black well close behind .
Bl ac kw ell we nt d own after find in g a
stump as Rain es m oto red by . Watts
was o n a casua l pace to start with.
"I was not too co m fo rtab le runnin g
a fast first lap until the tra il go t br oke
T
38
O C TO BE R 1, 2003 '
cue
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in a little: Watts sai d.
The IS-mile N at ional cou rse wa s
m o st l y brand -n ew tra il with so me
exist in g trai l us ed a s co n nec t o r s.
Raines took advantage of Watts ' pace.
"I ca me up beh in d Watts, and he
waved me o n by : Raines said . "The n
I was able to get by Andrews wh en I
too k a little better li ne in o ne of th e
op en gra ss areas ." Raines was neve r
challenged afte r that.
"O nce I was in the lead. I figu red
Fre d [Andrews] wo ul d be right on me :
Raines said , "T he firs t t im e t h ro ug h
one of th e new, tighter sect io ns, I put
some time on him. I th ought he mi ght
have had so me prob lem s."
Andrew s maint a in ed seco nd for
th e rest of th e rac e.
" Once I was in th e lead. I was set -
tin g a comfortab le pace think ing the
tra il would be a little sli ck the first
lap," Andrews said. "Raines caught up
to me and m ov ed around in an open'
sec tion. I was okay with that, thinking
I wo u ld foll ow hi m si n ce he wal k ed
th e whole t rack yesterday . T hen he
ju st got away from m e. 1 crashed out ..
of the last natio nal in Michi gan rid ing
ov er my head try ing to ca tch u p . I
thought , 'Second is no t bad .' I am in '
this to wi n th e cha m p io nshi p ."
Ra in e s end ed u p wi n ning t h e
t hree -ho u r eve n t w i t h a m in u t e to
spa re ove r An d rew s w ith B l ac kw ell
ano ther th ree m inutes back .
Th e Little Eg ypt Off-Road Motorcy cle Club has a reputation for putting
o n tighter, more technica l events. Th is
o ne also lived up to that billi ng .
