Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128313
he ne ve r the words "Ho lliste r " and "hare scrambles" are used in the same breath, you can't he lp but th ink of o ne name - "Garrahan." After all, tha t's what happens when a Garrahan w ins the Hollister Classic National Hare Scrambles four times , including the last three all in a row. No won de r there was a $50 0 bo unty on Brian Garrahan fo r anyone w ho co uld stop the loc al favorite fro m w inning his fifth Hollister National. Fortunately for Garrahan, no one pocketed the do ugh. For the fifth time in seven years, Garrahan, on his GRacing/Shift KTM 450, came away the big winner at o ne of California's largest off-road races , an event that attracted almost 1000 entries over the weekend. But there were a co uple of riders who tried their best to keep him from getting win number five, such as Garrahan's own brother, Patr ick, and Ohio's Chuck Woodford . Both Pat Garrahan and Woodford put up a good fight, each leading at times early in the nearly three-hour-Iong race, but Brian wo uld ultimate ly prevail at the end - as he has done so many times before. Even though Brian is conside red t he local favo rite , he claims that he really doesn't ride at Hollister very often . "I never even ride [here], " said Brian, who live s in nearby Boulder C reek. "Hollister just suits my riding style. The last time I rode [here] was at the last race ." Wood ford gave Brian the biggest chal- W 32 MARCH 3, 2004 • lenge throughout the day, but the mud-ace fro m O hio cooled it off a bit at the end , finishing nearly two minutes behind Brian but about four minutes ahead of Pat to take second. Australian Kerry Green, aboard a booming big-bore four-stroke Husky, crossed t he finish line in fourth , but he was pro mptly DQ ed for failing a so und test follow lng t he race (see Briefly...). That bumped Washington , Pennsylvania's Brett Zofchak up to fourth and former Hare & Ho und National Champion Brian Brow n up to fifth. Brian Garrahan wasn't the only topic at Hollister over the weekend; so was the gloomy and chilly weather. Light rain fell sporadically (and often) both Saturday and Sunday, forcing everyone to mount up their favorite mud tires and layer t he tearoffs. Sunday morning actually started off somewhat sunny, but, of course, as the M , A and B riders lined up for the start, the rain began to fall. The race aroun d the 10-mile-per-lap course, w hich was made up mostly of dirt roa ds and a good mix of single track (not to mention a lot of ruts and eye-opening downhills), quickly turned into a threeride r break-away, involving Woodford and Pat and Brian Garrahan. Woo dford , on the Kawasaki Team Green KX250, fo und some solid ground off the start and grabbed the holes hot , wh ile Pat and Brian Garrahan qu ickly settled into second and th ird. "I lined up on the left, where the gro und was pretty solid," Woodford said of his ho leshot . "Eve n though there was a lot of CYCL E N EWS water, it was pretty solid ground. Where Brian and those guys start, it was pretty soft. 1 was kind of surprised they started over there ." Pat was the first to make a move by passing Woodford for the lead early in the first lap. The KTM 250 SX rider, however, wou ld stay there o nly a short while before bot h Brian and Woodford shot past him before the lap was over. "I got about a third -place start and then got around Brian and Chuck," Pat said. "I led for about a mile, and then Brian and . Chuck got by me . They were going pretty good. After that, I didn't really charge. I just kind of cruised." Both Brian and Woo dford eventually bro ke free fro m Pat and engaged in their own back-and-fort ing the next couple of 1 "When he [Brian1 went first time], I just hooked on him and jus followed him," Woo dford said. "My game plan was to hang with him and check out his lines. He knows this place really well and rides this kind of te rrain well." It wasn't until about the halfway point, w hen they started to pit for fuel and get mixed in with lapped tra ffic, that the gap between the two riders started to grow. "We we re about midway, and we kind of got separated ," Wood ford said. "I left for gas, and he got away, then he stopped, and I got in the lead. The n he caught up to me ; it was kind of a cat-and-mouse thing. " And then lappers became a big factor. Ra in greeted the hundreds o f riders w ho turne d ou t for the w eekend's Ho llister Clossic N ati onal Hare Scra mbles. 40th Anniversary