MF Suzuki 's Doug Blac kw e ll,
who has be e n on a roll as of late ,
put the 2004 AMA Na tiona l
Har e Sc rambles season to bed
w ith a w in at the final round o f
es in Crab O rcha rd , Illino is. Blac kw in on t he very tight and te ch nical
e was his second stra igh t in th e
and it put the 33-yea r-old thi rd
in the final standings.
asaki Team Green's Chuck Woodfo rd
hrott le head.co m Kawasaki 's Josh
finished second and th ird , respe cfter pushing Blackwell early. But the
'99 Hare Scrambles National champ
way in the end , winning by nearly a
and a half.
Raines, who wrapped up the Hare
les title two weeks befo re in Indiana.
the Crab Orchard even t to rest his
shoulder and concentrate on the final
race next weekend .
12.S-mile Saluki course. which was
set up by the Little Egypt Off-Road MC,
included six miles of new trail for the even t
and was touted as "old school" by many of
the ve te ran rider s, including Blackwell. who
said it was one of th e tou gher eve nts of the
series.
At the start . Charles Deutscher put his
Yamaha into the lead. ahead of McLevy.
Blackwell. Woodford and Kawasaki-mo unted
Andy Shea.
After the first turn . the competitors we re
direc ted th ro ugh a tight series of heavily
woode d tra il before encountering the first
major obstacle of the course - a deep mudhole. into whic h the club had bur ied wo oden
pallets to kee p it from beco ming the bottomless vari ety. The wooden pallets soon
became an obs tacle in themse lves as once
they became wet, they were ext remely slippe ry.
The mudhole was immediately followed
by a very stee p uphill, which provide d plenty
of pro ble ms since the riders who struggled
