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/128362
Round 1 OFF-ROAD rian Garrahan is "the man" when it comes to racing the National Hare Scrambles at the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area. It doesn't matter if it's dry, fast and dusty; wet and sloppy; or cold you can count on him doing well. After all, he's won here five times, winning his last four in a row. But when the clutch in his new Nor-Cal Motorsport/Maxxis/Moose-sponsored RM2S0 went south in the extremely muddy conditions, he could only watch as Team Green's Chuck Woodford prevailed on the last lap to win round one of the AMA National Hare Scrambles Series over Maxxis/ FMF/Shift KTM-mounted Patrick Garrahan. As for Brian, he ended up third. "I really wanted to win this one for a long time," said Woodford, who finished in second place in both last year's Hollister race and in the series championship. "It feels really good to start the year off with a win also. I think It's really going to help get things rolling for the year. I've kind of got some wind in my sail right off the bat. At the beginning of the day, I actually got the start, and I had everybody behind me. At first, I thought, 'I don't really want to lead. I don't want to blow a corner or something,' because that would just B 30 ~ AMA National Hare Scrambles Series start your day off bad, so I pulled over and let Josh McLevy by. He got going, and I was just following him, just cruising around." It wasn't until the race was almost over that Woodford began to realize that he could actually win the mud fest. "Then the second lap, my hands got splashed with water," Woodford said. "I couldn't hang on, and my arms kind of tightened up a little bit, so I just slowed down. I just went slower and didn't worry about what was happening or who was going where. I was just catching a guy here, a guy there. Before you know it, I was in the lead." The muddy conditions practically guaranteed that this wouldn't be a runaway, and it wasn't. At least a halfdozen racers led at one point or another, but, for the last half of the five-lap race, it turned into Woodford vs. the Garrahans. "I felt like I was riding a good pace, then Chuckie [Woodford) caught up to me a couple taps from the end," Patrick said. "He was going faster than I was, but I didn't want to give up. My arms were cramping, my legs were cramping. I wanted to win, so I did everything I could and caught him on the last lap." Heading to the final turn of the race, the two had to first negotiate a slick, JANUARY 26,2005 • CYCLE NEWS rutted, slope. "He took the high line, so I just shifted up to fourth and pinned it on the low line and went, 'Well, let's see what happens,'" Patrick explained. '''I'm in second now, so if I crash, I'm going to be in second. If I somehow pull something off then I'll win, so let's see what happens. '" What happened was a head-overheels tumble as he couldn't hold his Maxxis/FMF/Shift-backed machine in the rut, but he quickly jumped back on and rode to the finish a safe second. One minute and 16 seconds later, Brian Garrahan rolled across the line for third place. "I went for my charge on the third lap, then my clutch seized up and turned into a Maico clutch, and I couldn't pull it in," Brian said. "Those guys were only 20 or 30 seconds in front of me the whole time; I could see them. I just couldn't put in a hard charge, so I putted around the course [the last couple laps), basically. If I didn't have that little mechanical [problem), everything would've been great. I feel confident I would've won." But as it turned out, this rainy day ultimately belonged to Woodford and his Factory Connection /Michelin/ Acerbis-backed KX2S0. And to make