Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

December 4, 2005 OFF-ROAD While last year's course had been blessed with early rainfall, this year's course was cursed with dry, cold Santa Ana winds raging out of the northeast. The Pro riders lined up for the dead engine, front-fender straddle start at noon and, after a short delay to fix course markings that had been blown down, the banner dropped. Then a boiling dust cloud quickly consumed the riders when _ _ Los Ancianos Me Tecate Hare Scrambles lap were Kanney, who was physically in the fifth position at this time, followed by Harden, Dodson, Brian Brown and Dave Ondas. Harden was forced to drop out of the race when he sheared a footpeg off of his KTM. "I never had that happen before," he said. "It was a weird feeling to suddenly not have a footpeg. I'm "I came around the fll""st lap in 1 1 th place and I knew something went wl""Ong. It • NIdwt ICanMy they hit the first turn. New York native Nathan Kanney was the first bike visible through the dust which rose 20 feet into the air, followed by Brent Harden and Luke Dodson. At the rear of the dust cloud a green fender was visible at the back of the pack and it became clear that Team Green rider Brian Brown was not off to a good start. "I had a three-to-four kickstart and wasn't expecting that," exclaimed Brown. "I was practicing the start and getting one kick, except for when it counted! I got going and the dust was horrible." It soon became clear that things were amiss when Mexican National rider Carlos Casas came into the pit area a full eighth minutes before any other rider. Following Casas was a hodgepodge of Pro, A, and B riders with no sign of the Pro riders who had led the pack off of the start line. Kanney came into the pit area aboard his Shift/RER Motorcity/Maxxissponsored YZ2S0 in I I th place, followed by Harden. "I came around the first lap in I Ith place and I knew something went wrong," Kanney said. "I didn't know if I went on a long route or other racers went on a short route and got ahead of me. I was a little discouraged at first and didn't know what to do." Kanney wasn't the only rider wondering went wrong. "We got about halfway through the course and I thought I was third or fourth and all of a sudden there were just a bunch of other riders ahead of us," said Luke Dodson. "I didn't know if Brian Brown and I had got lost, so I just kept riding. Kanney and Harden were ahead of me in the first few corners and I could barely see Brent's helmet through the dust." Word from course officials quickly made its way back to the pits where the riders' support crews were informed that a number of riders had gotten off course and the top order of riders on the second bummed because I was running so well and the course was really fun." Brown was able to take full advantage of Harden's misfortune and increased his standing by two positions when he also passed Dodson. "I was right behind Luke off the start, and started picking off some riders," Brown said. "I started looking at their numbers and they were, like triple digits, so I knew something was wrong. We worked our way through them and on the second lap, I was able to get around Luke and had clean air after that and picked up the pace." By the fourth lap, Kanney had taken over the physical lead of the race followed by Brown, Dodson, Ondas and Brooks Hamilton. Racing in Baja, and on the West Coast in general, was a new experience for NETRA rider Brooks Hamilton. He and Tommy Pierce had flown out to California to spend some time with Harden and, after setting the two visiting riders up with race bikes, the trio decided to race the Tecate Hare Scrambles. Hamilton found this course very similar to East Coast courses, with the tight, technical terrain. "This course was really good, it was tough, technical and tighter than I thought it would be. I only had one problem and that was the dust - we never see dust ever!" Hamilton said through a dust-coated face and teeth. Hamilton was surprised he was in the fifth position aboard his Sidi/KTM Hard Equipment/Factory Connections borrowed KTM. Coming into the finish line on the fifth and final lap, Kanney was able to hold onto the lead to take the checkers and the $1000 first-place prize. He was followed by the Team Green/Fly FMF/Scottbacked Kawasaki 2S0F of Brown. Although they did not physically finish in this order, it was determined by course 66 JANUARY 4,2006 • CYCLE NEWS officials to the best of their ability that the next three riders to finish were Dodson, Ondas and Hamilton. Ondas was doing some testing for Team Green on the Kawasaki 4S0F and was absolutely gushing about the bike's performance at the finish line. "The Kawasaki 4S0 is awesome," he said. "We are just starting to race these, and the bike's performance was beyond what I expected. I caught Dodson toward the end of the last lap, but it was just too tight and dusty to make a pass." All of the top five finishers proclaimed the Los Ancianos course to be one of the best they have ridden. At press time, official results for the afternoon Pro, A and B classes were still unavailable. Course officials were deciding on whether or not they would DQ riders who did not stay on course or add a time penalty. Results were available for the Sportsman classes that ran the two-hour event on Sunday morning. Top finishers in the Women's division were Brenda Jankowski, Heather Lewis and Sarah Kritsch. Kyle Smith claimed top honors in the Sportsman Over 30 division followed by Allan laFramboise and Jeff Meek. Steve Willenberg was the first Over 40 Sportsman to cross the finish line followed by Lincoln Perisol and Scott Higgins. eN TECATt HAll! ScRAMBUS MUlco 3-4, 2005 EL HONGO, BAJA CAUFORNIA, RESULTS: DECEMBER OVERALL PRO, '- Nathan Kanney (Yam); 2. Brian Bmwn (Kaw); 3. Luke Do

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