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/128602
VVillaeyville. CA a Februery 1 3. 2000 AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series Round 2: Wilseyville National HS By IAbove) Defending Hare Scrambles Champion Doug Blackwell Ii) gives Craig Wesner a tasle of Northern California soup at the start of the Wilseyville National HS. Blackwell ended up finishing fourth and Wesner seventh. ILeft) Paul Edmondson is adapting well to his new Kawasaki, winning every race he's competed on it. (Below) Local favorite Brian Garrahan follows a deep rut en route to a secondplace finish. JILL ASHWORTH PATTERSON eam Green's Paul Edmondson continued his winning ways after coming out on top of the second round of the AMA National Hare Scrambles Series, held on the private land of the John Schaad Ranch near Wilseyville, California. Very muddy conditions and rain, seemingly typical for the Wilseyville race, didn't stop the approximately 140 weather-hardy racers from being eager to hear the blast of the shotgun to signal the start of the race. "I was here in '97, when I was on Team Suzuki," Edmondson said. "It was my first big win in America, so I'm really pleased to be back here, now as part of Kawasaki's Team Green." Yamaha's defending series Champion and reigning Wilseyville titleholder, Doug Blackwell, took the holeshot at the end of the 100-yarddash going into the first turn. He nearly repeated the same exact onthe-gas mud-sliding maneuvers he made when he captured the holeshot last year. "My bike was working good, and I was working good," Blackwell said. "All that was missing this year was the snow. "I rode yesterday in the desert with Ty (Davis) at the Best [n The Desert race," Blackwell said. "This is from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the dry desert there, to the mud up here." Riding in the wake of Blackwell's roosting shower of mud, in about third place at the first turn, was Team Green's Cycle Pro of Santa Rosa/ Moose/Faultline Suspension-sponsored ~raig Wesner. 40 MARCH 1, 2000' II: U II: I "I was really excited, because I was riding so close to the front," Wesner said. "Then he (Blackwell) let the big dog eat, and I ended up on the tail end of that stick." Similar layers of the drenching sludge also engulfed most of the other riders, but it didn't stop any of them from continuing as the pack headed onto the nine-mile course. The first quarter-mile of the track led racers across the lower end of a meadow, then towards the first wooded section and the ensuing slick, clay trails and muddy fire roads. Badges PCP Yamaha/Works Connection/Moose Off Road-supported Erik Kohler w.as near front as the group came to the first creek crossing. "I briefly hesitated before the creek," Kohler said. "All of a sudden ffie e n ...... s