the best I could and stayed as
close as I could to them; with the
dust it was pretty bad—just had
to kind of be patient and play it
smart. I knew that on the second
loop, we were going to have a
good amount of tree sections
and that I'd probably be able to
catch Dalton in the trees."
And that is precisely what the
vet (Robert also won in 2018)
did.
After two hours, 27 minutes
and seven seconds of racing
and more than 80 miles of rough
desert terrain, Shirey was admit-
tedly a little disappointed with a
second-place finish behind Rob-
ert. At the end of the day, he was
already calculating his approach
for the coming rounds.
"Overall, I need to make sure
I'm faster in the tree and the
tight stuff, because that is where
Taylor is definitely strong," Shirey
said. "I'm noticing my strengths
and weaknesses with him, and
I just got to work on my weak-
nesses."
One could easily argue the
weaknesses in discussion here
are minimal, as Shirey would
come in a mere six seconds
behind Robert (2:27:01).
Zane Roberts rounded the Pro
podium in third after trailing al-
most two minutes behind Preston
until the end of loop two, when
Campbell reportedly ran out of
gas, which ended with him finish-
ing fifth behind Clayton Gerstner.
Factory Beta Racing's Zane
Roberts caught up to a strug-
gling Campbell and mumbled an
empathetic, "Sorry!" his way as
he passed; a feeling all racers
can relate to at some point or
another!
This year's race marked the
Sugarloafers MC's 61st annual
National H&H, notably one of the
longest nationals to date, or as
they like to put it, the "oldest hare
and hound around."
When the dust had settled (it
probably still hasn't), 195 (adult)
racers saw the checkers, with
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 15 APRIL 12, 2022 P45
Preston Campbell (3) ran out of
gas, while Zane Roberts rides
past through a water crossing.
