VOL. 51 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 28, 2014
P101
Briefly...
(Above) Team owner Ron Purvines
(center) was happy to see his riders
go 2-3-4 with Justin Morrow (left)
edging Nick Burson (right) for
runner-up honors.
(Left) Ivan Ramirez was greeted
enthusiastically by family and
friends after capturing his first ever
National Hare & Hound win.
his third ride back before adding
three more podium appearances
en route to earning fourth in the final 2013 AMA Racing/FMF/GPR
Hare & Hound National Championship Series points standings.
This year, the FMF/KTM Factory Off-road Racing Team's sole
representative in the AMA Racing/SRT Hare & Hound National
Championship Series is deter-
mined to better that and proved
it by taking a wire-to-wire win - a
career first for him - at the season opener, the 47th Annual Winter Classic hosted by the Desert
Motorcycle Club. Purvines Racing Beta's Justin Morrow fought
off hard-charging teammate Nick
Burson within sight of the finish
to claim second, Burson settling
for third.
"I got the holeshot and tried to
keep it on two wheels," Ramirez
said. "And I was thinking, 'don't
crash! don't crash! Ride smart
and everything's going to be
good at the end.' "
And it certainly was for the
young man from Ensenada on
his Red Bull/Dunlop/Motorexbacked 450 XC-F. After taking
the checkered flag in two hours,
Due to Congress agreeing to hand
over much of the Johnson Valley
OHV Area to the United States Marine Corps as a training area, the
47th Annual Winter Classic is expected to be the last National that will
run east of Bessemer Mine Road.
In fact, Desert M.C. club members
feared that this one wouldn't happen
when the club received notice on
Tuesday that it wouldn't get the necessary race permits. After many frantic e-mails and phone calls between
the BLM, Secretary of the Navy and
DMC officials, however, the club got
the go-ahead on Friday.
Teenager Josh Knight blew up his
bike at an MRAN race on Saturday,
so he and his dad drove back home
to Utah, borrowed a friend's KTM
250 XC and drove through the night
to make the national. He had a great
ride going and ran as high as fifth before running out of fuel. After pushing about a mile, he got re-fueled
and came back for second 250cc
Expert, 11th overall.
Jacob Argubright had a disappointing day in his first H&H National for
the Bel-Ray/FMF/Moose Racing
Husqvarna team. A bike issue off
the start forced him to head back
to the pits. Unable to fix the problem with his FC 450, he grabbed
his spare bike but didn't run through
tech, heading directly back out on
the course instead - albeit nearly 15
minutes behind leader Ivan Ramirez.
Despite the odds, he sliced through
nearly the entire pack and was 11th to
cross the finish line. However, since
he didn't tech the bike he raced, he
wasn't counted as a finisher.
Last year, Dalton Shirey competed
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