K
urt Caselli has to be pleased. Just two
years after his death at the Baja 1000,
Ivan Ramirez—Caselli's former teammate,
roommate, protege and friend—clinched the
2015 Kenda/SRT AMA Hare & Hound National
Championship, thus reaching the goal they'd set
together a few years before.
Like any championship, the hare and hound
title is elusive and a difficult one to obtain,
even with the backing of the powerful FMF
KTM Factory Off-Road Racing Team. It's com-
prised of eight rounds in four western states
(California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah) starting
in winter, taking a summer break (after all, no
one wants to race when the temperatures are
well over 100 degrees and when you're a long
ways from the nearest air conditioner!) and
finishing up nine months later.
While the schedule may not be as week-in
and week-out arduous as the 17-round Mon-
ster Energy AMA Supercross Championship,
the conditions of hare and hound races would
leave Ryan Dungey shaking his head. The
races are 80-100 miles long over some of the
most foreboding desert terrain in the country.
Riders are forbidden from practicing on the
course, though they can walk (or sometimes
ride) the "bomb run" that is probably the lon-
gest starting chute in motorsports.
Oh, and instead of 20 (or even 40 guys as
in a motocross National) guys on the line, a
hare and hound may have upwards of 100, as
each wave is comprised of everyone in one
skill class—all the Pros and Expert or A riders
start on the first row, whether it's Ramirez or a
Super Senior (50 and over) A Champion Scott
Magrane. No disrespect to Magrane or the
many other age-group and gender contend-
ers, of course, but this does lead to barely
controlled chaos at the end of said bomb run
where the course funnels down to a trail one
bike wide.
VOL. 52 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2015 P113
WHEN HE FIRST CAME TO THE STATES, IVAN RAMIREZ DIDN'T SPEAK A
LICK OF ENGLISH, NOW HE SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE JUST AS FLUENTLY AS
HE RIDES HIS KTM 450 XC-F ACROSS THE THE DESERT
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK KARIYA
M A K I N G
MEXICO PROUD
