IN
THE
WIND
P32
RAMIREZ REIGNS AT MUDDY WHS OPENER
T
he Kenda/SRT AMA West
Hare Scrambles Champion-
ship Series got off to a muddy
start at the 38th Annual Prairie
City Grand Prix hosted by the
Polka Dots Motorcycle Club at
the Prairie City SVRA.
And you know what mud
means! Throw away the form
charts because anything can
happen when the heavens open
up, and that's exactly what hap-
pened.
SRT KTM's Cory Graffunder
provided a masterful demonstra-
tion of mud-riding technique
aboard his 300 XC as he inched
slowly away from the competi-
tion.
But as the white flag came
out after more than two hours,
his lead had shrunk to just 11
seconds with FMF KTM Factory
Off-road Racing Team's Ivan
Ramirez now holding second on
his Red Bull 450 XC-F.
Later on that lap, Graffunder
was dead in the water with des-
ert specialist Ramirez taking his
very first series win after getting
a poor start when his bike was
reluctant to start.
"I knew it was going to be a
long race," he said. "I talked to
[race director] Erek [Kudla] and
he said it was going to be about
two and a half hours, three
hours. I just wanted to pace
myself and get loosened up. It's
been a long time since I ran in
mud.
"It's funny because I actu-
ally grew up riding in mud back
in the day when I was riding
national enduros in Mexico. It
reminded me a little bit of riding
like that. It was fun."
Kevin Rookstool had a more
consistent day on his Dunlop-
backed Suzuki RM-Z450; he
reported, "I got a decent start
Reigning FMF 250cc Pro champ
Joey Fiasconaro pulled the
holeshot and slogged through to
ninth Pro/AA while Alex Dorsey
(164) lost time getting sideways.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
CINDI
FEARS
