HARESCRAMLE+RACING

HARESCRAMBLE RACING

One type of ATV racing is harescrambles. These are tracks that are made through the woods and can contain anything from creek crossings, hill climbs, tight woods, mud, rocks, and many other things. In the one series that I race there are three different races. At 8:00 in the morning is the youth race that is one hour long. This race contains all of the kids. You can be as young as six and race. The size of the ATV has to be under 125cc to race in this race. There are usually between 60 and 80 youth riders. The tracks are usually three to five miles in length and are not as challenging as the adult tracks. This year I moved up from the youth race to the ameature race. Its a lot different from the youth race because I now race for 2 hours instead of an hour, the tracks are a lot harder and longer, and lastly I am on a bigger ATV with more speed and power. The next race at 10:00 is the ameature race. This race goes for two hours. There are generally about 300 to 350 riders out on the track at the same time. This track can be anywhere from 8 to 13 miles in length and is more challenging than the youth track. Within the two hours you have to see how many laps you can run. There is not a certain number of laps that you have to do. You can understand why the track would get torn up in those two hours because it's not like there are only five or ten people out there at one time. Next at 1:00 is the pro race where all of the pros and A and B class riders race. This track generally are a little more challenging than the ameature race because they are pros. Their race is also two hours long. They race the same track after the ameature race is done so they go out on an already torn up track and then race another two hours on it. With harescramble racing there is no practice aloud before the race. It is fun to watch the pros because you can learn so much about riding styles from watching them ride. Also its cool because this is not like nascar or some big event where you have to pay to get to talk to the pros, you can just walk down through the pits and talk to all of them and also get autographs. The 2 pictures above are my favorite 2 pros, the one on the left is Brandon Sommers. He is from Millersburg Ohio. I get to ride with him all of the time because we are good friends. The guy on the right is Donnie Ockerman, He is from Illinois. At the race we help him as his pit crew and we get to hang out a lot. The only way to lo ok at th e track before the race is to go out and walk or bike it. This makes this type of racing more challenging in itself with no practice. Harescrambles are really hard to do because you have to train a lot and be in good shape. You need to last the full two hour race if you want to finish good. Not only do you need to be propared to go the full two hours but your machine needs to be able to last. This is why you need a good mechanic to keep the ATV running. This is the type of racing that I do and I will tell you that it's not easy but is is fun!