By Billy Rainford
Welcome to another strange week here in bizarro world. I saw a statistic that said 82% of Americans have Amazon Prime. We have it here at our place, too, and I started watching the movie “Midway” last night on it.
It’s December 7th today which is the day the USA was officially pulled into WW2 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I’ve been to Hawaii 3 times and only spent a very short time on Oahu before Aloha Air flights to other islands, so I’ve never actually been to the memorial there.
I did the Hawaii Ironman in 1996 and 1997. The first time my inner thighs cramped up so badly on the run that I was reduced to walking the majority of the final leg of the “race.” I caught a lovely sunset in the Natural Energy Lab and enjoyed some salty potato chips on the way out.
I went back the next year and tried to race it, doing even worse than the previous year! I wore a MuuMuu dress for part of the run and just had to make sure I stayed ahead of the girl from Baywatch! It’s a beast of an event and watching the athletes who have perfect days there is truly impressive.
There were so many interesting things that I did during my stay on The Big Island that I’ve considered writing a book about them. My trips to Kona were anything but those of a typical Ironman competitor. I wasn’t there to win as much as I was there to make memories, and I made plenty. For me, the trips weren’t really about what you read on the results sheets.
The final time I went there was to camp and surf on Maui with a buddy. Our plan was to rent scooters and camp all around the island while we surfed everywhere we could.
Well, we couldn’t rent scooters, there’s only one “official” campground on Maui and it’s on the far side in Hana, and my buddy gashed his foot so badly that we had to scam our way into a fancy resort for 3 nights. This trip was also full of ridiculous adventures that could fill the pages of a book.
So, how is this moto-related, you ask? It’s not. What can I say? These are strange times, indeed. “Most peculiar, mama…” ~ John Lennon. Let’s switch gears and get back on track, shall we?
Arizona Open at ACP
Arizona Cycle Park (ACP) held their AZ Open amateur races this past week. We had a couple Canucks who made the trip across the bottom of the USA from Gatorback and the Mini O’s the week before. Here’s a summary of their races:
#409 Brennan Schofield – Falmouth, NS
| Class | Number | Brand | Moto 1 | Moto 2 | Moto 3 | Class Finish | ||
| 22. 125 C | #409 | YAM | 7th | 3rd | 6th | 6th | ||
| 28. 250 C (12-16) Limited | #409 | YAM | 12th | 7th | 5th | 6th | ||
| 30. 250 C | #409 | YAM | 13th | 11th | 5th | 9th |
#626 Ethan Darrach – Moncton, NB
| Class | Number | Brand | Moto 1 | Class Finish | ||||
| 14. 85cc (9-12) | #626 | YAM | 26th | |||||
| 15. Mini Sr 1 (12-14) | #626 | YAM | 22nd | 31st | 24th | 31st | ||
| 16. Mini Sr 2 (13-15) | #626 | YAM | 11th | 9th | 10th | 10th | ||
| 17. Mini (9-15) | #626 | YAM | 19th |
Congratulations for making the effort to be on the gate, guys. We’ll have to get in touch with one of these guys to talk about their adventures.
You can check out the full results HERE.
Red Bull Override | Trystan Hart 3rd Again
From: Enduro21
Mario Roman has taken his first major US Hard Enduro win by topping a Sherco one-two ahead of Cody Webb after six hours of racing at the brutal 2020 Red Bull Override – check the rider interviews to find out pee’d themselves.
The Rocky Ridge Ranch in north Texas laid on a punishing 11-mile route mixing rocks and EnduroCross-style sections for riders who faced a six-hour time limit to sample clock as many laps and time checks as possible.
The course featured three “Override” shortcuts that opened 90 minutes apart which shortened the course dramatically and gave the riders the chance to gain chunks of time but only if they could conquer the increasingly tough, rocky climbs. When it got dark, the severity only got harder.
Sherco Racing Factory Rider Mario Roman and Sherco USA’s Cody Webb battled for the overall and within the first two hours pulled away from FMF KTM’s Trystan Hart. The second Override opened just as the dark sky had set in and with no shortage of experience racing extreme enduro in the dark, Mario pulled a gap ahead of Cody who was suffering in the tough course.
Trystan Hart was third and came home after a string of issues including having to change his exhaust pipe (riders have to work on their own bikes at this race)
Red Bull Override 2020 results:
- Mario Roman 194m36s
- Cody Webb 191m50s
- Trystan Hart 194m50s
- Quinn Wentzel 167m43s
- Nick Fahringer 170m 52s
- Josh Staley 193m30s
- Keith Sweeten 194m14s
- James Flynn 195m45s
- Tyler Kinkade 176m30s
- Peter Weiss 197m2s
Rounds 3 and 4 took place in Oklahoma over the weekend. There are a couple “Friends of Canada” in the results. Here’s a look at the Pro points:
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If you get MavTV you can watch all the racing LIVE with some familiar faces calling the action.
OK, have a great week, everyone. With so little going on locally with moto, I’ll do some more deep dives into the external hard drives around here in search of some photo or video nuggets that may never have seen the light of day, so watch for those on our Instagram feed.
Also, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our iTunes, Stitcher, and YouTube channels so you don’t miss any of the upcoming and previous podcast interviews etc..
