In the Midwest, pleasant days in March are about as common as an actual, problem-causing Y2K glitch. Nice weather happens, just not usually on a Sunday opening round of the Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship. This year's opener was staged at a farm near Steelville on a day which reminded me of the first race of the 1999 season at Cuba, Illinois. Except today was actual, serious winter, with 3 or 4 inches of snow the day before.
In everyone's favor, the snow was melting quickly and would be mostly gone by the end of the day. Oddly enough, the winter season had actually been mild and I'd ridden quite a bit before the racing season began. Would it help at Steelville?
In a word, yes.
After racing part of the MHSC series last year, some of the regulars were becoming familiar. I first began noticing fellow Open B racer Kurt Mirtsching by his distinctive "Pizza Man" jersey. Oh, the mystery...did he enjoy pizza that much? And his Honda XR, an air-cooled heavyweight in the woods. Why, just why? So much to learn.
I may have been physically ready for this race, but my lack of preparation almost stung me again. On the starting line, the Pro class about to depart, I happened to glance down at the front brake caliper and somehow recognized the mounting bolts were loose. Should I rush back to the truck and tighten the bolts, or hope the caliper doesn't fall off when I'm about to hit a tree? Quick mental math had me back at the truck tightening the bolts. My Open B class was on the 5th row, meaning the Pro class flag could drop and I would still have about 5 minutes to get back to the starting line.
As it were, the usual delays in assembling a couple hundred racers in 10 or more rows gave me more than enough time to take care of the brake. When the flag dropped for Open B, my KTM 300EXC fired up on the first kick. Eight bikes clamored for position in a long grassy field, drag racing towards that one certainty in any hare scrambles course: The first turn. Everyone aspires to lead at that turn and gain an early edge. I entered the first turn in 4th place, a respectable position considering last year and the frequency of kicking over an engine which refused to start.
A one-kick start had me following the guy lined up on my left, who edged me out for 3rd position at the first turn. Shortly after, he crashed in a whooped-out creek bed. One down, two to go. The leaders kicked up a mess of snotty goo ahead of me as we battled through a muddy (for Missouri) course. My goggles worked well for about 20 minutes before becoming hopelessly caked in black goop, so off they went. I could see better, when chunks of mud weren't shooting into my eyes.
The laps were rocky, slippery, and long. The first time through took me over 40 minutes, and as the course deteriorated, my pace was slower on the second lap. Still, I could dare say I felt...fast...ish. I grew up riding in bottomless mud, which was not quite the Steelville course, with its rocks and all. But as I would learn, the average Missourian usually doesn't find as many opportunities to hone his skills in Illinois-style mud, any more than the typical Illinois racer gets experience riding in rocks. For me, the slippery Steelville course was leveling the playing field a bit.
At the main checkpoint after the second lap, the white flag was out, meaning one more lap. I hammered down for the final run through the course, not realizing I had actually been in 2nd place for part of that 2nd lap but had fallen back again to the 3rd position. Despite a hard charge on the last lap, I came up 18 seconds short of the second place finisher. Still, this was my best finish ever in a Missouri race. Before the season began, I really wanted to bring home a trophy from a "real" rocky race, and I was proud to accomplish that at the first round of the 2000 MHSC series.
