Round 7 of the AMA/KENDA National Hare and Hound Series

Ryan Kudla's Race Report

By Ryan Kudla - Photo By Brad Bentley

            We left early Friday morning to and got out there at about 4:30 Friday afternoon. Headed over to sign up and got some posters for my girlfriend’s little brother. The tent was a little cramped and hot, but it was cool to have all that extra stuff in there and to see the bike that won the Cherry Creek race in 1960! We headed over to the start to walk it a little bit and see if there were a lot of things hidden in the tall grass or not, and then headed to Nephi to stay in room 9 at the National 9 hotel, and ironically my number is 9. With all these number 9’s floating around I was hoping for at least a 9th place finish which would be my first Top 10 of the year.

            We got out to the race site at about 8 Saturday morning, put some gas on the gas truck to be taken out to the alternate gas on loop 3, ate some food, and got suited up to head over to the start. The race was supposed to start at 10:30 but they had some trouble getting the kids cleared off their course so the riders meeting was around 11:00 and shortly after the banner was up. When the banner came down and kicked as hard as I could and thought the bike started, but when I tried to go nothing happened. So I had to reach down pull the kick starter back out and kick again. I thought it started this second time but it didn’t again! So I had to reach down a 2nd time and after 3 more kicks I was off and going.

            I never really saw the start because of how dusty it was and knowing that there were some big ditches I just tried to play it safe. I made it to the end of the bomb maybe inside the top 40. Right after the first hill I got into a pace that I kept pretty much the entire race. I started to pick people off one by one and working my way up. The first loop was pretty fast and I think that played to my advantage as many of the Utah locals might not be used to the faster pace or could be geared for the trees. When I came in at the end of the 1st loop I was somewhere inside the top 20 and just kept going as I went out on the 2nd loop.

         We started to get up to the trees for the 2nd loop and the course was amazing. Everything was wet and pretty much all the trails were free of whoops. I just tried to keep my pace going as I knew it was going to be a really long race. I got passed at one point where the guy clipped a rock and we ended up bouncing off of each other which was a little bit of excitement! But we were both fine and I ended up getting him back about a mile later after a long rocky downhill. I just kept my pace up and was catching people and then working past them.

            When I came in at the end of the 2nd loop I was in 11th and was excited to hear that as we still had 50 miles to go and I was slowly working my way forward. On the 3rd loop about 15 miles in I caught a group of about 3 people that were all battling for 8-10th place. I was excited to see that I was catching them as I knew I had a lot of energy left and I could see that they were pushing hard. When I caught up to the first rider I put a little pressure on him and he ended up making a mistake going down a downhill and I was able to get by him down there. I kept getting close and closer to the other 2 riders until we got to the alternate pit. When we got there I was almost able to touch the next rider, but it took me about 15-20 seconds to find my little gas can because they all looked exactly the same. Once I finally found it, I couldn’t see dust or anyone anymore.

            When we got out into a little bit of an open section I could see he was about 20 seconds in front of me, and by the end of the loop I could only catch up about 5 seconds of that. I was trying to push but I just couldn’t make it up that far. It was a little bit of a frustrating end to the race but it was nice to get my first top 10 of the year! It may have been 10th, but it was still a hard fought ride coming from that far back.

            It was an amazing course, I think one of the best ones I have ever ridden up there. I think they amount of moisture in the soil helped out a lot but overall it was an awesome race. I want to thank Stuart Goggins for providing us with the funds to get out there as without him we would not have been able to make it. Also I want to thank my girlfriend for being out there with me, and my roommate for dumping gas. Additionally, I couldn’t have done it without T.O. Powersports, Amsoil, O’Neal, Scott USA, GPR, ESR Suspension, FMF, IMS, AP Brakes, Dirt Digits, and everyone else!