KTM AND HUSKY RULE THE 100's MC CLASSIC SCRAMBLES

Round 2 of the BAJADESIGNS Summer Night Race Series

By Erek Kudla Photos - by Americanmetrics.com and David Burson

Memorial Day weekend marked an epic day of racing in the California Desert in 2010. The 100s Motorcycle Club offered 3 chances to race on a 13 mile hare scrambles course in the Spangler Hills OHV Area with a morning Classic Scrambles, Afternoon Quad Championship and evening Night Team Scrambles.

At 10 am the first row consisting of all Heavy Weight and 250 Experts was off with the T.O. Powersports, Dirt Digits backed KX450f of Erek Kudla taking the early lead being most comfortable with the Live Engine Start. Just after the 1st corner Blais Racing's Nick Blais made the pass for the lead with the PK Racing's KTM 250 of Justin ImHof glued to his tail. Imhof was able to make the pass shortly after and put more then a minute on Blais in the first 13 miles.

The specticle of the weekend was the Endurocross section that was set up for every race consisting of Rocks, logs, tires and a big set of vertical tires that very few even tried and less conquered. One rider that would not be defeated by the 4 foot high tires was the Vet 250 of Joe Bianchi. Time and time again he was thrown on the ground but by the end of the day he had the tires down to a science! Erek Kudla, who was running in 5th overall after the 1st lap would not have it so easy. Going for the tires he got knocked off and dropped the bike, bending the handguard down and pulling his Flexx bars down as well. Stopping in the pits to pry them up would drop him back to 10th overall but with plenty of time to make up positions.

Up front Imhof was putting in solid laps pulling further and further away from Blais and at the finish, after 90 minutes of racing, had over 10 minutes on Blais who finished 2nd overall. Coming in a solid 3rd was the KTM 200 of Andy Vandenberg who had to battle through the pack from the 2nd row. Finishing 4th was young Anthony Vasquez followed by Kudla who had made a good come back the last few laps. The top 3 riders were treated to a podium finish, Bad Lt. Racing Champagne and a finisher board by MXtrophies.com.

For the night race the course was shortened and ran across a valley instead of the single track during the day. The big flood lights were turned on over the Endurocross section and everyone bolted on their bike lights for what was to be an epic 4 hour long Hare Scramble in the dark! As the green flag dropped it was all Burson on his Zip-Ty Husky sporting the Rigid Industries LED fork mounted lights and Cyclopsmotorsports.com HID Helmet light. Hot on his heals was Justin Imhof with the brand new Cyclopsmotorsports.com LED lighting system and a HID Helmet light as well followed by the rest of the pack in a blanket of dust...

After the 1st lap Burson came into the pits and traded off to his team mate Matt Henderson who blasted out and into the dark with Imhof, who was running as an ironman again, glued to his rear end. The pair already had a 5 minute lead on the Dejongh Racing's team of Andy Vandenberg and Kevin Dejongh on their KTM 200's and the Cyclopsmotorsports.com backed KX450f of Erek Kudla and Brad Pace. The chase for 3rd overall was now on with Dejongh and Pace fresh and now on the bikes. "I caught Kevin and he had fallen on a hill." said Pace "Best way to pass some one, no dust and they're not hurt."

One obsticle that most riders didn't expect was lighting issues. With the course getting beat up and some of the zip tied, duct taped, hot wired lighting set ups people came out with it became a survival run for some. Open Novice Justin Russo had to ride by flash light for a few miles till he found some help."We messed with my light for a while and found that something was wrong with the battery. They had a jumper box that we were able to strap on there and power the light!" He still came in for the finish and a great story!

Back out front the team of Burson and Henderson were still going back and forth with Imhof. They stayed within 30 seconds of eachother for the first 2 hours until Imhof's hose clamps snapped on his light and he was forced to slow the pace. The front runners were actually able to lap all the way passed the 3rd overall team of Kudla and Pace who were able to stay sandwiched in between 1st and 2nd overall for the final 4 laps putting in their fastest times of the night. "Brad was putting down 17-18 minute laps and I was pulling 18-19 minute laps" Kudla confessed "He was faster then me on my own bike! But we were consistant all night and the Cyclops Battery Powered 8" HID worked amazingly!"

At the finish, after 4 hours and 15 minutes, 14 laps and 168 miles it was the team of Nick Burson and Matt Henderson taking the checkered flag, the team of Erek Kudla and Brad Pace coming  in a lap down but still 3rd overall a minute behind them and Ironman Justin Imhof just 10 seconds shy of lapping finishing 2nd overall.The 3 teams all made it up on the podium accompanied by the 1st overall womens team of Joanna Kaczmarek and Sarah Kritsch and the tire conquerer Joe Bianchi.