JCR HONDA'S NORMAN/CODY TAKE THE OVERALL!!!

Round 3 of the BajaDesigns Night Race Series

P-DOGS 4TH ANNUAL NIGHT TEAM SCRAMBLE

By Erek Kudla - Photos by Matt McGowen

 The 4th Annual Prairie Dogs Night Team Scramble marked the first of 2 rounds to be held in the Johnson Valley OHV Area and they had laid out a doozy. 5 hours of night racing through some of the most technical terrain the Baja Designs Night Race Series had seen all summer made for some great competition. On the line would be all the players from the previous rounds; Imhof, Kudla, Vandenberg, Baskin, Roberts and Crawford but there were some new players this time. The JCR Honda crew had shown up to show everyone what going fast at night was all about. With 2 allstar teams the red bikes looked to be poised for an easy 1-2 podium much like the Baja 500 just weeks prior.

As the sun set over the Horizon the green flag waived and the Open/250/200 row was off and it was Red Bull/JCR backed Kendall Norman taking the early lead with ironman Justin ImHof screaming along on his PK Racing KTM 250 just behind and following just seconds behind was the Cyclops Motorsports backed Ryan Kudla. Ryan had missed the previous round while in Baja with a victory in class 21 and had teamed up with his brother Erek Kudla to try and get on the Night Race podium for the second time this summer.

At the end of the first 40 minute lap Norman came in and passed it off to team mate Quinn Cody with a two minute lead on ImHof and the Kudla's were in and out three minute behind him. Shortly after came the 3Brothers KTM 200 Team of Andy Vandenberg and Cordis Brooks followed by the Team of Michael Moyer and Robert Barnum in 5th.

The JCR Team of Colton Udall and Johnny Campbell wouldn't fair as well on the first lap. "I didn't get a really good start and this is only my 5th or 6th District 37 race so I'm really not used to the terrain especially at night. I struggled on the first time around in the dust but was able to find my rythmn throughout the night.." said Udall who would hand off the bike to D37/Baja/Night racing Veteran Campbell in 6th.

While the rest of the night for the top 2 would stay relatively boring with Kendall and Quinn extending their lead over Imhof and Imhof kept extending lead over the rest of the field, the real battle would be for 3rd overall.

Campbell was able to take the team through the dust and into 4th just a few minutes behind the Kudla Team. Udall had found his groove and was now bettering Ryan's Lap times and on the start of the 4th lap brought the bike in to the pits just 1 minute shy of third passing it back to Campbell. Erek, now on the bike and not up to Ryan's speed, seemed an easy target for Campbell but to both riders suprise it took longer then expected. "Erek was riding really well and didn't make it easy to catch him." said a winded Campbell "I caught him in these huge sand whoops after check 2 and was trying every line to get by and finally saw an opening and pushed my way through. Luckily we got back into the dustier stuff cuz my arms felt like jello!" The Kudla's tried desperely to keep with the Honda riders but they just kept inching away.

Through the checkered flag it was Norman and Cody by nearly ten minutes. They had such a comfortable lead at one point that they changed the rear tire just for practice. Justin ImHof was able to stay on the lead lap, ahead of 40 other teams and finish 175 miles solo with the new Cyclops Motorsports LED head light and HID Helmet light taking 2nd overall and 1st 250 honors. Coming in a solid 3rd overall was Udall and Campbell. They had their sites on catching the tiring ImHof in the final hours but couldn't make it happen.

The Kudla team seemed to have 4th wrapped up until a mile from the finish all went black. "It was seriously the scariest thing thats ever happened to me. Imagine hauling along thought the rocks at 20 or 30 and then close your eyes..." Erek said after the battery had died on their head light. Erek waited for 10 minutes till friend, and lapper, Jeff Gifford came by and followed him in. While he was waiting the Blais Racing team of Morgan Crawford and Kevin Dejongh made it by taking the 4th overall spot aboard their KTM 250 XC. Wrapping up the top 5 would the Thousand Oaks Powers sports KX 450f of the Kudlas.

Results - Click Here