The final round of the 2021 Hare Scramble series was held at the Lazy Bumb Ranch in Paicines, CA. This race is the southernmost event in the series and is about dead center North to South in the middle of the state. While most of our area was socked in with fog and cold, the Lazy Bumb was blessed with clear sunny skies and great weather (well it was cold at night).
An All-Out Event
Brian Garrahan of Garrahan Off Road Training put on the event and he went all out. There were:
- Specialized E Bike demos
- Husky/KTM Dirt bike demos
- A live band on Saturday night
- A big vendors row
- An AMA sanctioned hill climb event
It was great hearing those bikes scream up the hill.
You can find some great videos of the hill climb and GoPro footage of the event with a quick search on YouTube: 2021 Lazy Bumb Videos
Saturday - Helping the Kids
I raced on Sunday, but got to the event early on Saturday to watch a friend’s son race. We ended up on one of the hills near the end of the course and spent the next hour helping kids get up that hill. The hills were big, the bikes were small, and it was a very light silty dust causing so many problems. It was fun helping out and gave me a little insight into what I was in for tomorrow morning.
Saturday Night Live Music
Saturday night the country band JD Hardy played for a few hours providing everyone with some great tunes and tons of dancing. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves, even the young lady with the black eye that she got earlier in the day from a branch to the goggles during her race.
Sunday - The Hardest Course Yet
Sunday morning was cold and crisp. Normally I am the 2nd race on Sunday morning, but today we were the first race. The wind was coming up a bit and keeping the dust floating about eye level. As we took off around Row 10 the dust was so thick you could taste it.
The course was the hardest I had ridden this season. I thought Fort Sage was hard when I did it, then Wilseyville overtook it as the hardest course. This was harder than both of those put together. You were either going up, going down, or on a sidehill. The course was very challenging to say the least.
A Dangerous Section
One part was a little dangerous, and I would have liked to see some flagging or warning at least on the first lap - right after the start. There were two V ditches that you crossed at pretty high speed, but with the dust you could not see them. Not a major deal, but it was a bit sketchy. Again, probably more so for us C riders.
Final Thoughts
It was great to see the level of effort that was put into this event. It really showed. It was a long fall season and we had a great time at all the races. Thank you to District 36 and all the promoters who put on these events. See you all in 2022.
Final Results: http://results.ama-d36.org/2021/CC/2021-Rnd-5.html