Sunrise race Over the Hill gang. Sunday, March 25, 2018 ;

Sunrise Race
Over the Hill Gang.
Sunday, March 25, 2018

Race 1- Moto 1 - 28 Novice rider Steve Lerma Jr tried to jump into the lead by doing this second double in a row to pass Nick Stern.Lerma went straight off the track leaving the lead with Nick Stern. Stern would win the race by 30 seconds. Stern also won Moto 2.

Race 2 – Moto 1 - Gary Connor won with a 6 second lead in the 58 Intermediates. Williams picked up the pace, in the second Moto. Williams posted a 1 second faster lap time over Conner even though Conner won both motos.

Race 3– Moto 1.
    Barrett Kiick(721G) got the holeshot followed by David Riley(127G), John Agnew(719G). Jeff Hembre(413 G), Dirk Reutebuck(14), James Van Duinwyk(10G) 6th place,7th Brian Shannon(93G) and Mark skid Bell(531G) - 8 racers total. Hembre had just been bumped up to the intermediate class after a superb performance at DT1 MX Park. Hembre jumped the step up jump and quickly moved into second place. He was all over the back fender of Kiick. Hembre surprisingly did the triple jump on the third lap behind Kiick and had to slam on the brakes not to go off the track. He then gingerly rode over the single jump. Then, Hembre jumped over all the step over north jump trying to make up time and then went off the track. Kiick was riding smooth and not jumping fully over all the obstacles. Kiick took the inside lines and kept his head forward and was a little more precise. Hembre continued to go all the way over both north facing jumps. Hembre caught Kiick in the rhythm section and passed him on the inside and then jumped the whole step over jump into the lead and the Moto 1- win. Kick said after the first Moto" Yeah, I got the holeshot and then Hembre eventually got around me.

Third place David Riley said "last week I came here to Sunrise to practice and jumped the step up jump and the floater going to the North. I'm not doing the triple jump.But, I saw Mark Flinders do it. I saw Hembre and Kiick doing the big jumps, too. The 18 mph winds kept me down. It was more of a ground game for me."

    The Moto 2, Hembre was out in front early followed by Agnew, Riley, Kiick, Reutebuck, Van Duinwyk, Shannon, and Bell.
Riley said:"I got a better start. I held it on where everyone else seemed to slow down at the first turn. There is a lot more track there and that's where Arnie Davis crashed by not getting on the brakes quick enough when the leading riders braked",
 
    The wind picked up and Kiick had to back off a bit before he did the north facing the step up jump as not to float into Agnew.  After a lap, Riley passed Agnew with a 2.07 lap time. Hembre swapped out a bit before the rhythm section and then had a problem after going over the big floating jump going north. Riley said " I came over the big floating jump. I saw Hembre, he was off to the side and he seemed okay. I did a look back and I saw Kiick, he must have fallen down too and he seemed he wasn't really charging and racing, as much as he was in moto 1. All of a sudden I found myself in first, ahead of the other 7 riders and as the race went on, I stayed ahead and looked back again.I could see that Hembre and Kiick were continuing to do the big jumps. I just kept hitting my marks. Also, I was really getting some air clearing the first tabletop after the finish line.The first Moto I nailed it every time. The second Moto it was quite different.The turn was dusty. I could not get my timing right.Then they watered the turn. So, I overshot the jump a couple times, I snagged my back tire.

With the wind blowing, I got a case of "the Alans" ...lol. Oh, Alan Hill, he hates the wind you know."

  Riley held the lead with a 2.08 lap time, Agnew 2nd, Kiick 3rd, Hembre 4th. Hembre had picked up the pace but was blown sideways and his goggles dropped down his helmet.He had to slow to take them off and slipped them onto his left sleeve. A half a lap later Hembre had the urgency to get his goggles back on near the starts first turn.He went off the track just missing a hay bale and the flagger. He managed to get his goggles back in place and was off and running, but lost 4 precious seconds. Several more turns later while Hembre was jumping everything in his path he closed in, behind Kiick. Kiick was on Agnew's back fender battling. He came around the starts turn and Kiick hit a kicker and did 180° turn allowing Hembre to catch up. They were riding side-by-side over the three tabletops. Then the right turn with Kiick on the inside and Hembre on the outside. Kick and Hembre collided. Knicks front tire going into Hembre's side case. Kiick went down. Kiick later spoke about the incident " When Hembre and I were racing at the right-hand turn before the double-double, I was on the inside and I wasn't trying to take him out.I just wanted to put some heat on him. He had a handlebar on me. I didn't actually mean to get into him, that much. I was going to show him a wheel.I was getting squared up to get on the gas and then a split second later we crashed."
  That crash would put Kiick back to fourth-place. Kiick later said "During the race, I was pushing it. My stamina was not good enough. I know it because in the motos, Hembre swapped out twice ahead of me and I still didn't win. "

    Seconds later, more action when Reutebuck collided with Van Duinwyk before the rhythm section. Reutebuck got going first but that collision gave the open door to Brian Shannon. Shannon on the inside shot through the rhythm section and passed both the vacationingGerman visitor Reutebuck and OTHG club president Van Duinwyk. It was a crazy race with the racers and the wind and the obstacles.

  Kiick meanwhile had recovered quickly had regained his composure and passed 12G, 14 and 93G.  David Riley was still in the lead by 10 seconds over Hembre. Kiick awkwardly jumped into the triple and landed hard and said later "I want to say out loud and tell the track owner,  that the water truck over watered. Because the face of the jump was soaked and I over jumped the triple jump and I went off the track." Kiick was having one heck of a time as the water truck maneuvered around the track.The racing went on with TM 2 stroke rider, Reutebuck just ahead of  VanDuinwyk at a 2.15 lap time.I asked Dirk Ruetebuck on the starting line before moto 2 while his wife was taking pictures. Dirk, are you going to do the double-double in the second Moto?  He said " Ya Ya - sure!" with a heavy German accent.  Ruetebuck clicking off another 2.16 lap time. After the double-doubles, Reutebuck cut to the inside and passed Shannon(93g) through the rhythm section. Van Duinwyk ran out of fuel and started pushing his KX450 back to the RV.

Meanwhile, Hembre still charged over all obstacles did the long tabletop and is back tire broke loose. The back end swung around to the left. Hembre put his weight on the front tire guiding it to the softer drier sand in order to regain control from another slick wet area. Hembre managed the best lap time at 2.05 over the other 7 racers.

    The finishing order was Riley 1st, Hembre 2nd, Agnew 3rd, Kiick 4th, Ruetebuck 5th, Shannon, Bell, and Van Duinwyk.
Barrett Kiick had a competitive 2.11 lap time with Agnew...Kiick said afterward "My girl Chris "too" Tall is always feeding me good and getting me prepared to race. I've got the heart of a pro-and I have gotten off the whiskey this week. I'd like to thank everyone in Over The Hill Gang and tell everybody to just get along. I'm disappointed that I got second. Even though, I was out here to have fun, like I said. I still wanted to win.I wanted to beat everybody, not just Hembre. I got a give it to Hembre, he rode good and I had fun."
 
Go to OTHGMX.org for further results
Story by Over the Hill Gang
Secretary/Editor Chris Cumbo
2012, 2013, 2014,2018