Burrows Ranch - CC, VMX, Trials

BURROWS CC,VMX & TRIALS RANCH BACK TO NORMAL

MARCH 20 & 21, 2021

BY: DEBBIE POOLE

Hagerty AHRMA National Cross Country Series

Redwood Engineering AHRMA National Vintage Motocross & Trials Series

Cross Country

Burrows Ranch cross country has run as a Northwest regional for a number of years, and this was the first year as an AHRMA national. The eight-mile course has a little of everything and starts in the bottom of the little green valley in which much of the ranch is situated, running into the hills that suddenly jut up and roll on to the east, on fire roads and single track.

Afternoon cross country riders ran in two separate races, Vintage going first. Sportsman Open Expert, Chet Mauer, took his class win and the overall with a time of 1:05:47. BSA-mounted Kelly Shane was not terribly far behind with a time of 1:07:42, winning the 60+ Expert class. Expert Mickey Sergeant, riding Sportsman 200, had a time of 1:08:24, followed by the first overall intermediate Paul Yarborough—Sportsman Open—at only 13

Two Page Spread - Russell Allen (197R) with Kelly Shane (74Q) in tow Photo: Janée Magee

second slower. It was a varied field of 35 competitors on a wide range of bikes from a roaring Triumph Twin ridden by Greg Tomlinson, AHRMA roadracer, in Classic Intermediate, to Ossas, BSAs, Nortons, Husquvarnas and Greeves. It was interesting to note that the Japanese marques were vastly outnumbered by British and European brands.

Fifteen Post Vintage riders took to the hills in the second go-round. The top nine finishers completed one more lap than did the top vintage riders. The overall winner, Russ Allen's time was 1:19:50 for the five laps. Russ was also the Open Expert champion for the day. Trials ace, Ralph Foster, has taken a recent liking to cross country, with Burrows ranch being his second AHRMA cross country event ever, taking second overall and winning his class, 200 Expert. Kelly Shane did double-duty, just dismounting from the BSA in the vintage race, and taking third overall aboard his Can-Am, and first in 60+ Expert.

Vintage Motocross

The 2021 "rainy season" brought only four inches total to the ranch, and Thursday before the weekend event dropped about another 1/4" to 1/2" more. That sounds like a drop in the ocean, but without it, the Sunday VMX would have been dusty nearly as soon as the first race left the start line. As it were, luck and conditions held until about the lunch break. Riders dealt with the dust and kept their heads; all 15 races and 225 entries ran off with no incidents all day. Kelly Shane continued his busy weekend of riding every event and took the Premier 500 Expert honors ahead of Wyoming's Cliff Mee. Shane had bike trouble in the 60+ Expert class, which was unfortunate. Pat Brown, on the big CCM, and Danny Turner on the CZ, were the show, and it would have been interesting to have Shane in the mix as well. Brown also took the Sportsman Open Twin win ahead of

Washington's Matt James.

The Open Age Expert class saw newcomer Ricky Kinney and Wes Poole battle it out in moto one, with Poole dropping out due to engine failure. For moto two, Poole was back on a borrowed bike, courtesy of Kelly Shane, and made the pass on Kinney to win the exciting race, but not the overall win for the day, which went to Kinney with his 1-2 finishes. Second and third were those fast Mauer brothers, Chet and Clay, from Alturas, CA.

Almost as large a race as the Open Age Experts were the Open Age Intermediates, dominated by a young man who has been showing very winning ways this season, local rider George Amaro of nearby Willows, CA. Wyatt Montz, also of Willows, and Rick Zeimer, Jr. of Minden, NV, were second and third. Senior Rick Zeimer made his mark in the 60+ Intermediate class, ahead of Rowland Coad of Sparks, NV, and Mike Schaff of Spokane, WA.

Mauer brothers, Clay leading Chet in cross country action Photo: Kate Jorgenson Bart Bast digging in Photo: Kate Jorgenson

Riders traveled from the far north (Idaho, Montana, and yes, Canada), the southwest (AZ), and many points in between. Jacob Ritorto and his son Lucien flew in from Pennsylvania and dad borrowed a bike, while Lucien rode a Montesa trials bike in Sportsman 250 novice! But the one fellow who braved the snow and uncertainty of driving from the frozen north of Minnesota, after years of trying to get to Burrows Ranch and being thwarted every time, was Ron Fredenick, who finished 3-2 for a second overall in the 50+ Intermediate class. This is what makes AHRMA a very large and widespread family; we thank you all for the effort you make.

Plans are in the works for moving the MX track to the eastern side of the valley, where some of the cross country ran. The soil is of a different composition, which holds the moisture better, and we hope to use the area in dryer years.

Riders, their families and many spectators were out in force all weekend, certainly giving evidence that at least this little part of California is back to normal after a year of strict inactivity.

George Amaro Sportsman 500 Intermediate Photo: Kate Jorgenson

Tanner Kane (Tim Bentley observing) Photo: Kate Jorgenson Unidentified Rider Photo: Ty Wilson

Trials

The first indication of this were the number of trials entries: 76. The resulting lineup of riders at some sections luckily was sorted out before too long, and then action at all 10 sections hummed along nicely.

Nineteen Modern Classic novices made up the largest class, with quite a few first-timers. Lee Cerini, a sleeper no one had seen before, took the class with only a four point loss. He will most certainly feel the need to advance to intermediate soon to keep himself challenged. Cerini was followed by Russ Pfirrman for second, then Emmy Poole, Jeff Crawford and Daniel Sowman. All scores, with the exception of Cerini's, were in the 30- to 40-point range.

Modern Classic intermediate entries almost equaled those of the novices, with sixteen. Leader of this pack was Craig Menghini, who kept his score to 24 points. Newcomer Kailie Duncan, riding her fourth trial ever, finished just five points behind Menghini. Third place Willy Krakauer finished just one point behind Duncan; he was followed by Mike Houde, and new intermediate Clay Dawley took 5th. Scores for third through fifth were close, between 30 and 37, indicating a challenging layout, but one that challenged riders equally. The Modern Classic expert ranks are finally taking off, with nine entrants. Experts ride either the one or the two line, which is indicated at each section. This gives riders an opportunity to work up their skills before moving to the Modern Classic Masters class, who ride the most difficult one line, exclusively. Jason Gitchel was the top expert competitor with a nine-point day. Joe Bill took a second with 14 points, comfortably ahead of fourth place Grant Menghini who had 25. Walt Foster improved greatly after his first loop and secured himself a fourth place.

The usual near perfection of Modern Classic Master rider Ralph Foster (14 points) once again won the day over his two much younger competitors, Wes Poole and Tanner Kane.

The Premier classes were well-attended, as they always are at Burrows Ranch. The Heavyweight Experts were dominated by Matt Parsons, who lost six points all day. Lightweight Experts were led by Bob Belliccitti with eleven points, and then Mike Atkins for second with 33 points. Bryan Wenzel overtook the Lightweight Intermediates with a five-point loss, over second place Larry Cerini with 21. Charlie Higdon just missed the second-place spot by two points and settled for third. Mike Nadeker was the winner of the Lightweight novice class.

Charlie Higdon Photo: Ty Wilson

RacewayRocket XC XC Round One: AHRMA Mid Atlantic Cross-Country – Rocket Raceway - April 11, 2021 Author: Joshua Schucker

As with most any off-season, as round one’s circled date on the calendar begins approaching, excitement and anticipation build exponentially. However, this particular off-season may have provided far greater anticipation than those in recent memory. Several factors are in play here to create hype for 2021. First, despite early interreference from the COVID pandemic, the 2020 season turned out to be a remarkably complete and competitive season with some exciting new venues and continued growth. So, it is always exciting to build off a successful season, but in this case, it is also heartening to know that we are continuing to put distance between ourselves and the uncertainty surrounding the early part of 2020. Secondly, the Mid-Atlantic region has some revolutionary new rules and procedures in place for 2021! Always looking to improve the experience for racers and spectators alike, Dave Kutskel and the Mid-Atlantic leadership team took a hard look at the recent series’ events in an effort to uncover success, failure, and opportunity. Several major changes were implemented that should increase the competitiveness, intrigue, and opportunity to race at each of the scheduled ten events for this year.

Mark Schwab (32) Photo: Jason Barr Steve Winkelbauer Photo: Jason Barr Joshua Schucker (627) and Geoff Kemp Photo: Jason Barr

The changes for 2021 are as follows: •Introduction of a new “AA” class for the fastest fast guys to complete for the “overall” championship. These riders are not broken into age or displacement classification and always start on the first row of each race. Bike selection is per the individual race eligibility (i.e., AA Post Vintage class may include PV and

Historic, etc.). •Novice and women riders will no longer only start in the morning race, but rather will be placed into the appropriate race associated with their bike’s eligibility. •Due to the increased popularity of 1980s and 1990s disc brake-equipped machines, a third race is added to each event that includes the

Pre-Modern (single front disc), Early Modern (dual disc to 1994), Pre-2K (dual discs to 1999) classes. •The sight lap is eliminated due to time constraints of three race format.

Rocket Raceway is once again the site of the season opener and the first chance to test the new format. After last year’s rescheduled event, which pushed Rocket’s date into the fall, our gracious host Mark Carlson was hard at work harvesting a swath of marketable timber from the property. This complicated the work of trail bosses Mike Zydbak and Dave K., but with the help of a generous group of volunteers they were able to extract the best of last year’s course and connect it to some newly created trail to navigate the perimeter of the clear cut area with little, if any, degradation in the experience. With nearly universal praise for last year’s course and the excitement of the first green flag of the year, the threat of rain was doing little to dampen any spirits heading into Sunday’s event. However, the weather turned out to be more than a threat as a soaking rain set into the area on Saturday and only began to retreat as participants lined up for registration Sunday. While the course is known to drain relatively well, the absence of a sight lap would make the true impact of the precipitation a mystery until competitors took the green flag. The good: As is typical for the Rocket Raceway property, the course layout is wonderful and takes full advantage of the elevation changes, valleys, tight forest single track, and open flowing two track. The bad: The rain preceding the event was not to be denied. Its impact was noticeable immediately and conditions degraded as the races progressed. By the midpoint of race three, there was some improvement in upper areas,