Story + Photos – Mark Kariya // Publication- Cycle News
After eating dust for the first half of the race, Beta’s Joe Wasson decided he’d had enough and wasn’t going to settle for safe points. When the opportunity arose, he jumped past teammate Zane Roberts as well as 3 Bros./Hatch Racing Husqvarna’s Dalton Shirey, the previous race leader, propelling him to first place and a commanding point lead in the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF.
Round seven of the series visited the Spangler Hills Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area, September 25-26, for the Inaugural Desert Racer Classic, An “On Any Sunday” (OAS) Tribute Race, hosted by the National Hare & Hound Association (NHHA). The reason? The 50th anniversary of the award-winning motorcycle documentary. To celebrate, there was a screening on Saturday night to get riders fired up, as well as having “OAS” star Malcolm Smith’s son Alexander as the guest hare for the race.
As he’s prone to do, Shirey jumped to an early lead aboard his FMF/P-Worx/Troy Lee Designs FX 450 and appeared to be on his way to repeating his round-six triumph.
After the 40-mile first loop, he enjoyed a 21-second lead over Roberts who was a scant six seconds ahead of Wasson.
Despite playing it relatively safe at the previous round where he settled for a safe third behind Shirey and Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Preston Campbell, Wasson decided he wasn’t going to settle today: “I don’t like to think like that—I like to try to do my best no matter what. In the back of my mind, it was kind of there [to] salvage points, but I don’t like to get beat either way.”
Wasson’s job got easier when Shirey had to abandon the race a few miles into loop two with a reported broken hand.
Simultaneously, Kenda/Motul/Fly Racing 480 RR-mounted Wasson had just passed Roberts and saw Shirey off course, moving him from third to first within a few seconds.
“I kind of got into third at the end of the bomb run,” Wasson said. “I could see the boys’ dust throughout the loop, so I knew they weren’t going anywhere and I knew I had the whole [35-mile, more technical] second loop to really shine so I just had to get through the first loop in a good spot.
“Leaving the pits, we started going across those valleys and luckily there’s more than one line out there, so I got off to the left a little bit and started grabbing gears. Me and Zane battled for two or three miles, swapping back and forth, and I came out on top. Right there was Dalton, too—he had a little mistake he made and I went by them both. Then I knew, ‘It’s my time now.’”
Of Wasson’s pass, Roberts said, “I went from second to second, pretty much, all in this little tiny area.”
The Twin Air/IMS/Klim-backed 480 RR pilot found the dust easier to deal with than at the previous round where he finished a disappointing fifth following a subpar start. On the second loop, though, Roberts said, “I made a couple silly mistakes and ended up going down a couple times in the rocks. I mean, Joe was riding really good through there. It was, overall, a good day.”
Wasson now leads Roberts by 33 points, 191-158, with two rounds left.
And it was another good day for Campbell and his Kenda/Pro Circuit/Fly Racing CRF450X despite finishing one spot lower on the podium than he had at round six.
“As long as I’m on the podium every weekend, I can’t complain,” he said. “I’m definitely trying to get consistent podium finishes—I’ve never done that before; just one here, one there—so two back to back is nice.” Campbell sits third in points at 135, 56 behind Wasson.
Though he finished a minute and 13 seconds short of an overall podium, KORR Off-Road KTM’s Carter Klein reveled in his very first Pro 250 victory. Sixth overall and second Pro 250 after the first loop aboard his 3 Bros./DT Racing/Hoosier Tires 250 SX-F, he dueled with early class leader Clayton Roberts until Klein held it on a little longer in one wash. That sealed the win for him with Roberts 38 seconds behind at the finish for second in class and fifth overall—a career best aboard a 2019 KTM 250 XC he borrowed from Gunnar Carlson. (The GasGas MC 250F that Roberts normally races was down so he slapped his suspension and plastics onto Carlson’s bike and only had time to make a couple minor adjustments before lining up.)
Round-six Pro 250 winner Corbin McPherson finished third in class and sixth overall aboard his Garrett Off-road Racing Husky followed by KTM of Aspen Husqvarna rider Clayton Gerstner (fourth Pro 250) and 3 Bros./DT Racing KTM’s Nic Colangeli (fifth Pro 250). McPherson leads Gerstner in points, 158-146.
Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda’s Justin Morgan survived a huge crash for ninth overall, fourth Pro, with D&K Division Suspension Yamaha-mounted Brian Whiteside rounding out the top 10 overall and sixth Pro 250.
In Pro Women, Full Factory Off-Road KTM rider Rachel Stout got her third consecutive victory, finishing 18th overall in the process. Once again, however, defending class champ Britney Gallegos made her work for it, with the Elite Offroad/Colorado Recycling Husky rider ultimately settling for second in class, 19th overall.
Both now have three wins apiece with Gallegos managing to remain the points leader over Stout, 190-182. The sportsmanship both display continued, Gallegos stopping and assisting Stout at one point when the eventual winner had crashed.
Round eight follows in two weeks.
Mark Kariya
2021 AMA Hare & Hound National Championship
Round 7
Spangler Hills Off-Highway Vehicle Area
Red Mountain, California
RESULTS (September 26, 2021)
OVERALL (Top 10)
| 1. | Joseph Wasson | (Bet) |
| 2. | Zane Roberts | (Bet) |
| 3. | Preston Campbell | (Hon) |
| 4. | Carter Klein | (KTM) |
| 5. | Clayton Roberts | (GG) |
| 6. | Corbin McPherson | (Hus) |
| 7. | Clayton Gerstner | (Hus) |
| 8. | Nic Colangeli | (KTM) |
| 9. | Justin Morgan | (Hon) |
| 10. | Brian Whiteside | (Yam) |