Last weekend was packed with action in the West Hare Scramble. Max Gerston took his first ever victory allowing him to take the series points lead.
A small heat wave hit Bellingham, WA on Saturday with highs reaching over 90 degrees. The heated air helped dry up the weathered ridden track that was impacted by a storm the previous week. The mixture of heat and wet ground made for a grueling race that lasted over two and a half hours.
Max held the lead the entire race, putting a two minute gap between him and second place finisher Joey Fiasconaro by the third lap. Max later told us "After a bad start, I was able to set a good pace and put some distance between me and my competitors as I knew they would be charging hard."
After the race Max said, "It feels good to get that monkey off my back and I want to keep the ball rolling for the rest of the year."
About 2,800 miles away in Snowshoe, West Virginia a battle for the 8th round of GNCC took place. The track conditions at the event were almost perfect with a rain storm that past through a week before the race, and the temperature at around 75 degrees. However, there were some sections thick with mud that made the track a little brutal to ride.
Jordan Ashburn stated,"I started in the second row 10 secs behind the first row. I made a couple mistakes the first lap picking bad lines. I worked all day trying to recover from that, and I feel like I could have been on the podium. "Jordan ended up finishing in fourth place in the XC1 class coming from 10th place in lap one.
With the points he earned from getting 4th place at Snowshoe, Jordan is seated 5th place in the overall points standing, which is only 3 points ahead of 6th place Trevor Bollinger. With such a tight points gap the next few races will be exciting to watch as the season end closes in.
At the same event Beta USA rider Nick Davis placed 8th, while his teammate Drew Higgins placed 12th in the XC2 250 Pro class. Nick was running in 5th place when his rear brake pedal snapped off making him stop for a quick pit. "The team got it changed fast and got me back out there. I came from 12th and ended up in 8th, and just made the top 20 over all."
Photo by Kato