Memphis, Missouri OMA Harescramble

It's racing season!

Technically, racing season has already begun but we haven't gone to any of the races yet because they were farther than we wanted to go and also it's been colder than we wanted to deal with this year. That being said, we might go to farther and colder races by the end of the year but that's how we felt at the start.

This race was held near Mephis, Missouri the Saturday right before Easter. It was only Bill and the boys while Audrey and I stayed home to recover from prom/my race and to get ready for Easter. They took the camper the night before since OMA sign-ups are earlier than our regular IERA races.

Sign-up can take a long time so there's time for all sorts of shenanigans in line.

Luke pre-race with the Go Pro on his helmet. We later watched his race and he could talk us all the way through the race about what happened here and there. Also, and this won't come as a surprise to those of you that know him, he talks to himself while riding. Little phrases and so on. It's the greatest!

At this point, he is still riding the Honda TTR. It's not the fastest bike on the course but it handles smoothly (and is easy to maintain). Bill is slowly working him to a KTM 50 which is a lot more sensitive (and a pain to upkeep.) Luke had a very consistent race and I could tell even from the video how much he's improved from his rookie year. Will he get any podium finishes? Who knows? It's not so much about that as it is about challenging and growing. We are not disappointed in him. He's out to have fun and riding is fun.

Sometime during the day they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Luke said he found a couple but they had girl toys in them so he gave them to the girls. I love little touches like this that groups and clubs go out of their way to do. 

Ben is lined up here somewhere, I think third bike from the left as looking at the screen. I'm not sure of Ben's personal goals for this year other than to get faster and go against faster kids and get sponsored. (If any of you know how to make this last one happen- lemme know!) So one of the reasons Bill picked this race was to hopefully go against a couple of the OMA kids that run it regularly but that didn't happen.

Here's the text I got later that morning. I shared on Facebook that I had emotional whiplash because even though we can read it all now, it came in pieces to me. 
Let's see if I can recount what happened correctly. Ben got the holeshot, which usually means the first one through the first corner or other bit out ahead but then fell behind to second going into the woods. From there and from what I understand, Ben and the other kid took a wrong turn and ended up off course and down in a little creek bed or ravine of some kind that took them quite a while to criss-cross before finding a way out. Once they did, they had to re-trace some of the course they had already covered. Ben got back to the start/finish at the end of the lead lap. During the rest of the race he picked the other riders off to come back for the win!

Bill also raced and finished fourth. His goal this year is to get faster in his class and probably more important, stay faster than Ben!

Audrey and my race goals include taking better pictures, not getting chiggers (leave your best bug bite tips in the comments), keeping our race boys properly fueled and hydrated all while looking stylish. Or something like that.