The Boys, They've Been Racing

The racing season has started. If you're new here and wonder what racing season I'm talking about, its the IERA hare scramble series. We ride dirt bikes in this family and we like it.

Below I have posted both Ben's and Luke's latest races from Prophetstown, IL which was held in March. March. I can't even remember March anymore.

First off is Luke's race. He's going to be racing more this year. He's fitting the 65 bike better and has gained quite a bit of confidence in just a short amount of time. His race is much shorter than Ben's but more importantly, Ben helped him record a voice over for the entire video, which is about thirty minutes long. If you've watched any of Luke's other races, you know he is vocal during his rides. He talks, he sings, he makes motorcycle noise while on the motorcycle so thirty minutes of commentary is no problem for him. He would be thrilled if you would leave comments or likes on his video. Yours truly makes a vocal appearance as does the vacuum. It's just the sort of high quality you expect from top film makers who still live with their parents and have chores to do.  

Ben's race video, while not long in words is just longer, around an hour. Ben likes to sum his up as quickly as possible. Most notably for his race this time is that he got the hole shot* and rode the entire race up front with no traffic to pass. All is good until his rear brake fails and he discovers that his kick start is missing and that's it. The end. He didn't even finish. I'm telling you now just in case you don't want to spend an hour of your life watching trees whiz past you from a helmet's view. I should know. I've spent many an hour doing just such. The boys, particularly Ben, can spend hours watching the same race they just raced. 

To prompt you a bit more, Ben has extra stuff added to his video. They show the speed he's going and also the route. To do so requires him to ask for special permission to wear my Garmin watch which is now dirtier in two races than in the last two years and sync it to an app or something or other. I don't know. I discovered what it was that Ryan Dungey was using and told the boys. That's when the whole watch thing started. A bonus is that I might get a new running watch out of this. 

Bill is also racing but doesn't wear the GoPro. Instead you can use your imagination that he sits on a bigger bike and the view is higher up but the view is the same. 

As the race season continues, Ben will be uploading more of the races onto this YouTube channel. You'll get to see more of the race course than I do. 



*hole shot- to be the first rider past a designated hole, pole or other such thing 

2014 Hare Scramble Racing in Review

I didn't recap the boys' racing last year race by race. But here are photo highlights from over the course of the year. 

Bill took fifth overall for the year. Ben raced in a new class with a bigger bike. Luke raced less this year but enjoyed every minute. So did the rest of us. 

Homecoming, Soccer, and a Bigger Bike

This past weekend was Ballard's Homecoming. The football game was Friday night and the dance was Saturday night. Having a dance on Saturday night instead of Friday night like it was when I was in high school was nice because I didn't possess the skills to turn cheerleader hair into dance hair very well or quickly. But this isn't about me.

Bill and I met up with Audrey and her boyfriend and another couple for pictures late Saturday afternoon. First we took the good standard group and couples pictures. 

And then we took the artistic pictures. The girls found the ideas (Pinterest) and brought the props and assumed that their parents are professional photographers and restrain their abilities during the rest of the year only to pull them out for Homecoming and prom and such other momentous occasions. 

To get this shot required going all manual on the camera. I had to hand it over to the guy who took photography in 4-H as a kid for this. 

Then there were the soccer ball shots. Audrey's friend's mom took these (lucky her). Literally the hardest part was the girls balancing on the ball. 

It was a good thing the boys had brought the soccer balls because they could mess around with them while the girls played with glitter. Again, Bill took these shots.

We need more glitter.

Even more glitter!

*cough, cough* That's enough glitter.

Oh my word, Pinterest. Stop!! (Just ignore my own photography board, okay?)

Ben and Luke are both in club soccer this Fall. Ben plays for the U12 team and Luke for the U10. They are up against some tougher competition this year and are learning how much ball control, field position, and team work means. Its good for all of us.

Wait a second! I recognize that ref out there. Why it's my niece, Cora! She did a great job keeping the game in line. 

I don't have many pictures of Luke playing yet. Although this is his first year playing, he's getting in there and proving he might be a good little defender. 

Another new thing for Luke is getting on a bigger bike. He loves his Yamaha TTR 50 but its time to move up. 

Bill pulls out the 65 and explains the clutch and how this bike is going to feel compared to the TTR. The bike looks big and scary and Luke is not excited. It takes quite a bit of convincing that he can do this.

He is not all smiles about this bigger bike yet Luke is showing some determination in wanting to do it all himself. Each times he rides, he admits he likes it a little bit more than before. Time to celebrate with his own number plates. Any guesses as to what his number will be?

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.