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Jack Rabbit Enduro
RMEC Jack Rabbit Reliability Enduro Qualifier
September 16, 2007 | Bennett, CO
Story by George Pennington
The RMEC welcomed a new event to the schedule this year, the Jack Rabbit Qualifier, conveniently located, just an hour east of Denver in Bennett, Colorado. Utilizing the short course “restart” format first pioneered at the Milliken event a few years back, racers were treated to an approximately seven mile course, combining grass track and tree sections professionally timed by the full lap with breaks between laps to refill and recharge. A and B riders raced 5 laps while C riders went four. Other niceties included various vendors on-site, the most welcome of which was the hardy Hot Dog man who stuck it out through the surprise afternoon storm to keep those hungry racers fed and the photographer from mammothmoments.com, where racers can find their pictures posted and available for purchase. The close proximity to Denver and the rider friendly format, which didn’t require timing equipment or spark arrestors helped to enhance rider entry as the event drew 200 racers, quite good for inaugural event!
When the dust settled, it was AA rider Ian Blythe on top again, his third overall victory of the year. Piloting a Vickery Motorsports, Offroadchampions.com, Moose, Durell Racing, IMS, STR backed Yamaha YZ144, the 16 year old Blythe took the measure of perennial RMEC champion Ron Schmelzle and conquered him heads up. The KTM backed Schmelzle opened strong, besting Blythe by seven seconds to take the early lead, but Blythe came back on the second lap posting a 14 second advantage over Schmelzle to take the lead. Schmelzle came back on lap three, gaining a seven second advantage, binging the riders dead even again, having traversed the opening 21 miles in exactly the same time! After that though, it was all Blythe, gapping the veteran by 23 second over the remaining laps. “Dust was a problem for me today” noted Schmelzle, none too happy with his finish. Schmelzle is now off to prepare for his visit to Chile, along with other RMEC racers; Nicole Bradford, Bryce Bingham and Scott Bright, as a returning member of the prestigious Trophy Team in search of a Gold Medal and hopefully a team championship for the USA. Congratulations to all!
Yamaha mounted, Bernie Frederick rounded out the AA and overall podium at third overall, about three minutes behind the Blythe/Schmelzle freight train while KTM mounted Scott Bright wrangled himself into fourth AA, fifth overall, apparently not too tired from his successful riding clinic the previous day.
Brian Fortman put another KTM in the top five, posting a fourth overall finish to top the A class overall, while Allan Phillips took a YZ250 to head of the 250 A’s at sixth overall. John Little was the quickest of the aged, rocketing his KTM to the Vet win at seventh overall and finally, breaking the KTM/Yamaha stranglehold, Jeremy Rice brought home his Kawasaki for the Four-Stroke class win at 10th overall.
Forest Smith turned in a stunning performance today, topping the Vet and overall B class with an 11th overall finish; can anyone say A class for ’08? A likely frustrated Keith Novello finished nine overall spots and about three minutes behind for second overall and second Vet on the day, while Adam Krefting topped the Open B’s, just nine seconds behind Novello.
Fred Copeland added another Yamaha to the top of a division standing, overalling the C class with a win in the Four-Stroke C’s. It was a Suzuki in second overall, specifically the RM85 of Kyle Schafer topping the 200 C’s as he’s done so many times before this season, proving you need a big heart to win, not a big bike.
Results