A couple of weeks ago YZEater IM'd me and asked if I wanted to race the VA Championship Hare Scrambe Series round at Budd's Creek MD. I'd never raced anything like that or really been near a national level track, so was a bit nervous, but accepted. We agreed to meet at the track on race day and take it from there. My wife, son and some good friends loaded up all of our gear, the bike (after a minor hassle with a tire) and headed out late Saturday evening. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express a few miles away from Budd's Creek. Over night the temps dropped considerably from the comfortable 70's, but warmed up nicely as the sun came up. We got signed up and entered into the 200cc and below "C" class. The track was beautiful and a real rush to experience for a guy who usually stays in the woods. Our class was allowed a parade lap which helped out my case of the jitters since they didn't allow us any time for practice runs. The course was a full lap on the MX track, into the woods for about 4 miles, then out onto a dirt track oval and back on to the MX track. The start was a rush and for those of you who consistantly race MX/AX/SC my hat's off to you cause that first turn came up fast. I got stuck behind a small pile up, managed to get around them and on my way. It seemed like every other person on the track was passing me but things settled down a bit by the time I hit the woodline. I had lost YZEater at the start and figured that he was ahead of me someplace. I got behind a dude on a 2 stroke KTM and managed to run a good pace once I got in the trees and back into my comfort zone. The trail was really great and pretty fast every thing was going well, except that I wasn't really pacing myself very well and started to fall behind from the Ka-Toom rider. We passed a couple of downed riders, one kid missed a turn at the top of a hill, his bike kept on going but a tree cleared him off the bike, it was a bad get off. I popped out of the woods and onto the dirt track oval, which was a great place to wind it out and shake out my pumped up arms. I couldn't imagine throwing my bike sideways and skidding around the oval! The second lap on the MX track was a little bit quicker for me and the traffic was a bit thinner. When I hit the woods I was a little bit tired, the trail had deteriated a lot and I got sloppy. I crashed three times that lap. The worst one for me was as I was coming down a hill where the trail was a tight single track. At the base the marked trail was a very narrow and deep rut with roots in it. My bike stopped on a dime and I went over the handle bars landing in the soft stuff more than a bit surprised. I rolled over and sat up and a dude rolled up and asked me if I was alright. I managed to get to my feet without incident and he took off. I spend the next ten minutes trying to free my bike while digging with a stick. I finally got it loose and remounted feeling drained. I took off again and got to the worst part of the trail where it crossed a creek and immediatly went up a decent sized hill. The creek was now a mud pit and the hill was very slick to climb. There was a decent bottle neck while we took turns throwing ourselves at the hill, I welcomed the short rest and somehow managed to make it up the hill. The third lap came pretty quickly and would be the last one. I managed to make it all the way back to the creek crossing without crashing. By the time I hit the creek again the hill was crowed with spectators who were helping riders up. I sat for a moment looking for an alternate way up when YZEater showed up, he'd crashed 8 times which had done much to slow down his time. But, he looked like he was having a blast and nothing was broken on him or his bike so off we went. It took me two attempts to climb the hill but managed to make it and get back out on the dirt track and then the MX track where I crashed. I laid the bike down on the inside of a corner and managed to get my leg stuck under the bike for a moment, I got free but not before having another rider run over my back tire. I got to my feet and got going again, timed in and was told the race was over. I'm pretty sure I placed closer to last then middle, but I was smiling like I placed first. I had a great day and really appreciate YZEater and his family and friends who really helped us out with learning our way around and explaining to my wife what was going on. Thank you very much! I'm looking forward to doing this again sometime soon!