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| From OO Mansfield XC |
My car when I woke up Sunday morning; snow, not what I was looking for, to be honest.
It’s the start of a new season and a new series. The Off Road Ontario boys were set up May 8 on Lance Mathew’s ranch in Mansfield, Ontario. Thanks to Lance and his neighbours the riders who chose to brave the snow, yes SNOW, were treated to an excellent track. HORRA, the host club, but on an excellent show, with Rick Day acting as master of ceremonies and John Vandenhoek as the head referee the race went off without a hitch, for the most part. An army of volunteers, which included Lucas Blair, Darcy Koks, Ian Wilcox, John Nelson, Kenny Hoverman and Mike Vandenhoek and many more, helped put the race together; without the bridge builders, marshals, sweepers and volunteers to ribbon and arrow the course this race would have never happened.
One of the many bridges built, and then rebuilt, by brave volunteers.
It was a cold morning, there was still snow on the ground and it continued to fall until after the Youth classes were on the field. Things were still cold when the morning classes took the field at 10, but at least the snow had stopped, and some of the accumulation in the woods had begun to melt. By the time the afternoon classes took the field the conditions were perfect.
Wojo leading Hooter heading out onto the second last lap.
There were a lot of amazing rides on Sunday, but I’d be amis if I didn’t mention the battle between the titans of Ontario off road riding: Brian “Wojo” Wojnarowski and Chris “Hooter” Van Hove. Hooter has several #1 plates to his name; Wojo won in 2009 but opted to run his familiar #2. They’ve battled back and forth for the better part of three years. Two riders with two incredibly different riding skills and styles and one goal: to run that #1. Their battle for the first win of the year was epic to say the least. Hooter returned from a huge deficit after a bad tumble set him back and charged. Hard.
Hooter narrowly squeaking past Wojo for the first win of the season.
The riders were fender to fender coming up the final hill before Hooter shut Wojo down in the second to last corner, cutting his front wheel in front of the Yamaha and pushing his RMZ250 onto the top spot on the podium. Fellow Suzuki rider, Mike Vandenhoek finished third, and rode much of the race against the rookie Pro, Ponty Pool’s own Adam Millson.
Millson laying it out on the grass track in true moto style.
The Expert class saw the return of a familiar name with an unfamiliar number. For the new series last year’s runner up, Michael Jonker, took the #127 for his number, and took the top honours in the class, beating out Eric Langford and 2009 CMA Intermediate Champion Greg Filer for the honour. The three riders worked their way into the Pro class.
Jonker sporting the #127 for Woody's Cycle.
The Intermediate class had a bit of drama. Jon Hudson stepped down, gracefully, from his first place finish due to his “intimate knowledge of the course,” leaving Chris Culbert-Castelo to take the top spot. This pushed Jamie West from third to second and Colin Doyle from fourth onto the podium.
Jamie West, #181, learned how to ring his CRF250 out from one of the all time big time riders, Chris Donald, a regular in the Vet Ex class.
Rounding out the afternoon class were the Vet Experts; a class made of former Pros, Expert riders and advanced Vet riders. Tim Hart, a local boy, took the win, with Paul Andratis, no stranger to the podium, a man who battled with 2009 CMA Champion Roger Messier on many occasions, taking second. Doug Post beat out Paul Lachance for the final spot on the podium.
Backing up to the Morning, there were some good stories.
Best story: Helmut Klassen and his seven speed Sachs 250. Yeah, the plus 70+ year old rider rode the 1977 (I think) beast through the same course that everyone else rode, with steel bars and no hand guards. Klassen was the only rider in the “Masters” Class, reserved for vintage bikes and those man enough to ride them.
Lance Matthews raced the Super Vet class, but given his overtly intimate knowledge of the course, given that the property is his and his neighbour’s backyards (literally), he stepped down after he soundly won. This put Rick Hone in first, Kelly Goreski in second and Robin Reimer in third.
The Veteran class, riders over the age of 38, was won by Darren Marsiske. Harold Peters came in second and Rob Milner finished third.
The Novice class was, by far, the largest class of the day. Mike McCaw took the win, followed by Jeff Lee and Jake Tustin. Tustin, some might remember, won the Novice class at the Beagle Bash two weekends ago, and beat out his brother, Zack. Mark my words, some sibling rivalry between the older Zack and his younger brother, Jake, will come for some good races between the brothers.
Beginners are just that, riders who have never raced before. Traditionally this is a very progressive class where you can “point out” mid season and be promoted to the Novice class if riders score too many points. I’m not sure whether this rule will translate to the new program, but I believe in the name of fairness, perhaps it would be a good rule to transfer. For the first year I have Beginner results, as for the past two years I have been doing this the CMA has not been posting the Novice B, as it was known then, results, so here, for the VERY first time, are the results from the Beginner Race.
Adam Goodale won the class, with Jeremy McStravick taking second and Ian Ross taking third. The top three riders, along with fourth place finisher Roy Powell, all finished three laps, while the other riders only managed two.
The podium of the ladies class, comprised of Emily and Melissa Head, as well as Ainsley Farr, also completed three laps. The times between these three ladies were incredibly close. Let’s put it like this, Emily won the class with a time of 12:53:16.63; her older sister Melissa finished with a time of 12:53:24.53 and Farr finished third with 12:53:32.55. Hooter and Wojo came in at 15:47:42.72 and 15:47:43:88, respectively. While she didn’t land on the podium, Brenda Fischer gets big props for being the ONLY mother to race on MOTHER’S DAY! Happy Mother’s Day, Brenda!
The next round of the OO XC is Colborne on May 23, hosted by the Northhumerland Trail Riders, many of whom came out to help out HORRA in running the barrels and scoring at Mansfield.
As always, I have photos from the weekend, and they can be found here.
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| From OO Mansfield XC |
Please, no stealing photos. It’s not nice. I work hard to make you all look good, so just be nice.
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