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Offroad Motorcycle
and ATV Nationals
2010 OMA Racing Series
Round #2 - Rekluse Hangman XC
May 2, 2010 |
Photos and Story
By: John Gasso |
John Pitts Victorious
at OMA Hangman XC ATV National
::Continued::
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| Aarol
Bright powered his Rekluse KTM 525XC to
a second place podium finish |
Aarol Bright took home second place from an event
where he could have driven home and come back before
a lap was completed. His Monterey, Tennessee based
Mom and Dad sponsored Rekluse KTM 525XC was in the
hunt all day, but some bottlenecks slowed him a
few times.
According to Bright “It was pretty rough.
There was a lot of big ruts, hills, and stuff
like that, a lot of off camber spots. It wasn’t
a big creek crossing, but you kind of had to run
up a creek in a valley and it got pretty gnarly
at the end. I was running with the guy in first
place for a while and then I got hung up going
up a hill right behind him. He got away from me
and I never could run him down.” Another
incident found Bright and third place finisher
Craig Reed both stuck, with Bright coming out
ahead this time. “Me and Craig got hung
up real bad one time,” said Bright. “He
had to push me out and he ended up getting hung
up behind me. I got away from him quite a bit.”
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| A
Hangman XC local, Craig Reed finished in
the third spot on the podium after nearly
a two and a half hour race |
Craig Reed, who only lives “about two minutes”
from the track, completed the Rekluse podium sweep
with his ARS Exit GBC Honda. “It was a pretty
good day,” recalled Reed. “We got off
to a pretty good start. Then we got down here and
they got hung up and everybody caught us. People
was just goin’ everywhere. Then we pushed
pretty hard and got back up with them and then just
kept getting hung and hung and hung because people
was getting stuck.” Line selection became
more difficult with all of the lapped traffic at
several difficult spots around the course. According
to Reed “there was a couple of uphills where
they was getting hung and there wasn’t no
where’s to go, you know, so you just had to
guess and hope you made it.” Even with the
difficulty of the trails compounded by rain, Reed
said “It was awesome. It was a good course.”
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| OMA
ATV Nationals Pro ATV Podium (Left to Right)
Aarol Bright (2nd), John Pitts (1st), Craig
Reed (3rd)
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| Bryan
Hulsey finished in a respectable fourth
position behind Reed at the muddy Hangman
XC |
It was just another day at the races at the OMA
Nationals Rekluse Hangman XC. Bill Gusse made it
a tough course and massive volumes of rain just
added to the complexity. The hardcore group of ATV
racers who follow the OMA Nationals series wouldn’t
have it any other way. This series is not about
racing hundreds of machines through the woods on
courses wide enough to accommodate those quantities
of racers. The OMA Nationals series is all about
tight and technical trails designed to seriously
challenge any and all racers who wish to partake.
If you like your racing old school tight and technical,
then this unique series fits the bill. The tough
old man spends days in the woods with just a machete
and his dogs. When Bill Gusse is finished, we are
left with a race course that is challenging, interesting,
and unique. And at the end of the race day most
racers are cussing the old man while wearing a big
smile. This is off road racing.
OMA
Nationals Rekluse Hangman XC Pro ATV Top
Five |
- 1 John Pitts - 2:15:29
HON
- 2 Aarol Bright -2:19:57
KTM
- 3 Craig Reed - 2:26:55
HON
- 4 Bryan Hulsey - 2:35:35
HON
- 5 Todd Demaree - 2:41:49
SUZ
photos
by John
Gasso
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