SPER Vintage XC - Frackville, Pa
Oct. 11, 2020
Story: Steve
Bowman - Photos: Jean Fordyce and Eric Bowman
Round 8 of the Mid-Atlantic
XC Series was held on October 11 on private property near Frackville
Pennsylvania. The area is still active in the coal mining
industry but this day it was going to be used for some 2-wheeled vintage XC
fun!
South Penn Enduro
Riders (SPER) had the honors of hosting the event and laying out the 4.5 mile
course which consisted of fresh cut
loamy single track woods, very little elevation change and short bursts on the
powerline and back into the woods with just a “few rocks.” When you are from Pennsylvania
a “few rocks“ means about 1000!
The “stick farm“
(aka New Jersey) consisting of saplings was the tightest section of the course.
The sandy/pebble type dirt in this section added to the variety.
It was a great
fall weekend with the leaves changing colors and the temperatures in the 60s
made for great racing conditions. Although there
hasn’t been very much rain in this area lately the dust was at a minimum.
With the season
winding down and championship points standings coming to a close, this event
could be the deciding factor for a few classes and for the overall for the year
in both the vintage and post vintage categories.
Now for some race
action…
For the start of
both the vintage and the post vintage races, each row would be a dead engine
start every 30 seconds with the usual “tennnnn seconds” til launch time
announcement by the starter. About 45 riders
lined up in their respective classes for the 10:30am start of the vintage race.
The start of row one
saw Christian Brumbaugh (74X) with the holeshot. Main rival Brian Grove 119 X got jammed up a little bit
in the first turn but soon caught up to Brumbaugh and gave the spectators a
fabulous show of good clean racing throughout the 4 lap race.
For three laps the
two riders were within one second of each other until lap 4 when Brumbaugh
increased the gap. It was great to see
Joe Zito back in action aboard a Yamaha after several years on an old Triumph
to round out the top three overall.
While most of the
top 10 riders were from the expert classes, a shout out goes to sixth place
overall Blade Schmidt 199 from the vintage open intermediate class and Top 10 overall
goes to Yamaha mounted rider 700 Brett Reichart.
Can’t forget about
the women’s classes… Intermediate riders Kelly Pierce 402 Emily Reichart 733
Jenn Smith 3R finished in that order for the intermediate class and Laci Horvath 996
from the expert women’s class had an unfortunate chain issue with her Husky
resulting in a DNF. Hopefully she was having fun up to that point.
So after four laps
the 74X Yamaha pilot Christian Brumbaugh becomes the Vintage overall winner for
the day, Vintage Open Expert class and overall Vintage champion for the 2020
season. Brian Grove on his 119X Husky earned a very hard fought
second place.
Those two put on an
amazing show of good clean racing and great battles throughout the season.
Congratulations to you both!
Now after all that excitement it’s time for some PV race
action.
Multi-time ISDE
Gold medalist Fred Hoess heard there was going to be an awesome vintage race in
Pennsylvania that he may be interested in. (yeah I told him)
He wasn’t sure if he
would be able to arrange his work schedule in Colorado but it worked out and he
showed up and entered in the event.
About 78 riders
lined up for the 1:30pm start of the PV race and after the 10
second warning the green flag waved for the start of the first row.
Fred Hoess took the
holeshot into the tight right hand first turn and into the woods.
Following close
behind was 119X Brian Grove and 74X Christian Brumbaugh who once again battled
for year end overall championship. This time in the PV division.
Row two holeshot goes
to 51 Ethan Waddell showing 34 Wyatt Stoup and “The Schwein Dog” 31 Brian
Schwein the quickest way to the woods.
Next to launch off
the line was the 50+ and 60+ Experts.Wow! What a crowded first turn that ended up being.
The three “Sea of
Blue” Yamahas of Mid-Atlantic XC organizer 11C Dave Kutskel, 945 Craig Shenigo
and 104 (me) Steve Bowman led the pack thru the first turn. This was a great
race between us three with Shenigo taking the 50+ Expert win and Kutskel and
myself just seconds behind.
Mid-Atlantic XC’s
race Flyer designer 71T Glenn Hershey gets the jump on his Can-Am followed by
37 Wes Brownawell 711 Jim Stanley and
taking the wide route 57 Dave McIntyre.
So well into the
first lap “Fast Fred” was on cruise control leading the overall and enjoying
the nice flow of the course. He should have felt right at home in the “New
Jersey” section of tight trees and single track and after five laps
of a super fun course and excellent racing, Fred Hoess takes the overall win.
Second overall goes
to ECEA Enduro rider Steve Mason who we believe is getting addicted to vintage
racing with ice racer and CR500
pilot Bruce Peifer takes third overall.
Fourth overall was Wyatt Stoup and fifth overall went to Christian Brumbaugh followed by Brian
Grove in sixth overall. These two battled back-and-forth throughout the day. Seventh goes to SPER member Mark Hummel who was a huge help
in helping to design and set up the course with Ethan Waddell, Brett Reichart and Craig Shenigo rounding out
the top ten.
The real down to the
wire battle was between Christian
Brumbaugh and Brian Grove for the PV overall championship for 2020. Brumbaugh
came out on top and those men deserve a huge round of applause for their
accomplishments.
SPER would like to
thank all of it’s volunteers that helped make this event a success:
Steve Bowman, Mark Hummel, Sandy Quickel, Pat Bowman, Stacey
Clark, Chris Walmer, Doug Bradley, Bob Shughart, Mike Long, Curtis Weir, Eric
Bowman, George Bressler, Rob Kramer, George Easterly and Andy Schaeffer
Also thanks to WRMC’s
Rick Albert for helping clear trail.
Potomac Vintage Riders and volunteers from the Mid-Atlantic
XC group that take care of sign up, scoring and awards.
You all do a great
job and we look forward to working with you again in the future
Final round for 2020 - get the details by clicking the flyer above.
