Blythe Tackles West Hare Scrambles Opener
Cycle News Staff | January 12, 2015
KTM of Aspen’s Ian Blythe takes the checkers at the opening round of the Kenda/SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles Championship Series. Photography by Mark Kariya
The freshly soaked Arizona desert was the picturesque setting for the kickoff of the revamped Kenda/SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles Championship. The wet dirt called out a star-studded roster of off-road’s best for the Epic Moto/GXE Red Rock Hare Scramble – the opening round of the series in Page, Arizona, where KTM of Aspen’s Ian Blythe fired the first shot of the 2015 championship.
The three-hour race started off with a three-way battle between Blythe, SRT KTM’s Cory Graffunder and DA8 Training Kawasaki-backed rider Destry Abbott. The trio immediately began to pull away from the pack as they swapped the lead in the opening laps of the race.
Unfortunately Abbott fell out of the running after he lost his rear brake and crashed hard. The Arizona native and seasoned desert pro was happy to run a good pace up front in the early going, but pulled of after a second crash, saying “I felt like my speed was good for a little bit, but it’s not worth me risking it any more. It was a great course, but it was gnarly! It got rough!”
From there it was a two-way battle for the lead between Blythe and Graffunder, with Blythe securing the point when Graffunder almost ran out of gas on one lap. The two went on to battle the sand whoops and slickrock for the remaining laps of the race, but Graffunder had to settle for second as Blythe steadily pulled away with the lead.
Burson inherited third place when Abbott dropped out of the running, and had his work cut out to get there after a bad start left him buried in the pack. JCR Honda’s Chris Bach carded a fourth-place finish ahead of Travis Coy who rounded out the top-five on his FMF/RPM KTM.
West Hare Scrambles Pro Results:
1. Ian Blythe (KTM)
2. Cory Graffunder (KTM)
3. Nick Burson (Beta)
4. Chris Bach (Hon)
5. Travis Coy (KTM)
6. Axel Pearson (Beta)
7. Cody Schafer (Kaw)
8. Ryan Smith (Yam)
9. Jimmy Jarrett (KTM)
10. Morgan Crawford (KTM)
