Mark Kariya | March 25, 2019
Beta’s Joe Wasson couldn’t have picked a better time or place to score his career-first overall triumph in the Kenda/SRT AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF. After getting a great start, he led the entire 100-plus miles of Dirt Inc.’s Rabbit Creek 100 Hare & Hound and finished in two hours, 53 minutes and 53 seconds for a comfortable buffer over runner-up Jacob Argubright’s 2:54:33.
Wasson Captures First Ever Hare & Hound Win At Rabbit Creek 100
Beta-supported Zane Roberts claimed third overall for the first time in his career while winning Pro 250 for the first time this season in 2:59:41. (Both Wasson and Roberts had won in the Kenda/SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles [WHS] Regional Championship Series, Presented by MojoMotorsport.com, this season.)
“I’m beyond ecstatic right now!” Wasson said while sitting aboard his Kenda/Motul/Fly Racing-sponsored 430 RR at the finish line. “I got the holeshot and shoot, man, it went good. I grew up riding these trails and it was just comfortable. The dirt was killer and my Beta 430 worked awesome.
“I was just smooth the whole day, didn’t make any mistakes, never fell down. I was just hitting my marks all day.
“On my 250, this is where I had my best finish—I almost had [an overall] podium here two or three years ago and I ended up fourth.”
Wasson’s victory chipped five points away from Off-road Support/TBT Racing Kawasaki’s Jacob Argubright who’d won the previous two rounds. Argubright now leads Wasson, 85-76.
Though disappointed at not making it three in a row aboard his Kawasaki of Simi Valley/Maxima/Fly Racing-backed KX450, Argubright said, “I was like eighth or ninth [at the bomb] and by the time I got around everyone, Joe had about a minute on me already. I just kept chugging along the whole day making it up, [but] he was riding really good. Everyone was hauling ass because the dirt was the best [after last night’s rain].”
For the first time this year, Roberts put his Six Five O Racing/Racer Decal/Klim 250 RR on the overall podium as well as the top step in the Pro 250 division where he finished well ahead of class runner-up Damon Woolslayer (Woolslayer Racing Yamaha) and third-place Preston Campbell (Johnny Campbell Racing [JCR] Honda).
“Mainly, I just want to keep working farther and farther up in the overall,” Roberts explained. “I wasn’t really shooting for [an overall] podium today, but it presented itself in the last two miles. I stayed close [to Purvines Racing Yamaha teammates Tyler Lynn and Nick Burson]. They were definitely going fast that last [35-mile loop], but I guess they came together a few miles out from the finish and went down I was able to capitalize on that.”
Lynn picked himself up to salvage fourth with Burson limping in for fifth. Their teammate Axel Pearson finished sixth ahead of Beta’s Chance Fullerton, Chidester Transport Racing/Buchanan Trucking Yamaha’s Tuffy Pearson, local KTM racer Jared Schlapia and Woolslayer.
Things didn’t go well for defending series champ Kendall Norman as he and Wasson came together on the bomb run with the Honda rider cartwheeling at speed through the sage brush followed by his bike, and he called it a day, though he didn’t appear to suffer major injury.
Two-time series champ Ricky Brabec flew into Boise right after winning the Sonora Rally and though he fared better initially than Norman, he too elected to save it for another day apparently suffering a shoulder issue after completing the 65-mile first loop 17th.
Beta’s Morgan Tanke shook off the gremlins that had plagued her earlier, coming from behind on her FMF/IMS/Moose Racing 250 RR to win Pro Women for the first time with Stout Racing KTM’s Rachel Stout second and former champ Sharon Mowell third aboard her Chidester Transport Racing/Buchanan Trucking Yamaha. That moved Tanke into the class points lead over Mowell, 71-67.
AMA Kenda National Hare & Hound Championship
Round 3
Murphy, Idaho
Rabbit Creek 100
RESULTS: March 24, 2019
OVERALL
- Joe Wasson (Beta)
- Jacob Argubright (Kaw)
- Zane Roberts (Beta)
- Tyler Lynn (Yam)
- Nich Burson (Yam)
- Axel Pearson (Yam)
- Chance Fullerton (Beta)
- Tuffy Pearson (Yam)
- Jared Schlapia (KTM)
- Daemon Woolslayer (Yam)
Click here for complete results.