2022 Cherry Creek Hare & Hound Results

| April 12, 2022

Robert Wins Cherry Creek Hare & Hound National

2022 Cherry Creek Hare & Hound podium — **(L-R) Runner-up Dalton Shirey, winner Taylor Robert and third-place Zane Roberts celebrate on the Cherry Creek podium.**

Story and Photos by Mary Rinell

Taylor Robert added to his points lead after claiming yet another victory in the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF, in Jericho, Utah, April 9. The round-three triumph didn’t come easily, as he had to chase down and pass 3BrosRacing/Hatch Husqvarna Racing’s Dalton Shirey, who happily fed Robert a wall of dust the first 50-plus miles before Robert caught Shirey in a narrow tree section.

“I made a mistake, and I was like ‘Oh no, he’s right there!’ and he just got me,” Shirey said.

After the pass, Shirey maintained a close gap for the remaining 30-plus miles, keeping ahead of JCR Honda racer Preston Campbell, Factory Beta Racing’s Zane Roberts, and DC Yamaha’s Clayton Gerstner, who would all start not far behind (although Shirey admitted he’d never known it with the wall of dust continually in his peripherals).

“He [Shirey] definitely beat me at the game of chicken,” Robert said, “because at the riders meeting, they said that there were some G-outs after the end of the bomb marked with blue dangers, and that you might want to check up for them. So, I checked up, and both Dalton and Preston did not check up for them, they just kept it held wide, and they both got out in front of me, and then I was stuck in their dust for like an hour. So I just did the best I could and stayed as close as I could to them; with the dust it was pretty bad—just had to kind of be patient and play it smart. I knew that on the second loop, we were going to have a good amount of tree sections and that I’d probably be able to catch Dalton in the trees.”

And that is precisely what the vet (Robert also won in 2018) did.

After two hours, 27 minutes and seven seconds of racing and more than 80 miles of rough desert terrain, Shirey was admittedly a little disappointed with a second-place finish behind Robert. At the end of the day, he was already calculating his approach for the coming rounds.

“Overall, I need to make sure I’m faster in the tree and the tight stuff, because that is where Taylor is definitely strong,” Shirey said. “I’m noticing my strengths and weaknesses with him, and I just got to work on my weaknesses.”

One could easily argue the weaknesses in discussion here are minimal, as Shirey would come in a mere six seconds behind Robert (2:27:01).

Zane Roberts rounded the Pro podium in third after trailing almost two minutes behind Preston until the end of loop two, when Campbell reportedly ran out of gas, which ended with him finishing fifth behind Clayton Gerstner.

Factory Beta Racing’s Zane Roberts caught up to a struggling Campbell and mumbled an empathetic, “Sorry!” his way as he passed; a feeling all racers can relate to at some point or another!

Preston Campbell and Zane Roberts at 2022 Cherry Creek Hare & Hound — **Preston Campbell (3) ran out of gas, while Zane Roberts rides past through a water crossing.**

This year’s race marked the Sugarloafers MC’s 61st annual National H&H, notably one of the longest nationals to date, or as they like to put it, the “oldest hare and hound around.”

When the dust had settled (it probably still hasn’t), 195 (adult) racers saw the checkers, with an intimidating nearly 50 racers receiving the dreaded DNF. Surprisingly one of these riders was Factory Beta Racing’s 2021 NHHA Champion Joe Wasson, who had an unfortunate bike situation just after the start and never made it past the bomb. A gut-wrenched Wasson scrambled to get his practice bike to the start and went out on loop one, only to be told a short time later that his race would not count, as he technically was in-fact on a different bike than he originally started the race, which is against AMA rules.

KTM rider Rachel Stout took the win for the Pro Women’s class, pulling away from the pack early on and never looking back. She spent a short bit of the first loop battling with second- and third-place finishers Ava Silvestri (3BrosRacing/Kilmartin Racing GasGas) and Brittany Gallegos (Husqvarna).

Rachel Stout at 2022 Cherry Creek Hare & Hound — **Rachel Stout won the Women’s Pro class.**

For the Pro 250 class, Carter Klein (KTM) celebrated back-to-back wins, stating that he got off slow at the start but managed to make a good call by steering right through the bomb run.

“I started off pretty slow and then I decided to go right [in the bomb run] and just pin it,” Klein said. “I hit a couple of those ditches and scared myself a bit, but it worked out!”

Carter increases his points lead over returning champion Corbin McPherson, who finished third on the day behind Clayton Roberts (GasGas).