2017 NHHA #1 | Lucerne
Riverside, CA (January 23, 2017) –
Recent downpours of rain throughout Southern California left the Lucerne Valley desert, home of round one of the 2017 AMA National Hare and Hound Championship, dust-free with epic racing conditions. The host club, DMC, laid out two forty-mile loops for the riders, with what’s become the traditional layout of a faster first loop and a tighter, more technical second loop to test the riders’ abilities.
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, Precision Concepts Race Team’s Justin Morgan came in to the new season with a switch of bike brands, moving onto a Honda CRF450X, and as the banner fell to signal the beginning of the race, the new bike got him off to a good jump. With no dust for the racers heading up the bomb start, riders were able to dart every which way to try to claim a line to themselves and Justin was unfortunately pinched off early-on, unable to take advantage of his good start, and reached the bomb in the tail end of the teens.
Photo credit: Mark Kariya
Morgan found it tough, initially, to make much progress through the field, as the early sections of the first loop were routed through some tighter canyons offering limited passing opportunities, but once the lines opened up he began making moves and passed his way up inside the top ten by the conclusion of the first loop. The second loop had some pretty technical sections, made all the more difficult by the rocks being wet and slick from the rain, and on a shale-rock downhill, Morgan would suffer a crash while trying to make the pass into eighth place. Justin injured his hand in the fall, but was able to remount a charge later in the loop, securing eighth position, where he would stay for the remainder of the race, as the gaps to riders ahead of him had opened up just too much to allow for any further progress.
“I’m pretty happy with the solid start to the year,” said Morgan after the event, “I got a great jump, but I got pinched off pretty bad [off the start] and had to let off, which just ruined my momentum up the bomb. I was maybe around twentieth and I couldn’t get around anybody for a while [in the tighter sections early in the loop], then I started [passing] one person after the other, but everyone started getting further apart later in the race. I actually had a pretty hard crash on the second loop trying to get around Nic Garvin. I was coming down a hill right behind him and I was so close behind that I couldn’t see anything besides his back; [we were] just kind of skiing down [the hill]. I was going to run into the back of him, I couldn’t slow down, and I ended up falling, [doing] a few tumbles down the hill. It was all sharp rocks and I must have put my hand out because it felt like I broke my hand for a little bit. But once I got a few miles further [down the course] it was alright. [Eighth place] was a strong start to build off of, the bike was great and I’m ready for the next round!”
Results
Justin Morgan – 8th place
