Tractor Racing Hare Scrambles - The Race 2011, Santa Veronica, B,C.

Cory Graffunder.

TRACTOR HARE SCRAMBLES- Santa Veronica, BAJA CA-In only his second appearance in Baja, Cory Graffunder (4) showed up solo in his pickup truck and took home the top honors at the 3rd annual “RACE” in the Tecate highlands of BAJA, CA, beating Ivan Ramirez (2) by 01:32 mn. Although Ramirez, who did confirm that he will ride on KTM at San Felipe with Curt Caselli next month, was leading Graffunder on the first lap by close to a minute but the fell victim to a tough break. His gas valve had been replaced and the petcock reversed, causing him to inadvertently shut his own gas off. When Graffunder passed him, he knew Ivan had a gas problem.

The native Canadian from Vancouver visited the “other BC” in December and took second in the Tecate Enduro behind fellow Zip-Ty Husky team mate Bobby Garrison. Asked point blank if he come to the race believing he would win, Graffunder nodded and explained that many of the other guys from So Cal would be at Adelanto going for $4000, he thought it would be fun to drive himself, solo with no race support, to represent Zip-Ty Husky Racing. Rounding out the top three was Brandon Prieto (9). Carlos Casas (7) rode with a broken toe he suffered early in the race after hitting a rock. Shane Esposito came down with something and got sick in the middle of “the race” and DNF.

C&D Cycle Center showed up with the regular crew and taking both the intermediate and vet classes. Owner Steve Grieb won the vet while team rider Ryan Baillargeon took the intermediates. Gilberto Gallardo (500) won the masters division and beat local hermano Alex Melero (508).

Local mainstay Gerardo Rojas showed up to promote his Chris Haines built “DAKAR” CRF450 he will ride in next years DAKAR RALLY. After the event was a typical Mexican-style party with everything for the whole family and a live band.

Here’s a well organized and very family oriented race called “The Race” put by a small club which never meant to promote and organize racing. After the sudden cancellation of the Los Ancianos Hare Scrambles in 2009, the club decided to fill the void since many of the locals would have raced it either way, so they cut a new course.

Tractor Racing needs to be credited with cutting a great course and mixing it in with some other stuff. There was a nice 8 mile south loop that wound through the areas famous granite and shrub filled rolling hills of the Tecate highlands. Many of the tracks gave option for the riders to take easy or hard sections. Even the easy sections were still trademark “TECATE” tough.

The Tractor guys emphasized that this is not a novice level race and that the course was designed to be challenging.  The enduro cross section in the infield was the highlight and its only going to get better in the coming years.

GALERIA TRACTOR RACING.