CMJ Raceway in Hixton, WI hosted round 5 of the D16 harescramble series this Sunday (6/30). CMJ is a historic raceway; they have been holding races for 30+ years and have held events such as OMA Nationals. This weekend was quite unique, there was a motocross, hillclimb, and Harescramble all going on at the same venue; it was packed! The weather in the upper Midwest has been unusually wet this summer. The week leading up to the race was no different, relentless T-storms. Luckily the two days before the event were dry, making the hilly terrain very moist and soft. The course was technical featuring a lot of off camber and steep single track. It developed many deep ruts and holes and required experience to maneuver without mistakes. On the AA line myself and D16/National enduro ace JD Friebel did not get good starts, but we hooked up and worked our way forward on the first lap. Our laptimes were about 10.5 minutes and by the middle of lap two JD passed for the lead and I latched onto his rear wheel. JD and I had some great battles last year; we are evenly matched at these local events so I knew we were gearing up for a 2 hour fight. I felt comfortable riding his pace and we uneventfully navigated the terrain and lappers for the first hour or so. At about the 1:10 mark JD stopped for fuel, handing me the lead. I knew I would have to pit a lap later, so I pushed hard that lap to try to maintain the lead. It worked; I resumed the lead after my stop. Unfortunately soon after that I made a mistake and JD caught me. With about 30 minutes remaining it seemed like we would race until the end, but then JD also made a mistake giving me a 35 second lead. I knew I had the gap but with how difficult the course was one mistake would erase it. I was able to keep it on two wheels until the end and won by a margin of 47 seconds. I did a ‘victory lap’ because JD missed going onto the final lap by 7 seconds. We both rode a solid pace, to put that pace into perspective I lapped 4th overall. Results 1) Nate Ferderer TC250R – Forest Lake, MN 2) JD Friebel TXC310R – Pulaski, WI 3) Dennis Lau TC250R – Albert Lea, MN 4) Keith Zaagman 350XC-F – Morrison, IL 5) Adam Barlow 250SX – South St.Paul, MN I know @Treesmaker shares my results very well on this forum, but I’d like to give an update on my life/racing to those of you that are interested. I’ve done quite a bit of racing thus far in 2013 and I have had a lot of positives. I raced 4 national enduro races this winter/spring which were filled with ups and downs, but ultimately it was a great experience and I learned a lot about what it takes to succeed at the national level. There first two rounds I struggled immensely. I had multiple crashes and overall performed far below my ability due to a number of factors. At round 3 (Texas) I turned it around; I put together some good tests and won overall A (I actually got beat by 1 open A rider, but since he ‘should’ have been racing in the specialized AA class for locals seeking points, which isn’t eligible for overall A, they gave it to me). The next round my speed was better than Texas but I wasn’t able to put the race together. The muddy conditions caused me to take off my goggles in section 2, as luck would have it, I took some roost to the eyeball causing me to lose vision in that eye for the next 24 hours (it was there, just really blurry..). Riding with one eye was extremely weird. I also ran into some unavoidable bottle necks causing me to lose a lot of time. Besides those problems causing me to lose time, my speed was great. I planned on doing the Tennesse National but my funds were running on E, and it was nearing the end of my school semester which factored into my decision. I raced a local D17 HS in Illinois that weekend instead. The race was going well; I was chasing GNCC XC1 pro Adam Bonneur for the lead until a lapper took me out sending me into a tough spot to get my bike out of. I cut down on the large gap Adam gained, but ultimately ran out of time by the ‘short’ 1:45 end of the race. The next two weekends after that D17 race were the first two races of the MN D23 Harescramble series (my home state), which is currently my main racing focus. I limited my mistakes and cruised to two victories. The week after round 2 was my final examination week of my junior year at The University of Wisconsin, right after completing that I headed to Indiana for the Limestone 100 GNCC. I raced XC2 and didn’t get a good start and my race went downhill for there. I crashed a couple times, and then my bike started to run very poorly near the end of lap 1. I pulled out during lap 2, the culprit ended up being a plugged injector. I’m not exactly sure why it happened but it has been fine since (after replacing the injector). Finally out of school for a few weeks I had the chance to ride (something I rarely get to do.. a majority of time I only race). I also continued racing, round 3 of the D23 HS series, and the first 2 rounds of the D23 Enduro series were back to back to back. I was able to continue the success at those races. I’ve won all 5 MN races thus far. I believe my speed, technique, and racing program is better than it ever has been and I’m working to keep improving. I am dialed in at the local events and I believe if I can get to the level of comfort I am at these local races nationally, I could be a top 10 contender. Now, I’m back in Madison taking summer courses to stay on track for graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree next spring. My plan is to focus on the 2 D23 championships, but I hope to race a few national events this fall. Attached are some photos of my racing so far this year. As most of my generation is, I use a lot of social media, links to some of my profiles Facebook.com/nferderer Facebook.com/northstaroffroad Twitter.com/whoisnatefrog Instagram.com/nferderer
I keep noticing that the few Huskys being raced are often near the front. Maybe if you're the kind of guy who doesnt follow the orange herd, its because your a leader. "Husqvarna, what leaders ride!" (I will take my royalties in HuskyBucks)
Nice job Nate!! I love Hixton, was out of town for this weekend but was at the June 2 MX event. I did the harescramble a few times in the early 2000's. I'll warn you in advance, you'll need to get Chris (owner/promoter) to email you the results to collect your Huskybucks, they don't put them on a website! To others reading, the guy Nate beat is pretty amazing offroad and has Hixton absolutely dialed, always wins it. The course is steep, can be rocky and slippery, and is 7-8 miles so it gets POUNDED and the good lines turn to the bad lines, then back to the good lines as the alternate lines get destroyed. Cheers, Nate. You guys are representing well and making the brand look as good as it deserves to look!
Thanks for the props man! You are absolutely correct about how the course developed, throughout the 2 hours the lines changed exactly as you described. I worked with Checkpoint Off-Road on my suspension setup this spring and went with quite a bit softer settings than last year, it worked well for the Hixton terrain. The results are actually posted through the Cycle USA/District 16 website. http://www.moto-tally.com/D16/HS/Results.aspx JD and I are gearing up to have a rematch this weekend in Stone Lake, WI for a combined D23/16 harescramble, I'll post a race recap next week.
