Round 8 of the Mid-Atlantic XC Series - Potomac Vintage Riders

SPER Vintage XC - Frackville, Pa

Oct. 11, 2020

Story: Steve Bowman - Photos: Jean Fordyce and Eric Bowman

Round 8 of the Mid-Atlantic XC Series was held on October 11 on private property near Frackville Pennsylvania. The  area is still active in the coal mining industry but this day it was going to be used for some 2-wheeled vintage XC fun!

South Penn Enduro Riders (SPER) had the honors of hosting the event and laying out the 4.5 mile course which consisted of  fresh cut loamy single track woods, very little elevation change and short bursts on the powerline and back into the woods with just a “few rocks.” When you are from Pennsylvania a “few rocks“ means about 1000!

The “stick farm“ (aka New Jersey) consisting of saplings was the tightest section of the course. The sandy/pebble type dirt in this section added to the variety.

It was a great fall weekend with the leaves changing colors and the temperatures in the 60s made for great racing conditions. Although there hasn’t been very much rain in this area lately the dust was at a minimum.

With the season winding down and championship points standings coming to a close, this event could be the deciding factor for a few classes and for the overall for the year in both the vintage and post vintage categories.

Now for some race action…

For the start of both the vintage and the post vintage races, each row would be a dead engine start every 30 seconds with the usual “tennnnn seconds” til launch time announcement by the starter. About 45 riders lined up in their respective classes for the 10:30am start of the vintage race.

The start of row one saw Christian Brumbaugh (74X) with the holeshot. Main rival  Brian Grove 119 X got jammed up a little bit in the first turn but soon caught up to Brumbaugh and gave the spectators a fabulous show of good clean racing throughout the 4 lap race.

For three laps the two riders were within one second of each other until lap 4 when Brumbaugh increased the gap. It was great to see Joe Zito back in action aboard a Yamaha after several years on an old Triumph to round out the top three overall.

While most of the top 10 riders were from the expert classes, a shout out goes to sixth place overall Blade Schmidt 199 from the vintage open intermediate class and Top 10 overall goes to Yamaha mounted rider 700 Brett Reichart.

Can’t forget about the women’s classes… Intermediate riders Kelly Pierce 402 Emily Reichart 733 Jenn Smith 3R finished in that order for the intermediate class and Laci Horvath 996 from the expert women’s class had an unfortunate chain issue with her Husky resulting in a DNF. Hopefully she was having fun up to that point.

So after four laps the 74X Yamaha pilot Christian Brumbaugh becomes the Vintage overall winner for the day, Vintage Open Expert class and overall Vintage champion for the 2020 season. Brian Grove on his 119X Husky earned a very hard fought second place.

Those two put on an amazing show of good clean racing and great battles throughout the season. Congratulations to you both!

 

Now after all that excitement it’s time for some PV race action.

Multi-time ISDE Gold medalist Fred Hoess heard there was going to be an awesome vintage race in Pennsylvania that he may be interested in. (yeah I told him)

He wasn’t sure if he would be able to arrange his work schedule in Colorado but it worked out and he showed up and entered in the event.

 About 78 riders lined up for the 1:30pm start of the PV race and after the 10 second  warning the green flag  waved for the start of the first row.

 Fred Hoess took the holeshot into the tight right hand first turn and into the woods.

Following close behind was 119X Brian Grove and 74X Christian Brumbaugh who once again battled for year end overall championship. This time in the PV division.

Row two holeshot goes to 51 Ethan Waddell showing 34 Wyatt Stoup and “The Schwein Dog” 31 Brian Schwein the quickest way to the woods.

Next to launch off the line was the 50+ and 60+ Experts.Wow! What a crowded first turn that ended up being.

The three “Sea of Blue” Yamahas of Mid-Atlantic XC organizer 11C Dave Kutskel, 945 Craig Shenigo and 104 (me) Steve Bowman led the pack thru the first turn. This was a great race between us three with Shenigo taking the 50+ Expert win and Kutskel and myself just seconds behind.

Mid-Atlantic XC’s race Flyer designer 71T Glenn Hershey gets the jump on his Can-Am followed by 37 Wes Brownawell  711 Jim Stanley and taking the wide route 57 Dave McIntyre.

So well into the first lap “Fast Fred” was on cruise control leading the overall and enjoying the nice flow of the course. He should have felt right at home in the “New Jersey” section of tight trees and single track and after five laps of a super fun course and excellent racing, Fred Hoess takes the overall win.

Second overall goes to ECEA Enduro rider Steve Mason who we believe is getting addicted to vintage racing with ice racer and CR500 pilot Bruce Peifer takes third overall.

Fourth overall was Wyatt Stoup and fifth overall went to Christian Brumbaugh followed by Brian Grove in sixth overall. These two battled back-and-forth throughout the day. Seventh goes to SPER member Mark Hummel who was a huge help in helping to design and set up the course with Ethan Waddell, Brett Reichart and Craig Shenigo rounding out the top ten.

The real down to the wire battle  was between Christian Brumbaugh and Brian Grove for the PV overall championship for 2020. Brumbaugh came out on top and those men deserve a huge round of applause for their accomplishments.

SPER would like to thank all of it’s volunteers that helped make this event a success:

Steve Bowman, Mark Hummel, Sandy Quickel, Pat Bowman, Stacey Clark, Chris Walmer, Doug Bradley, Bob Shughart, Mike Long, Curtis Weir, Eric Bowman, George Bressler, Rob Kramer, George Easterly and Andy Schaeffer 

 Also thanks to WRMC’s Rick Albert for helping clear trail.

Potomac Vintage Riders and volunteers from the Mid-Atlantic XC group that take care of sign up, scoring and awards. 

You all do a great job and we look forward to working with you again in the future

Final round for 2020 - get the details by clicking the flyer above.