Team Am-Pro's Jason Raines put his second win in the books during the sixth round of the 2008 AMA Eastern Hare Scrambles Series in Tremont, Penn. on Sunday, July 27. The impressive victory on a very rocky and difficult Rausch Creek backcountry course (over six minutes ahead of the next competitor!) puts the WR450F rider well into the lead in the championship with two rounds left to go before the highly anticipated East vs. West shootout on Oct. 19.
Held in a former coal-mining area, the six-lap, 78-mile cross-country race proved a virtual survival challenge for some riders as the majority of the course was quite rocky and the soil slippery from weekend rains. But Raines tapped his gold-medal ISDE experience to walk the entire course on Saturday, ensuring that he knew the fast lines as well as trouble spots and alternative routes. Although he started Sunday's race in the middle of the pack, Raines quickly worked his way forward and took over the lead by the end of the first lap. A couple of stalls slowed him to second temporarily, but by the end of the second lap the Yamaha pilot had built up an insurmountable advantage over the competition.
Besides outstanding fitness and preparation, Raines brought both aggressiveness and savvy to the race. "On a couple of sections there were 20 guys waiting to go up the hill, just sitting there catching a breather," he said. "I am not going to wait. I'll just go flying around through the bushes, and even if I get only halfway up I'm still moving forward." Raines estimates that the Tremont course is the rockiest one on the AMA Hare Scrambles calendar - perfect for the WR450F's combination of maneuverability and torque. "There must have been 10 miles of tight, rocky, technical trail per lap," he added. "I don't necessarily like rocks but on the WR I do well in them!"
While Raines was busy winning in Pennsylvania, Am-Pro teammates Barry Hawk (YZ250 two-stroke) and Thad Duvall (WR250F) went 1-2 at the Extreme Dirt Series championship event in West Union, WV while on their summer break from the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series. Elsewhere, Am-Pro's youngest rider, 16-year-old Ryan Blue, won a 100-mile team race in North Carolina on his own WR250F, impressively riding the entire distance by himself. Great work everyone!