As we get closer to the end of the calendar year, we are starting to rev up planning for the 2nd annual Iowan Hard Enduro. Unfortunately, we were unable to go to the Tennessee Knockout to handout our usual postcards with event information. This was due to a derecho in Iowa that had one rather large tree fall on our house! If you don’t know what a derecho is, I was right with you until we experienced it. Basically, it’s an inland hurricane. We had wind gusts up to 140mph and it slammed into Cedar Rapids at the storm’s peak.
Luckily, no one was hurt and we are fortunate to have a good friends that also build homes for a living. One of our sponsors (AH Homes Inc.) is actually working with us to rebuild the house currently! Right now, the house was damaged to the point we are not able to live there until it is rebuilt so I am writing this from the ‘comfort’ of our cozy rental house.
Now – back to the race itself! We just completed our AMA charter so we WILL be an AMA race in 2021. We are hoping to be a part of the official AMA East series, but there is no guarantee of this as the AMA likes to have a race run as an AMA race prior to being a part of their larger series. That said, we are still in communication with Erik and Mark and our May date fits well within the series, which has many of the races stacked in the later portion of the season.
With being an AMA series, we are also looking at sanctioning the race as the Iowa State Championship race for Hard Enduro / Extreme Off Road. This means that if you win your designated class you would be recognized as an AMA state champion. I think that would be pretty cool!
Race Format Changes from 2020
I liked our format in 2020 and it seemed to work quite well. That said, I am looking at a few race format changes for 2021. These aren’t massive changes; primarily refinements based upon rider feedback from our first race. Here’s what I’m currently thinking:
- All amateur rider final positions would be determined by race 2.
- Pro rider final positions would be determined by moto scoring based upon their finish position in race 2 and race 3.
- Race 3 start would be the same as race 1 and 2 (5 riders per row // 1min between rows)
- The final would be limited to 30 riders
Race difficulty and spirit of the race
I received a lot of feedback last year that ran across the entire spectrum from people saying the hot lap and race 2 were too hard or too easy. In the end, this is a hard enduro. Even with it being a hotlap, it is to measure your capability in technical riding. It will STILL be difficult for many. For 2021 the level of difficulty will remain about the same for the hot lap and race 2. For the final, the difficulty will be higher.
That said, I am not trying to make the hardest race in the US. If we wanted, we could make a trail that would not be rideable for anyone. There is no fun in that and the racing is non-existent when this is done in my opinion. That said, my goal is for 3-10 riders or less being able to make 2 laps in the final. We were right on point with that with the junky conditions in 2020. If the conditions were good, I think we would have had many more riders making 2 laps.
I have ‘spirit of the race’ highlighted above because we had a number of riders that didn’t have this in mind last year. For this reason, we will be incorporating a number of trail minders for 2021 that will be ensuring the integrity of the trail is kept up. In this last year’s race we had a number of trail cutters and even people altering the trail because ‘they’ deemed it too hard. To the riders that may read this, embrace the suck and ride the intended trail.
Support
First and foremost I want to thank our sponsors for 2021 these are
- All Seasons Sherco
- AH Homes Inc.
- Stratton Equipment / Hunter Engineering
- Go On 2 Racing
I doubt we would be able to host this race without their support. As you can imagine, we do not host this race to make money. My goal the first race was to lose less than $1,000. We have the same goal in 2021. Whatever commercial and material help we’re able to bring in goes directly back into trail marking, trophies, scoring equipment, worker payment, and pro purse. We have a lot of big ideas for 2021 and with support I plan to make them happen.
If you or someone you know would like to be a part of the Iowan Hard Enduro, please reach out to me! 171Investments@gmail.com
As things progress be on the lookout for more updates!
-Dan
The Iowan Hard Enduro 