#312

Story & Photos: Aaron Kennedy

The second round of terrain racing on the USXC circuit this year brought teams back to Seven Clans Casino in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The two-day race featured 250 miles of racing split between two, 60 mile loops tackling the region’s ditches with the odd stretch of river thrown in for good measure.

Frigid temperatures (-20F) returned, but this didn’t deter anyone including Jr. 10-13 rider Hunter Kiesow.
Despite the cold, conditions were near-perfect on Saturday with clear skies and a bit of wind to get rid of snow dust…
allowing even vintage riders like Jake Mattison (#747) to pound the ditches to victory.
Saturday’s conditions would not hold out for the weekend. Sunday brought cloudy skies that led to flat light, making racing more difficult.

Regardless of the conditions, riders across the field put on a clinic in launching approaches. While perhaps not a perfect correlation, the casual observer may have noted that many of the winners at TRF had no problem stressing their suspension setups.

Paul Brown (#173) had an impressive weekend taking the win in the Expert 600 Limited and Jr. 14-17 classes by a 7+ minute margin.
With her ponytail flapping in the breeze, Lydia Sobeck (#444) led the way to the podium in the Women’s class with a total time of 4:18:52.
Marshall Busse (#711) also logged some air time while notching victories in both Sport 600 classes.
Classic IFS rider Adam Geisler (#282) even got in on the air action while squeezing out a narrow win in this class.

While the weekend did not feature any major mishaps, it wouldn’t be ditch racing without some issues. Notable crash/mechanicals on Saturday included Pro riders Re Wadena (#52) and Ben Langaas (#231).

Ben gives the thumbs-down on his Saturday ride.
Pete Mattison (#42) broke a spindle, but had no reason to worry as he had plenty of support from the riders including. Jr. 10-13 racer Dawson Darco (#115).
Pete would go on to lose the ski, but in true vintage fashion, kept on truckin’.

In the Semi-Pro class, the usual suspects were in the mix for the win. The Revering Bros. (Charles #187, Dan #101) and David Brown (#871) led the field after Saturday, and this placement would hold through Sunday.

Charles had to race to the checkered flag without a windscreen for the majority of Sunday’s course.
Tyler Oettinger (#227) edged out Cody Wolter (#143) for the win in Semi Pro Improved.

It took the full two days to sort out the field of Pros. On Saturday, Zach Herfindahl (#312), Aaron Christensen (#10), and Wes Selby (#15) finished 1-2-3 with less than one minute separating the three of them. Not far behind (within another minute) was Ross Erdman (#311), Justin Tate (#28), and Taylor Bunke (#14). With the field leaving in order and by time on Sunday, the target would be on each-others’ backs.

Early on, the top 5 was mixed up as Erdman had mechanical issues, allowing Tate to move up, and Taylor Bunke (#14) to take the 5-spot. By lap 2 (and after a gas stop), Herfindahl padded his lead by a few dozen seconds, with Christensen still staying within sight behind him. While these two would maintain their positions, the remainder of top 5 came down to the last lap. The gas stop led to Selby losing positions to Tate and Bunke, with this order maintained with ~15 miles to go. In that short distance, however, Tate would run out of gas, and Bunke had a sensor problem causing a DNF. This late race drama allowed Wes to regain his position for a 3rd place finish.

Two terrain races, two wins. Zach Herfindahl once again looks like the one to beat when the going gets rough.
With a 2nd place finish, Christensen made up for a disappointing race at Park Rapids, and remains a top-contender.
Wes Selby has the skills to take the top spot on the podium as demonstrated by another Top-3 finish. One has to look back to 2016, however, to find his last USXC pro-stock victory. Will his luck change this season?
After all of the drama up top, Dillan Dohrn (#5) made up five spots on Sunday to take 4th, passing Alex Hetteen (#154) on the final lap.
Alex’s consistency has him sitting just 6 points behind Herfindahl in season points.

With a one-week hiatus for the SOO, USXC returns to the ditches for the Goodridge-Grygla 500 on Feb. 9th-10th. With 500 miles crammed into two days, the circuit is in for an endurance treat!

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