Thanks to all the folks that came out to join for STRA Rounds 5&6 at Papa Joe’s Place in Lenoir City over the weekend.
It was a great event, with beautiful weather, and some great people!
Thanks to Papa Joe and Mrs. Bonnie for having us there, they are phenomenal hosts!
Also thanks to Aaron Thistle for these great photos from the event!
You can view them by checking out this link.
STRA Rounds 3 & 4
Trackrock Campgrounds, Blairsville, GA
March 22 & 23. 2014
By Jamie Gourley
The season got off to a great start in Florida at Fun in the Sun, but for those of us who could not attend, the season kicked off at Frank’s place in beautiful Blairsville Georgia. It is a tradition that the Spring always includes Trackrock and I love riding there. We were blessed with some wonderful riding weather and the sections were spot on with nothing too scary but plenty of technical stuff. We rode the first day with regular split scoring but on Sunday rode peer scoring and so that was a little different but the weather turned out to be perfect and everyone was having a good old time.
The Champ class was literally a one man show with Aaron Thistle from Georgia making the difficult stuff look easy riding his Sherco. Champ regular Alan Shirley is on the DL and hopefully will be back in the saddle soon. Expert had some close competition with Tim Cash from Tennessee on his Gas Gas winning on Saturday over a close Garry Hoover in second and Eric Mattson in third. On Sunday Mike Helstrom from Georgia came out of retirement and showed he can still ride that old Montessa topping Garry in second again and Tim in third. The Advanced class saw some very low scores Saturday with Randy Sharp from Tennessee riding his Gasser to victory with one point for the day over Gary Holbert with a very close two. On Sunday things were different and Vaughn Cady from Georgia was in the top spot aboard a brand new Gasser over Sam Curlee in second and Randy in third and there were no clean loops so it must have been a lot harder.
In the Advanced Sportsman it was Frank Schoenbeck from Georgia who won Saturday riding his very cool Scorpa . On Sunday it was Dexter Darnell who got the top spot with a great ride on his Beta and it was his first time in the class. Sportsman was again the largest class of the weekend and it was Michael McNair from Tennessee who was the man both days beating Larry Smith in second both days with Griff Shirley in third on Saturday and Sam McNair on Sunday. Intermediate was also very close on the scores and on Saturday Mark Moon from Tennessee rode his Gas Gas to the top spot with Eric Eberius in second and Steve Green in third. On Sunday the scores for the top three were twenty-four, twenty-five, and twenty-six and so things were very tight in the sections. Steve Green had a great two point loop and that made the difference putting him on the top spot with Kris Gilreath in second and Mark in third. Great rides by all three! Novice was won by Dillon Darnell on Saturday over Adam Crowley in second and Matthew Carr in third. We had some great Vintage action as well with Steve Glinski, Tracy Martin and Bill Long all winning Saturday and Woods Huff and Louis Qualtieri winning Sunday. Thanks to Frank for again hosting an awesome event and also to Ashley and Dawn for running all the signup and everyone else who made the whole weekend simply wonderful. I hope we will all meet back here again next year and I will see you in the sections.
My first attempt at creating slide shows for our events this year!
Let me know what you think!
November 2 & 3
This year marks the 40th anniversary for the Southeastern Trials Riders Association and to celebrate we returned to the location of the original event held way back in 1973, well almost. The actual original location was Mt. Airy which is just up the road a few miles from Cornelia and we could not get clearance to use the land but one of the original participants Henry Simmons stepped up and volunteered Henry’s Hills as the substitute location. We have had events at Henry’s for the last fifteen or so seasons and so it served as a perfect substitute and with some quick organization by Charlie Roberts and a few other dedicated members the event was a great success. Continue reading STRA 40th Anniversary Trials, Rounds 11 & 12
The 58K, Sequatchie, TN – October 5 & 6, 2013
It has been an amazing twenty-one years since that first 58K and boy have things changed since then. At that time the Trials Training Center was nothing but a field in the middle of a valley and many of us were wondering if this “trials heaven” was really all that. But Tony Bussing was right as usual and the TTC is now truly a world class facility for all motorcycles, just ask Adam Raga. We have several club events there every year and I always know that Summer is over when the 58K rolls around and once again Charlie Roberts and the entire staff of the TTC put on a great event. If you wonder why it is called 58K well that was the price of this trials wonderland when Tony purchased the property all those years ago. We have many new members in the STRA this year thanks to the efforts of people like Mark Moon getting the word out and so for many this was the first time to ride this event and it is an exciting time for the STRA. Continue reading The 58K Report: STRA Rounds 9 & 10
For complete standings, click here.