March was the kickoff of the 2017 STRA trails Championship Series, hosting the first four of the sixteen scheduled events for the year.

The season began with a great event in Ocala, Florida with “Fun in the Sun.”   The weather was perfect for the event, consisting of four loops of eight sections that was challenging for all riders.  Alex Niederer and the Florida Trials Association did a great job with the course layout and provided checkers for the event which saw 37 riders compete on Saturday and 35 on Sunday.

Trackrock, hosted by Frank Alexander, followed the very next weekend and was our first fully sponsored STRA event utilizing the 50/50 checking system, online sign-up and early posting of ride times.    It also was the first event to implement the newly established “Champ Class.”  “Champ Class” was held Sunday morning before the event and was a mini-clinic with some of our top riders working with participants from the Sportsman, Intermediate and Novice classes on their skills.  Thank you to Alex Niederer, Alan Shirley and Tom Fraser for working with the seven riders who participated in learning techniques to ride off-camber turns.  This was very appropriate for Frank’s event and we hope to continue “Champ Class” at future events throughout the year.

Weather cleared in Blairsville from a light rain on Saturday morning into two beautiful days.  The event gave 60 riders on Saturday and 66 on Sunday a chance to enjoy themselves and earn Championship points.  The event was traditional for Blairsville, consisting of three loops of nine sections with off camber turns, short hill climbs, creek and rock crossings.  The event had a wonderful pasta dinner organized Saturday night which was a great way for riders from all classes to get together and socialize.

The outcome of each event was posted on Facebook as soon as possible, as it will be throughout the season for the remaining events.  The total accumulation of Championship points for the year is currently listed in the “Results” section of the STRA website and will be routinely updated after each event.   To date, riders excelling in the Championship thus far include Alex Niederer in the Champ class who posted three firsts and a second, splitting the series at Trackrock with Ray Peters.

Maddie Hoover is riding exceptionally well and is leading the Expert class, representing her Gas Gas sponsor well.  Jeff Hensley, moved up from the Advanced class and looked to be in his element, riding against his new competitors at Trackrock and picking up a second and third place finish.

Kris Gilreath, moved up from Advanced Sportsman and is currently the rider to beat in the Advanced class.  He has posted a second and three firsts for the year thus far.  Gary Garrison rode very strong with high technical prowess posting two seconds place finishes behind Kris at Trackrock.

Trackrock set the stage for a close race in the Advanced Sportsman class between Alan Hensley, Jamie Gourley and Mike Dalmaso.  Mike rode well at Trackrock on Saturday but didn’t have as good of a day on Sunday after switching bikes to his Beta 125.

As usually, Gary Holbert is dominating the Vintage A class with two firsts place finishes at Trackrock.

Sean Parker rode very well in Florida and at Trackrock and leads the Sportsman point battle ahead of Griff Shirley.  Kenny Haynes has been consistent with two silver metal finishes at Trackrock.

Kevin Smith has a big points lead in the Intermediate class thus far, having competed in all four events.  There is a race building behind him however, between Talon Smith, Charlie Roberts, Jay Estes and Brian Fore.

There is currently a tight race in the Vintage B class between three riders who have competed in one event each so far this season:  Steve Glinski, Dennis Simoes and Bill Long.

Good competition is developing in both the Novice and expanding Women’s Novice class thus far.  David Heath is leading Tommy Justice by just one point and Emily Black is leading  Megan Almon, Neely Almon and Kelly Vermeulen, respectively.

Vintage C and Offroad have had a limited number of competitors thus far with the only competition occurring on Sunday at Trackrock.

As we look to April, our next STRA event is at Hickory Hills in Lenoir City, Tennessee hosted by Papa Joe Terry on April 22^nd and 23^rd.   Section and loop design will again be supervised by our Sporting Steward, Eric Mattson, to ensure consistency between events.  We also hope to host another “Champ Class” for our riders in the Novice, Intermediate and Sportsman classes on Sunday morning before the event start.   Thanks to François Saint Laurent, online sign-up is currently available in the “Schedule” portion of the STRA website.

Apart from our STRA events, please support and follow our fellow STRA members who are riding in the first rounds of the American Motorcycle Association/North American Trials Council National Championship Series.  The first AMA/NATC Western National event was held last weekend in Amarillo, Texas.  There is an event in Sedan, Kansas scheduled for this weekend (April 8^th-9^th).  Results can be found at www.Mototrials.com.

Keep riding and we look forward to seeing you at Papa Joe’s!

Douglas

March kicks off the 2017 STRA trials season in a big way!  A lot of riders have made great strides in their skills and this season gives them the opportunity to show case those skills.  We expect our class champions to move to the next level and it will be interesting to see how they progress.

Aside from the conclusion of the Chattanooga Trials Club (CTC) Winter Series, in which a large number of STRA members participate, Carolina Virginia Observed Trails Club (CVOTC) and Florida Trials Association (FTA) day events, March starts with Trials Training Days at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, TN.  This is a wonderful teaching/learning environment for all levels of trials riders.  Charlie Roberts and crew do an outstanding job hosting this event and a number of STRA riders will participate or instruct.  The very next weekend (March 11 – 12) the STRA Championship Series begins in Ocala, Florida. “Fun in the Sun” is hosted by the Florida Trials Association under the direction of Alexander Niederer.  A week later we have an event in Blairsville, GA at Trackrock (March 18 – 19) with Frank Alexander serving as the Trials Master.  Please see the Schedule section of this website for more details about these events.

Our goal of online membership application / renewal and event pre-registration has not gone as quickly as hoped but we continue to make progress.  Unfortunately, we will miss the Florida deadline and if we miss the Trackrock deadline, it will be implemented shortly thereafter.

The Facebook change was important to create a communication friendly form.   Despite the change from a “Buy and Sell” to a “Club Group,” posting items for sale is strongly encouraged as it helps everyone in the trials community.  The only difference is that posted items will not permanently stay at the top of the page but will scroll along with other posts as new items are added.

In closing, I hope that you are excited about this competition season and feel like STRA is here to support your participation.

Douglas

STRA members,

After a slow start, we have started making changes to this website!  Changes thus far include:

• Updating the contact information for all club officers with links to their emails
• Posting of 2017 riding rules with updates from 2016 noted
• Adding a description to each class level
• Posting the 2017 schedule
• Adding links to the schedules of regional clubs that support STRA
• Archiving the championship results from 2014 to present

Our next round of changes on the website will focus on on-line registration and payment options for both STRA membership and event sign-up.  After that is completed, during the season our ambition is to post individual event results along with ongoing standings in the championship series for each class.

On a related note, the goal of the STRA Facebook page continues to be to facilitate near-real-time communication and drive readers to this site for additional or detailed information which is more static in nature.  We have additional work to do to make the Facebook page less about items for sale and more about communication.

If you have ideas or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me,

Douglas

This is Douglas. We are off to a slow start getting this information out to you from last week’s business meeting. The plan is to have all information like the schedule available to members on the STRA website, which will be updated as soon as we get all the appropriate administrative privileges. Our plan is to use the website as the primary source for posting ongoing information such as schedule, completion standings, rules, etc.

The STRA Facebook page will remain as a means for direct member to member interaction. We would like to move away from it being dominated by buy and sell items to a club communication page. Recognizing the need for the club members to have a way to advertise relevant sale items, this change will not be made until we can establish a means to accomplish both via the Facebook page.