King of the Desert!

My race report for Race-Dezert.com

OG link:  http://www.race-dezert.com/home/2012-king-of-the-desert-28500.html

The King of the Desert! The race originally brought to fruition by the infamous Otis “FUD” Fudpucker continues on in his honor with the help of the Road Runner Off-Road Racing club now celebrates its 31^st anniversary in the Superstition OHV area. “The King” as many refer to, has a long history of desert racing greats taking the title, names like Smith, Harden, Ashcraft, Roeseler, Sundahl, Corda, Driscoll, Krause, Abbott, Caselli and many more…
In the past years this race was an AMA Hare and Hound National event but with new government restrictions and cost imposed on race promoters in an already tough economy, the club decided to scale down the event to a multi-lap 31-mile course rather than the 100-mile course it had been running in previous years to help cut costs.  “The last six years this race has had a national affiliation.” Said Paul Kirby of the Road Runners Off Road Club. “We took a time out from the national series mainly because of the fees involved. It has hurt us with participants, last year we had 250 riders where as this year we only had 106.” “But we will carry on either way, Fud started The King of the Desert 31 years ago and as long as we’re racing out here we’ll carry on the tradition!”
First to the bomb and off to an early lead was Kyle Corfman, while running first on the road most of the day he later had to pull out of the race due to dehydration.

Kyle Corfman had a commanding lead until dehydration took him out of running

Kyle pulling out of the race handed the race lead to AJ Stewart who took the win in the “King” class and 2^nd O/A taking home $900 dollars. “I got a good start and was second behind Kyle (Corfman) for awhile.” Said AJ. “I just wanted to keep the OH Crap moments down to a minimum and run a steady pace. I have the San Felipe 250 next weekend so I wanted to make sure I was in good shape for that. It was a good day!”

AJ Stewart - 2012 King of the Desert

King of the quads was Josh Row who carried a blistering pace throughout the day riding well into the upper ranks of the open bikes. “I had a good race!” Excitedly replied Josh Row. “I hole shotted the bomb and pretty much just picked my lines since I was in the clear. I had a little get off; I got off a kicker sideways and got pitched, bit my tongue, but after that I got into my grove and started making my way through the bikes and ended up third overall!”

Josh Row ripping his way through to third O/A and King of the quads

The winners, Events sponsors Redination, and the FUD quilt made from Fud event t-shirts

With twelve more races slated over the year, two in the mountains near Jacumba, District 38 continues to promote great off road family fun.

Off-Road racing IS a family sport - for all ages.