Summer is almost over and it's been quite a year! 2022 turned out to be our comeback season! After laying low in recent years, with the Covid Pandemic finally moving past us, we got excited to get back in the swing of racing and for our primary goal as ORAMM in July.
First up in February was the 12 Hours of Santos (3 hour edition) After getting a taste of racing again in January's Bad Habit, we selected Santos as a first event to actually prep for. Chose the 3 hour edition to keep it fast and fun. Alex would dust off his race legs and come out for the first race in 3 years! I'd been dabbling at the fun events over the last 2 years, but this was first serious effort to prepare for an event. The 12 Hour Santos Event is one of the biggest events in the State of Florida due to typically perfect weather and a great course. Racers typically camp on the grounds and makeit a great riding weekend, so that's what we did! The race itself was came and went quickly as the course consists of 3 flow sections divided by two twisty, punchy, techy sections. Put out some decent efforts and kept the rubber side mostly down and had some solid feelings at the end of the day to know that ORAMM was going to be attainable!
Next up was the Hialeah Hustle, a 60 mile event at Amelia Earhart Park and one of my home events. If Santos was the tech course, Amelia is the flow, with basically 7-8 mile loops of fast flowing singletrack. Easy to go fast, but also easy to push too hard and pop. Unfortunately, the rance landed on what turned out to be one of the early HOT days of the year in April. I started with intentions of hitting the 60 miles, but 3 hours in, it was 11am and temps were already at 91 degrees! I had more in the tank but was definitely feeling the heat and decided to play it safe and call it a day at the half way mark. Saw many in the field with the same idea, and with highs of almost 94 that day, I didn't regret the decision. Didn't get race footage this day, but here's a taste of Amelia in the vid below!