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2008 Disney Fall Nationals We made our way to Osceolo Heritage Park in Kissimmee, FL for the 3-day Disney Fall Nationals. The purpose of the trip was 3-fold; it was obviously a race weekend (the last of the 6 East Coast nationals we attended); it was my mother's birthday (I love you Mama) weekend, and it was my parents 10 year wedding anniversary. So we had plans to do many things besides racing. Day 1 of Disney was a great start to what we hoped would be a great weekend. Hunter had a full rack of 8 riders, many of which he had raced before in other nationals or at the various Redline Cup events, and a couple who have become really good friends; Big Bear Jackson Gentry (FL) and Andrew Sperano (GA). All of the ridersare a great bunch of kids! In the first heat race Hunter transferred to the main by finishing 1st. In the hours of downtime between the heats the kids played football, crashed Matchbox cars in to each other, and played their NintendoDS games. In the main Hunter started from his usual gate #7, but worked extremely hard to finish a close 2nd behind William Hayes, a tough little rider from LA, who had battled with Hunter at other national races. Day 2 of Disney was much more of the same. As a matter of fact, he was randomly assigned (?) the same 3 gates as the day before (?), in the exact same order (?). Likewise, he transferred to the main by finishing 1st in the first heat race. In the main he again started from gate #7, and again worked his way through the field only to end up finishing 3rd. Day 3 of Disney was again, more of the same. However, instead of having gates 1, 5, & 7, he was randomly assigned gates 1, 5, & 3. Just as in the 2 previous days Hunter transferred to the main by finishing 1st in the first heat. During the main we had hoped that Hunter would be able to get out front and hold on to the lead as he had done in each of the 3 previous heat races. However, Hunter was cut off (obviously legal) in the first turn and had to jump on the brakes to avoid a costly crash for both riders. Similarly, the same thing occured in the very last turn except this time he had to slow to a snails pace to avoid center-punching the bike of the lead rider. The race should have ended with Hunter comfortably earning another a 2nd place finish however losing all of your momentum while the others behind you are still in their respective grooves and then coasting the last 15 feet across the finish line is never a good idea...especially when there are 3 or 4 other equally fast riders on the track. As a result Hunter lost the 2nd position by thickness of his front tire. All in all it was a great weekend, a 2nd, and two 3rds is nothing to hang your head about. We are extremely proud of his first year racing national events. Good Luck to all of you attending the Grands and thanks for the great racing guys!!
Holeshot
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