Welcome to the brand new HetzelRacing.com! This is my third full redesign of this website since I first launched it in 2007. This website is my “baby”, the website that got me interested in web design and jump-started my career as a graphic and web designer. So I thought it was only appropriate that this should be one of the coolest sites in my portfolio. I’ve spent about a month designing and developing it and I really hope that this website will be a source that you go to to keep up on Iowa hare scramble and enduro news.

After getting married recently and expecting a baby boy (Ryder…name appropriately, right?) pretty soon, I’ve been a busy guy. I’ll be honest, I haven’t ridden my Yama-dog since about November. I didn’t race but one race last year as life, college, work, a new wife with carrying my soon-to-be-here son have kept me so busy that I can’t believe I’ve made time to launch this completely redesigned Hetzel Racing website. However, I’ve developed this website so my dad and brother can also update it. Dad should have some tech tips up shortly and I’m sure we will all write race reports after each race we attend this year.

The annual D-22 banquet is tonight and sadly I will not be attending (registering for a baby shower is on my agenda for tonight :/). The rest of my family will, though, and they will be bringing home some trophies! (or certificates, whatever they give out these days…) Tyler won the Light A class in D-22 enduros this year and Dad got second in Senior A for the year. I’m proud of my little bro, I tell you what. I just talked to him today and he wants to go riding soon he can “kick my @$$”. I said “we’ll see about that!” but honestly I’m not sure! We’ll see if he’s caught up to me now after I took last year off. Hopefully this year we can both be banging bars together at all the races. Nothing like some brotherly love out on the race course!

Back to this new website…I would greatly appreciate your feedback via the “comments” section on all the news pages. Sound off and let me know if there are some things you would like to see different on this website.

I’ve gotta run, but I wish you all who are going to the D-22 banquet tonight the best of fun and I’ll see you at the races this year for sure!

The Bartlett enduro is always fun because it’s the closest to home so we don’t have to leave the day before or early in the morning. Dad, Tyler, and I rode on minute 30 along with Walker Luedtke. It was good that I got to ride on a minute with Walker, because I really got to see what it’s like to go really fast and see where he makes up his time at. The first section was a 24 mph average and I surprised myself by sticking with Walker the whole section to come out dropping one point. After that the race turned to a 18 mph average. It was a challenge to hang with Walker through some of the tough sections at 18, but I managed to and was tied with him with 1 point at the end of the loop.

After doing good the first loop I was determined to keep it going and give it my all the second loop. The next loop was a lot faster because it was all a 24 mph average. check placement was a little different that usual, but my ICO computer kept me from burning any checks, although it was pretty close a couple times! I ended up dropping 6 points the last lap for a total score of 7. That was good enough for second overall on the day, right behind Walker with 6.

I don’t know what got into me that day, but I was just feeling it and rode my heart out. I learned how fast I have to go now to be there in the end with the top guys, so I am really looking forward to proving myself again next weekend at the Atalissa hare scramble. I appreciate all my supporters and sponsors and would like to thank Walker for putting up with me revving behind him the whole race!

We were a little leery that the Winterset enduro wasn’t going to run since the weather man said they got some rain. But luckily it turned out to be a great enduro. Dad, Tyler, and I rode on minute 7. The race was all a 24 mph average, so we had to charge the whole time. I got through the first section dropping 2 points and then we rode about 10 miles of road. When you’re riding on gravel roads it seems like it takes forever! Finally we came to the second section, and it was a long one. There were lots of rocky creek crossings and it was a little muddy in places. That section was a lot of fun! I ended up dropping 8 points, but I knew I could have done better. I put my head down the next lap and dropped 4 in that section.

I came in to the pits for the reset between loops to hear that our good friend Jamie Driskell had crashed head-on into a tree and broken his scapula. His bike was all mangled up, and so was he. I was glad my girlfriend was there, because she’s a nurse and is going to school to be a doctor so she helped Jamie out. I headed back out for the second lap and just put my head down and charged until the end of the race.

I ended up 4th in the 250 A class, just one point behind Seth Blackburn. Seth went to high school with me, so we’ve ridden together some. A little personal goal of mine going into the race was to beat Seth, so him beating me by one point was kind of frustrating. But it’s all good! We had a good time racing the enduro and Dad and Tyler both finished 8th in their classes. See ya at Maquoketa this weekend!

It’s rather odd that the first D-22 enduro was held in the middle of August. It had been almost a year since the last enduro, so we were all craving to get out and tear up the hills around Dayton. The crew at Dayton put together a great ride, with the usual technical trails of Iowa races.

Unfortunately for my brother, there was a rule that you could not race if you didn’t have a drivers license. Well Tyler’s only 15, so he couldn’t ride. We called ahead and got him set up to run a check with some guys. He took an average and said he had a lot of fun running the back-up sheet at a check. When my dad stopped at the check he was at, he yelled to the other guys there “Hey, I forgot to tell you my son is dyslexic!” The guys just looked at each other, and then to Tyler, and burst out laughing. Tyler assured them that he was not dyslexic, and that the back-up sheet was not written backwards
They had gotten some rain prior to the race, so keytime was delayed an hour to let the sun dry out the course. Dad and I rode on minute 17, so the trails were in almost perfect condition. The first section was a long one, and for once my arms didn’t pump up like Popeye the sailor man! After the first section, which was a lot fun, the rest of the sections were shorter but still a lot of great trail. I almost wanted to slow down and just take in the beautiful scenery of the bluffs. But of course I couldn’t do that, so I charged as hard as I could. Nothing real eventful, like getting stuck, happened during the race and for the most part I kept ‘er on two wheels. There was one section we rode called the ‘goat trail’ (for good reason) where I came close to falling off the edge of the world when I blew by a corner, but luckily I caught myself before I went too far from the trail.

Dad always tells us to “leave with no broken bones or bikes”, so we left on a good note. I ended up 5th in 250 A, which was somewhat of a disapointment because I felt like I rode really hard, but I know I rode the best of my ability so I’m satisfied. Dad finished 5th in Senior A. Overall, the Dayton enduro was a blast, which it always is!

Well it’s now getting to be the middle of February and the racing season is approaching, so I thought I’d get on here and let you guys know what’s up. The IERA awards banquet was held Saturday in the sweet “Pzazz” hotel/casino/water park/bowling alley/go-kart arena/arcade/lazer tag….man they had everything there! It was a fun weekend for my family and me; we headed out Saturday morning and got home Sunday evening, so we made a little trip out of it. I got to catch up with some of my racing buddies, and even made a couple new friends! The banquet was kind of special for my family and me, because this is the year I turn AA. Ever since I was a little kid I always dreamed of being one of those “fast AA guys”. Well, now I’ve got the shot to be one. I finished 5th overall for 2008 in D-22 hare scrambles, which automatically moved me to AA for ’09. We didn’t hit all the D-22 enduros, so I ended up 3rd in 250 A. I didn’t get bumped to AA in enduros, but most likely I will race AA.

I’ve been training a bit here and there this winter, but now is the time when I’m going to be hitting it hard, getting my butt in the best shape for ’09. I think it’s good to take a break during the winter to let your mind rest so you’re even more pumped to get out and ride, say, now! My Yamaha is studded up and I’ve been trying to ride at least every weekend. The past few weekends Jamie Driskell and I have been tearing it up in the snow and ice. It’s really fun and great practice, but the bike sure does take a beating. Now we’re ordering parts and gear and getting everything ready for the new season. Right now, I’m thinking that my first race is going to be the Loretta Lynn’s GNCC. I’ve got a cousin down in Tennesse that’s going to help us get out there, and probably ride a few days before the race. I’ve never raced a GNCC before, but I’m really looking forward to it. With that being the first race of the season for me, it gives me a lot to get prepared for. I don’t want to show up and get spanked, so the training and riding is on!

I don’t know what got into me that day, but I was just feeling it and rode my heart out. I learned how fast I have to go now to be there in the end with the top guys, so I am really looking forward to proving myself again next weekend at the Atalissa hare scramble. I appreciate all my supporters and sponsors and would like to thank Walker for putting up with me revving behind him the whole race!

I’ve finally found time to sit down and write a report on the Ft. Dodge hare scramble that was held about a week and a half ago. I’ve been pretty busy running my website design business, finishing up the school year, and track meets. School gets out the 20th and I should have plenty of time this summer to make some improvements to this website and add some features. My goal is to have a new video up every couple weeks.

Back to the racing action: Ft. Dodge was a thriller! It was my first race as AA rider and I ended up 7th. The race was all about line selection; there were so many places to get stuck if you didn’t use your head and pick the right lines. They had gotten some rain, which made most of the course perfect dirt, but there were some sections down by the river that required precise line selection to avoid getting stuck. I was running around 5th after the first lap, then I fell victim to poor line selection in a steep valley with a mud hole in between. I buried my Yamaha! Luckily, it was a spectator-friendly spot so a couple of guys helped pull me out, but I still wasted about 2 minutes there, enough for quite a few AA riders to get around me. The next lap around I made it through that mud hole okay, but buried my poor bike again trying to make it through a huge bottleneck in deep, sandy mud. I lost a few minutes there, too.

After these two incidents I pretty much rode a clean race, keeping it on two wheels. I took advantage of some of the bottlenecks to work my way back up to 7th by the checkered flag, just coming short of Tug Denotter for 6th. It was a demanding race, but I felt very good, fitness-wise. For the first race of the year, Ft. Dodge was a wake up race to a lot of people, I think. Tracy Bachman did an excellent job of putting on this event. There weren’t many tight tree sections, but the mud holes, the broken asphalt pile, and the flowing trails in between made for a real good race.

Chris Nelson won the race, and man was he flying! He won the Timber Ridge hare scramble last year, too, and there was some controversy over him being accused of cheating. Honestly, I think the guy’s just super fast.

The last round of the D-22 hare scramble has come and gone. Coming into Atalissa, I was feeling a little pressure to do really well. I was tied with Jay Shipley for first place in the series, and within 5 points of Ryan Cope and Jay Shipley for 3rd overall in the series. I had it all figured out that if I beat those two I would have finished 3rd overall for the year. Turns out I finished 5th overall for the year because they both rode really well and beat me.

I got pinched off in the second corner off the start going into the woods, and was probably around 15th. Jay and Ryan got a little better start than I did and had clear traffic and got away quickly. It took me a while to get around into the top ten, as I fell a couple times that first lap. It was a little slippery and it took a while to find the right amount of traction, but I found my groove after about the first lap.

Nothing too exciting to report on happened during the race. I just tried as hard as I could to catch Jay and Ryan, because they were battling together the whole race. Dad said I was gaining on them, but the closest I ever got was about 30 seconds. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get the A class win, but I got 2nd in the race and 2nd in the unofficial points standings. My main goal was to finish top 8 overall for the year and be bumped up to AA, and I definitely accomplished that goal by finishing 5th in the unofficial points standings. I appreciate very much all the support from my sponsors and friends this year. I can’t wait until next year!

The Bartlett enduro is always fun because it’s the closest to home so we don’t have to leave the day before or early in the morning. Dad, Tyler, and I rode on minute 30 along with Walker Luedtke. It was good that I got to ride on a minute with Walker, because I really got to see what it’s like to go really fast and see where he makes up his time at. The first section was a 24 mph average and I surprised myself by sticking with Walker the whole section to come out dropping one point. After that the race turned to a 18 mph average. It was a challenge to hang with Walker through some of the tough sections at 18, but I managed to and was tied with him with 1 point at the end of the loop.

After doing good the first loop I was determined to keep it going and give it my all the second loop. The next loop was a lot faster because it was all a 24 mph average. check placement was a little different that usual, but my ICO computer kept me from burning any checks, although it was pretty close a couple times! I ended up dropping 6 points the last lap for a total score of 7. That was good enough for second overall on the day, right behind Walker with 6.

I don’t know what got into me that day, but I was just feeling it and rode my heart out. I learned how fast I have to go now to be there in the end with the top guys, so I am really looking forward to proving myself again next weekend at the Atalissa hare scramble. I appreciate all my supporters and sponsors and would like to thank Walker for putting up with me revving behind him the whole race!