Perry Mountain’s Chicken House harescramble that was held in Carter Country this past weekend turned out to be a great success.

The weather could not have been any better with a start time of 8 in the morning for the adult race on Sunday. There was still dew on the grass as the guys lined up for the start in the middle of the pasture that headed into a grasstrack section before entering the woods.

There were 195 riders to begin the 4-lap, 11 mile/lap race. The course consisted of several spectator points for picture opportunities as there was a creek crossing, log jumping, tire maze, creek jumping, manmade sand mountain, and lengthy grass track.

The AA class started things off with Clifford “Duck” Ousley claiming the holeshot and never looking back for the duration of the day. Ousley won last year’s event here and denied the bounty to any challengers.

Nathan Knight challenged Ousley the first lap, being just 3 seconds off the lead. While Knight and Ousley were neck-and-neck, Tyler Carter was steadily gaining ground to overtake second overall by the end of the race.

Ousley must have found an extra gear on the end of the third lap because his fourth lap was his fastest of the day. Ousley, Carter and Knight all made the podium and were presented “faux champaign” bottles to celebrate with the crowd. Frank Davis, former winner of this event, just missed the podium to finish fourth overall and third in AA.

Not only did Carter place second overall, he was also first in Open A and the winner of the Overall A award.

Kevin DeLoach had a great day going until the last two laps when his brakes failed him. He still managed to finish a strong ninth overall and fourth in Open A. Glenn Hollingshead had the win in the bag until a crash on the final lap knocked him back three positions to finish fourth in Vet A and 16th overall.

Adrian Gervais would claim the win and 11th overall with David Summers finishing sixth in the class. David Crain, in his first race in many moons, would finish fourth in Lites A, and Hunter Sanders claimed fifth.

The “Ride of the Day” goes to Stanton resident Burton Huff, who rode the Senior Class to a first place win and 10th overall. Huff was a strong competitor in the early 1980s when he rode the SERA circuit as a teenager.

The younger guys better watch out—he may be making a reappearance atop the leader board with many finishes like this one.

John Huggins, Doug Holder, Ted Anz and Jason Brasington finished third, fourth, sixth and 14th in Vet B. Lites B had Ryan Patridge, Jonathon Seales and Travis Green finishing fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

In the Open B class, Daniel Musselwhite finished the day in seventh and Eric Huggins ninth. Phillip McMillan got the silver in the Golden Masters class.

Beau Burnett claimed the holeshot in the highly contended Junior class and had a great ride to finish second with Neal Ousley claiming fourth and Jacob Davis finishing ninth. Davis had problems on the first lap that took him out of contention.

Jack Willis left the event before the award ceremony and missed out on his opportunity to get on the podium for winning Overall C and first in Open C. Other locals to compete were Cody Smith, seventh; Blake Terry, 10th; Wes Patridge, 14th—all in Lites C; Rolie Barrett, second Beginner; Avery McCarley, sixth Beginner; Brian Lewis, ninth Open C; Michael Castleberry, 20th Open C; and Mitch Moore, 22nd Senior C.

Local DNFers for this one were Dustin Stevens, Chris McMillan and Chad Earl.

On Saturday afternoon, the kids race took place with Cliff’s younger brother, Neal, grabbing the holeshot in the Vet Kids class and going on to claim the win.

Landon Barrett, Trent Smith, and Colton Castleberry finished fourth, sixth, and eighth, respectively. Jackson Davis and Harrison Caver finished second and fourth in the Int Kids class.

The Pee Wee class had Austin Anz finishing third, Connor Barrett fifth, Trent Huff sixth and Ethan Gregg eighth. Grayson Davis finished atop the Beginner Pee Wee class followed by Cade Holder in second. Kelsey Duke rode her way to a first-place win in the girls class.

The next local event will be the Watermelon 50 sponsored also by Perry Mountain in Reynolds Pasture on the 8th of August. Race starts at 4 p.m. For more information, contact Bill Patridge at 664-3800.