Crankfire Racing Mid Season Update

First off, CRANKFIRE Racing would like to thank you, all of our sponsors, for your support: Crankfire.com, Morewood bikes, FOX Racing Shox, Maxxis tires, SDG USA, SRAM, Truvativ, Avid, Crank Brothers, James Wilson at MTB Strength Conditioning System, and the crew at Central Wheel, our local IBS.

While this weekend will wrap up the National Series, we are only half way through our season! We still have numerous races left here in the Northeast. Plattekill, Mt Snow, and Highlands have a few races left for each series. And, we are definitely looking forward to the 2nd Annual 5K Downhill race at Whiteface in NY.

Our season has been going well so far, with 5 podium standings out of 8 races. We've also had 5 top five and 9 top ten finishes. The team of five has suffered a few injuries, costing months of recovery time, but we are still doing well.

As a first year Semi-Pro, Chris Scannell finished in 30th place of 60 qualified in the Pro class at the U.S. Open in May. He also got a very respectable 8th place finish at the Mt. Snow Ironhorse Series #1 race.

Dan Phillips had an ankle injury sideline him for a month after his respectable finish of 47th in the Amateur class at the U.S. Open. He qualified for the Nationals at Mt. Snow by finishing 3rd a week prior and then proceeded to finish despite getting a front flat during his race run there.

Daryl Deprey had his best finish to date at the Showdown at Sugar National race with a 7th place finish in the Expert 19-24 class. We are looking forward to seeing him on the podium in the next couple months.

Peter Scannell has been racing very well this year, as well. He has been on the podium twice so far this season in the Expert 19-24 class with 3rd place finishes, one of those being the National Mountain Bike Championship at Mt. Snow in July. Pete is considering moving up to Semi-Pro with his brother and me possibly by the end of the year.

I've been having a good race season myself after being out for 6 weeks from a sprained shoulder and bum knee that happened in practice at the first race of the season at Duryea in PA. At the Mt. Snow National Championship and the Sugar Mt. National, I finished 1st in my class, Expert 30-34, at both races. I also finished a respectable 7th place of 21 in the Super D with no practice runs at all. And so, I will be applying to move up to Semi-Pro myself, and I am looking forward to the challenge.

As well as CRANKFIRE Racing's year has gone so far, I believe that we have more podium finishes in our future. We are looking forward to riding to the challenge.

Sincerely,
Roland "Duffy" Dufresne
CRANKFIRE Racing Team Manager

1st place Duffy at the Mount Snow Nationals

3rd place Pete at the Mount Snow Nationals