Crankfire Racing Season Wrap Up

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.

Our 2007 race season went well, with 7 podiums out of 18 races. We’ve also had 7 top five and 17 top ten finishes. All four of the expert racers this year got at least one podium, which is better than last year. The team of five has suffered a few injuries, costing months of recovery time, but we still did quite well.

As a first year Semi-Pro, Chris Scannell was doing very well with a finish 30th place of 60 qualified in the Pro class at the U.S. Open, and a very respectable 8th place finish at the Mt. Snow Ironhorse Series #1 race. He suffered a series of injuries over the course of the season that kept him from racing. In August, Chris decided to resign from CF Racing to chase other pursuits.

Dan Phillips had a recurring ankle injury sideline him 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. Dan finished school in May and secured a position in New Jersey where he moved in August.

Daryl Deprey had his best finish to date at the Gravity East Final race at Plattekill with a 2nd place finish in the Expert 19-24 class. He has finally been doing well racing towards the end of the 2007 season. We are looking forward to seeing him consistently on the podium in the 2008 racing season with Dan Phillips and Peter Scannell.

Peter Scannell has been racing very well this year, as well. He has been on the podium thrice in the Expert 19-24 class, one of those being the National Mountain Bike Championship at Mt. Snow in July. Pete is considering moving up to Semi-Pro by the end of 2008.

I've been having a good race season myself after multiple injuries over the course of the season. At the Mt. Snow National Championship and the Sugar Mt. National, I finished 1st in the Expert 30-34 class. I also finished a respectable 7th place of 21 in the Super D with no practice runs at all. I moved to the Semi-Pro class myself and found it very challenging. I am looking forward to doing well next season and beating my best finish of 14th in the Pro class at Diablo this October.

Big changes are happening for CRANKFIRE Racing next year. We are going to expand our horizons by adding members that range from a two male and one female sport to Expert to Semi-Pro downhillers. Our team is going to be ten deep, but we feel that we will be a stronger team. We are looking forward to riding to the challenge in 2008.

Sincerely,

Roland “Duffy” Dufresne
CRANKFIRE Racing Team Manager

Be sure to also have a look at Crankfire Racings 2007 Season Resume [pdf].