Cable Willford Blog - RMSHA Race At Afton, WY

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By Cable Willford

(ED-Here is Pro hillclimb Yamaha racer Cable Willford's thoughts on the second RMSHA race of the season last weekend. We will be following Willford as he helps to try to put Yamaha on the map-hillclimbing wise that is.)

The Afton Hillclimb turned out to be an impressive event and, just as expected, the hill was UGLY right from the start and proceeded to get much worse throughout the weekend. Avoiding the stumps was the least of anyone's worries as the hill developed trenches and holes that were nearly impossible to overcome. The treacherous conditions offered up the perfect practice for Jackson, as the hill took on an eerily similar identity to that of Snow King in Jackson Hole.

As always, the top Pro riders impressed with blisteringly fast runs and wild rides that either worked or failed and the hill showed little favoritism as it shut down some of the biggest names and fastest sleds RMSHA has to offer. The action started early Friday morning and continued through Sunday eve with plenty of gnarly wrecks and spectacular displays of talent wowing the crowd at every turn.

For Team Yamaha, the weekend held mixed results. The move to Improved Stock paid off with my first top ten finish of the year and this will be a good starting point to build off of going forward.

I had good qualifying efforts in the Mod classes, finishing No 18 of 28 in 800 Mod and 14th of 24 in 600 Mod. Improper sled setups and failure to focus combined with bad line choices made for less than stellar runs in my 700 Mod and Open Mod classes.

Both of my teammates, Kody and Kolton Malmborg, are improving and showing better results with every run and it will only be a matter of time before we start seeing solid qualifying times across the board.

Though we keep hoping for leaps and bounds, the Yamaha progress can be described as baby steps. Next up is the World Championship Snowmobile Hillclimb at Jackson Hole, and team blue will be there in full force with every intention of claiming our share of the world championship glory. 

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