Title behind him, racer says fun is next

A championship plaque hangs on Chris Hutson's wall, the payoff for a season's worth of navigating highways, sucking mud and waking up in pain on Monday mornings.

Finally, Chris Hutson -- toting the title of an American Motorcycle Association champions -- can go back to having fun.

The pressure? It's gone.

"I'm ready to go race and not worrying about whether I win or lose," he said. "Now that I have that "No. 1" on my wall, I feel a lot more satisfied."

Hutson, 38, conquered more than 100 contenders for an AMA cross-country racing disctinction: The 2001 National Hare Scramble Series champion in the veterans' division. It was a preseason goal knocked off track by a flat tire and a 27th-place finish in April and realized in a mud pit of a course in October.

Along the way was a series of top-five finishes in seven rough-and-tumble events that awarded points. By season's end, Hutson had 92 points. His nearest competitor, a rider from Evansville, Ind., had 86.

It was his first season championship in 17 off-and-on years of competing in AMA events. Although he won only a single race during the season, his other finishes of second, third (twice) and fifth kept him on top of the overall rankings.

A typical race day saw Hutson serve as the racer, the pit crew and the maintence man who took care of his 238-pound KTM bike and its 250 cc engine. In events that featured several laps around a hilly, often-rutted course up to 15 miles long, the strain got to not only the bike, but to the rider.

Just focusing on the next rut or on the competitor behind you wasn't always easy.

"The physical fatigue is bad, but so is the mental challenge and how hard it is to concentrate," Hutson said. "You get songs in your head, you think about something else you did earlier in the day, you think about work -- that causes you to lose focus and make mistakes. That, for me, is the hardest part."

The season that begins in April will feature a new set of obstacles for Hutson, whose championship at the intermediate level automatically pushed him to the next level -- expert -- this year. But the chore of winning a championship is over.

"I plan to have more fun this year," he said. "The championship, it's a relief, really. A friend of mine wants to go ride out in the desert and just go to some of the bigger races around the country, and that sounds good to me.

"You start chasing points and sometimes it takes the fun out. It becomes a job. I'm ready to have fun again."