Horses tamed at motorsports park

In addition to the usual revving of engines, the clopping of hooves on the soil at FreedomNorthwest Arena on Albright Grade could be heard Saturday as EC Enterprises Motorsports Park held its inaugural Horsepower vs. Horse Power event, pitting riders on motorcycles and horses against one another in a crossover competition.

On this occasion at least, modern technology reigned supreme, with the bikers holding a decisive edge throughout the evening.

In the barrel racing main event, the top seven motorcycle times were all faster than anything achieved by a horse. Cody Crea of Lewiston headed up the championship round with a mark of 17.077 seconds on his 450cc bike, while Kelly Longfellow of Moscow clocked the fastest time on horseback at 18.257.

“The secret was just good vibes,” Crea said of his victory. “Doug Miller let me borrow his .450, so I had to get used to that, but once I figured out the power, I just let her eat through the corners.”

A 23-year-old who was heavily involved in the motorcycle scene from ages 12-18 and is getting back into the swing of things now, Crea anticipates more appearances at EC Enterprises events in the near future.

“I’m just glad Eric (Christiansen) brought something new,” said Longfellow, a veteran barrel racer who comes from a rodeo family but had never raced against vehicles before.

Preliminary rounds of barrel racing started things off with horses going one at a time and running the course in around 19 to 21 seconds. The motorcycles came on afterward and set a higher standard of roughly 17 to 19 seconds. The top seven times for each category advanced to the evening’s eventual championship round, during which the horse times showed clear improvement, but were still a cut below.

In between the preliminary and championship rounds of barrel racing was a series of real-time races in which the bikes and horses took parallel routes up and down the arena, with the former once again holding a clear advantage. Jana Hartley drew an upswell of cheers when she managed the evening’s lone horseback victory, prevailing after the rider against whom she was competing fell off his motorcycle rounding the turn. Several other races were close, but the motorcycles’ superior acceleration on the closing straightaway proved decisive each time.

While this was the first such event for EC Enterprises, horsepower vs. horse power competitions are not unheard of in other regions, and motorcycles do not universally dominate. Participants and organizers in Saturday’s competition suggested that turf conditions and the particular course format used may have helped the motorcycles achieve the upperhand.

“It’s a little deep around the barrels, so horses kind of get hung up a little bit,” said Longfellow, who also suggested that the horses would compete better on a “shorter pattern, so those guys can’t open the throttle as much.”

Christiansen called the evening a “learning experience.”

“It was fun,” he said. “The crowd sure seemed to like it. We had a decent crowd, the weather was ridiculously nice, and it was a good time.”

FINALISTS

MOTORCYCLISTS — 1. Cody Crea, 17.077; 2. Coleman Ross, 17.22; 3. Ryan Breece, 17.299; 4. Riley Poxleitner, 17.423; 5. Dustin James, 17.727; 6. Cody Holzer, 17.777; 7. Jarrod Hamburg, 17.838.

EQUESTRIANS — 1. Kelly Longfellow, 18.257; 2. Barrie Folden, 18.84; 3. Shawnee Watenpaugi, 19.149; 4. Landyn Minick, 19.235; 5. Haidyn Minick, 19.472; 6. Shelby Walker, 20.361; 7. Terrin Thompson, 21.222.