Competitors stand by at the start line of the Hell Fire Fat Tire took place on Saturday, March 22 near Lake O’Neill and Deluz housing on Camp Pendleton. The Hell Fire Fat Tire is a mountain bike race that started and ended at Lake O’Neill Recreation area. The race started in the 26-area and traveled close to Naval Weapons Station Fallbrook before traversing the hills on the far eastern side of the 14-area, to include Engineers Hill. There were two distance choices for competitors, the 25 mile and the 15 mile course. The race included a rare look around the base for the community considering the course is only open to the public once a year. Competitors can place in different categories that consist of age and active duty status. There were 385 finishers for the race; over 300 of the competitors were from the surrounding community. Mack Brown from Pacific Palisades, California took first place overall and first in his division in the 25 mile race of the Hell Fire Fat Tire, coming in 7 minutes faster than second place with a time of 1:41:42. Melissa S. Martinez a former 1st Lieutenant with Combat Logistics Regiment-17 took first overall for females and first for her division in the 15 mile race with a time of 1:29:34.

Photo by Cpl. Orrin G. Farmer