After winning his first AMA National Hare and Hound Super-Mini National Championship in 2021, Jason Harris knew there would be a target on his back heading into the 2022 season.

Fortunately for the Lyman native, Harris’ hard work paid off. The 14-year-old phenom cruised to his second straight Super-Mini National Championship, winning six races and finishing out of the top spot just once — a second-place finish at the season-opening Winter Classic, in Lucerne Valley, California last January.

“I’m feeling great — winning the championship again was pretty awesome,” Harris said. “I only took one second this year — the rest were firsts. The first race of the season, I was coming off [ACL surgery], and I had issues with my suspension. I was battling with the top guy [Dustyn Davis], but things just didn’t feel right. I’d rather take a second than a DNF. The rest of the season was all firsts, everything was great, no major wrecks, or anything like that.”

The National Hare and Hounds season consisted of eight races in 2022, beginning in January at Lucerne Valley, California, and running to late October. The circuit takes a break at the midway point of the season in May, and then picks back up in September.

After his runner-up at Lucerne Valley, Harris rattled off six straight wins, culminating in his title-clinching race in Reno on Sept. 24.

“The last race was really the icing on the cake,” Harris explained. “I finished over six minutes ahead of second place, and I believe it was the best performance I’ve ever had. I had already won the championship, so there really wasn’t anything on the line — I just hung it all out there, and turned in some really fast lap times. It was a super-cool experience.”

Harris had accumulated enough points that he was able to skip the final race of the season and still win the title by a comfortable margin — his 205 season points were 42 more than runner-up Jordan Maas at 163. Following the end of the Hare and Hound season, Harris raced a couple of more events, including two races on the 250cc, the bike he plans to race in 2023. In all, the young rider raced a total of 18 different weekends in 2022.

Jumping to a bigger bike has had a bit of a learning curve, but Harris has adapted well.

“The first race [on the 250] wasn’t great — it was out on the salt flats out there by Wendover, Utah, and we were in a sandstorm the whole race,” Harris said. “We’re talking, like, Category 3 hurricane-type winds, probably 50-60 mph. It was extremely tough. When the wind was T-boning you, you had to lean into the wind, so that it didn’t blow you off the trail. It was definitely interesting.”

Conditions were a little better for Harris’ second race on the 250, though it wasn’t without its share of issues.

“The next race, I jumped out, got the hole shot,” Harris said. “About a mile in, I blew a tire off the bead — I don’t know if we broke the wire inside, or what. I came back and got it all fixed, found another tire to work with. My first lap after that was only about three minutes slower than the top two pros, so that was cool. If you factor everything in, I had the fastest lap of everyone there. The top pro was last year’s National Hare and Hound 250 pro champion.”

Moving on up

Though he technically had one more year of eligibility at the super-mini level before he aged out, Harris decided