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2 for 1 RR - Let the Games Begin (long)
2 for 1 RR - Let the Games Begin (long)
Springtime has finally arrived in the great Northwest, and with it,
the beginning of our racing season. The weekend before last was the
season opening Sparkplug Enduro, and we were there (of course).
The past few years those of us that enjoy a tough, tight enduro have
been treated to a wonderful rivalry between the clubs that put on the
first and last enduros of the season, which are held in the same area.
The 2 clubs have been one-upping each other for the past 3 years,
trying to outdo each other with course layout, new trail mileage, and
overall toughness factor. Great for us, hard on the club members
pressed into service to build all of those new trails. God Bless 'em.
The plan for this season was to pretty much turn Scott loose on his
own. He's been running his own timekeeping equipment for the past 2
seasons, but I've pretty much always been on his butt to keep track of
him. We decided this year that if he started to drop off time and I
was being held up that I'd go and let him work it out on his own. It
sounded like a good plan to progress his skills, but I think I may
have waited a bit too long to take advantage of that part about me
going ahead if he's holding me up, because Scott has pretty much
caught up to me in speed, though I might still have a very slight edge
in the really nasty stuff. For now. It will NOT last out this year
though, he's gaining speed faster than I'm getting it back. As it is,
I don't think I'd be covering any bets on a race between us.
Unfortunately, our whole family has been fighting some annoying viral
thing for the past 3 or 4 weeks that has had us feeling crappy and low
on energy. Prepping for this race I was wondering how I was going to
hold up, but there's only one way to find out.
Scott and I drew minute 8, which was about perfect: just enough riders
in front of us to make the turns clear and splash out the smaller
puddles, not enough to bottleneck. We'd had a week of nice, dry
weather before the race, allowing the standing puddles to soak in and
making for perfect conditions, then it rained Saturday before the
race. Not too much, but enough to refill some of the puddles. No
worries, though.
They started us off fast and tight. There was a gas stop at 31.8
miles, a gas available at around 60 miles, with the long course finish
at around 83 miles. Scott led from the start, stayed right on our
minute except for a few spots where we dropped back a minute or 2,
then worked our way back on time. He was riding possibles really well,
though he scared me a little at the first few, I quickly realized he
was paying close attention and doing well. We zeroed the first 3
checks, but it wasn't easy. The trail was tight, skinny, and twisted
up and down every elevation change in the Tahuya Multiple Use Area
(AKA "Belfair"). I couldn't help but think of the poor bastards in the
short course classes that were going to have to ride this stuff a
little later, and knew it was going to kick some butts.
All through those first 25 miles, I was fighting concentration
problems, making a lot of small mistakes but hanging in there. Scott
was setting a pace that was everything I could handle at the time.
After the 3rd check at about 25 miles, I started to deteriorate
rapidly. My energy was drained, I was feeling really spacey and just
couldn't stay focused on the trail. I barely saved a bunch of spodely
crashes from wandering all over the trail, lost the front end over a
berm and fell good once, then, in the defining moment of my day, I
rode right into a freakin' tree while telling myself over and over
"Don't hit that tree, don't hit that tree, don't...DAMN!". I felt like
George of the Jungle. Tore a radiator shroud off, too. At about that
point, I realized that this was NOT a day that I should be trying to
race a tough, nasty course with high speed averages, and that I was
going to hurt myself if I tried to push through 50 more miles of this
stuff. Consequently, for thie first time in my life, I quit. I rolled
into gas a couple of minutes behind Scott, who had already gassed up
and changed goggles and was ready to go with time to spare. I
announced my intentions, helped Scott leave on time, then parked the
bike, took a shower and hung out for the rest of the day. I have
gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there. Anyway,
when Scott came thruogh the gas available he was looking pretty tired
and had picked up some time on a couple of longer sections, but gassed
and went. The last loop was a section we know well, and it's a long,
fast section of single track winding through a patchwork of clearcuts
and woods. I've heard some of the local dual-sporters refer to this
area as Belfair's "Secret Trails", because most users in the area
never even know they're there. That's fine with us, it gives us about
30 miles of sweet single track that is untainted by kwads. Knowing
this was the grand finale of the course was one of the reasons I
bailed. Scott hit the wall in this section and piled on points at a
couple of checks, but he finished. He wound up in second place in the
200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
only finishers in the 200B class. I'm proud of them both for
finishing, I know the first 30 miles were tough, and they tell me the
next 30 were even tougher, and the last 25 were typically too fast for
any kind of energy conservation. There were a lot of DNFs and people
houring out, and since Scott has had the same crap that kicked my @$$,
I was proud of him for soldiering through to the finish. It's going to
be a fun season.
The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race. He
had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
Scott's speed and aggression, the other is that Scott has a friend at
School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
squad because it took too much time away from her riding. She was
racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
to go just to watch. Since we were expected to have the nicest weather
we've seen in 6 months and Scott was willing to NOT ride, we knew it
was important to him. Friday afternoon I got a call from Theresa (I
was working second shift last week) about it, and we decided to cut
the boy some slack and send him to the races. We had friends that were
going to be there with their motorhome, so Theresa called Ray and
asked if they'd put Scott up for the night so he could be there in the
morning, and I could drive out after a way-too-short nights sleep
after getting home at 1:00AM. Scott was amped, threw his bike and gear
together and Theresa drove him out to the track. Ray was so pumped to
have Scott come out that he insisted on buying Scott's AMA membership
for us. Thanks a lot Ray!
Saturday morning I drove out before practice. The track was muddy,
VERY muddy, and they delayed the program an hour and a half while they
bulldozed mud off the track. It was better, but still really soft and
slick.
Practice went fine, and in a little while we went to the line for the
first moto. Apparently, a 4x4 club that also uses the track area for
dirt drags amd the occasional mud bog had decided that they didn't
like the perfectly fine cement start pad that was already there, so
they made a new one perpendicular to the old one and moved the gate to
the new slab. Unfortunately, the idiots poured the slab so narrow the
everyone's back tires were hanging right on the back edge of the slab
by the time they were far enough back for the gate to clear their
front wheel. Consequently, Scott was one of many, many riders that day
that got stuck in the gate, so he started his first real moto way in
the back, hitting the first turn 15th out of 19 riders. He rode smart
and conservative, didn't crash at all, and worked his way up to 12th
by the end of the pitifully short moto. He was bummed about the start,
but had fun and was happy. We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
thing for about 1 year). Moto 2 for Scott came around, we built up a
pile of mud and rocks behind his spot on the pad so he could pull back
a little more without falling off the pad, and he was rewarded with a
solid 4th place start against a gate full of 250F's.He faded back to
10th by the end of the race, once again staying on 2 wheels the entire
time and keeping out of trouble. He finished 10th overall for the day,
had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up). It was fun
for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
oader that I am today). We're still planning to hit practice days when
we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
of forcing him up to the 450s.
It's going to be a full year, I think.
Tim H
Springtime has finally arrived in the great Northwest, and with it,
the beginning of our racing season. The weekend before last was the
season opening Sparkplug Enduro, and we were there (of course).
The past few years those of us that enjoy a tough, tight enduro have
been treated to a wonderful rivalry between the clubs that put on the
first and last enduros of the season, which are held in the same area.
The 2 clubs have been one-upping each other for the past 3 years,
trying to outdo each other with course layout, new trail mileage, and
overall toughness factor. Great for us, hard on the club members
pressed into service to build all of those new trails. God Bless 'em.
The plan for this season was to pretty much turn Scott loose on his
own. He's been running his own timekeeping equipment for the past 2
seasons, but I've pretty much always been on his butt to keep track of
him. We decided this year that if he started to drop off time and I
was being held up that I'd go and let him work it out on his own. It
sounded like a good plan to progress his skills, but I think I may
have waited a bit too long to take advantage of that part about me
going ahead if he's holding me up, because Scott has pretty much
caught up to me in speed, though I might still have a very slight edge
in the really nasty stuff. For now. It will NOT last out this year
though, he's gaining speed faster than I'm getting it back. As it is,
I don't think I'd be covering any bets on a race between us.
Unfortunately, our whole family has been fighting some annoying viral
thing for the past 3 or 4 weeks that has had us feeling crappy and low
on energy. Prepping for this race I was wondering how I was going to
hold up, but there's only one way to find out.
Scott and I drew minute 8, which was about perfect: just enough riders
in front of us to make the turns clear and splash out the smaller
puddles, not enough to bottleneck. We'd had a week of nice, dry
weather before the race, allowing the standing puddles to soak in and
making for perfect conditions, then it rained Saturday before the
race. Not too much, but enough to refill some of the puddles. No
worries, though.
They started us off fast and tight. There was a gas stop at 31.8
miles, a gas available at around 60 miles, with the long course finish
at around 83 miles. Scott led from the start, stayed right on our
minute except for a few spots where we dropped back a minute or 2,
then worked our way back on time. He was riding possibles really well,
though he scared me a little at the first few, I quickly realized he
was paying close attention and doing well. We zeroed the first 3
checks, but it wasn't easy. The trail was tight, skinny, and twisted
up and down every elevation change in the Tahuya Multiple Use Area
(AKA "Belfair"). I couldn't help but think of the poor bastards in the
short course classes that were going to have to ride this stuff a
little later, and knew it was going to kick some butts.
All through those first 25 miles, I was fighting concentration
problems, making a lot of small mistakes but hanging in there. Scott
was setting a pace that was everything I could handle at the time.
After the 3rd check at about 25 miles, I started to deteriorate
rapidly. My energy was drained, I was feeling really spacey and just
couldn't stay focused on the trail. I barely saved a bunch of spodely
crashes from wandering all over the trail, lost the front end over a
berm and fell good once, then, in the defining moment of my day, I
rode right into a freakin' tree while telling myself over and over
"Don't hit that tree, don't hit that tree, don't...DAMN!". I felt like
George of the Jungle. Tore a radiator shroud off, too. At about that
point, I realized that this was NOT a day that I should be trying to
race a tough, nasty course with high speed averages, and that I was
going to hurt myself if I tried to push through 50 more miles of this
stuff. Consequently, for thie first time in my life, I quit. I rolled
into gas a couple of minutes behind Scott, who had already gassed up
and changed goggles and was ready to go with time to spare. I
announced my intentions, helped Scott leave on time, then parked the
bike, took a shower and hung out for the rest of the day. I have
gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there. Anyway,
when Scott came thruogh the gas available he was looking pretty tired
and had picked up some time on a couple of longer sections, but gassed
and went. The last loop was a section we know well, and it's a long,
fast section of single track winding through a patchwork of clearcuts
and woods. I've heard some of the local dual-sporters refer to this
area as Belfair's "Secret Trails", because most users in the area
never even know they're there. That's fine with us, it gives us about
30 miles of sweet single track that is untainted by kwads. Knowing
this was the grand finale of the course was one of the reasons I
bailed. Scott hit the wall in this section and piled on points at a
couple of checks, but he finished. He wound up in second place in the
200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
only finishers in the 200B class. I'm proud of them both for
finishing, I know the first 30 miles were tough, and they tell me the
next 30 were even tougher, and the last 25 were typically too fast for
any kind of energy conservation. There were a lot of DNFs and people
houring out, and since Scott has had the same crap that kicked my @$$,
I was proud of him for soldiering through to the finish. It's going to
be a fun season.
The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race. He
had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
Scott's speed and aggression, the other is that Scott has a friend at
School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
squad because it took too much time away from her riding. She was
racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
to go just to watch. Since we were expected to have the nicest weather
we've seen in 6 months and Scott was willing to NOT ride, we knew it
was important to him. Friday afternoon I got a call from Theresa (I
was working second shift last week) about it, and we decided to cut
the boy some slack and send him to the races. We had friends that were
going to be there with their motorhome, so Theresa called Ray and
asked if they'd put Scott up for the night so he could be there in the
morning, and I could drive out after a way-too-short nights sleep
after getting home at 1:00AM. Scott was amped, threw his bike and gear
together and Theresa drove him out to the track. Ray was so pumped to
have Scott come out that he insisted on buying Scott's AMA membership
for us. Thanks a lot Ray!
Saturday morning I drove out before practice. The track was muddy,
VERY muddy, and they delayed the program an hour and a half while they
bulldozed mud off the track. It was better, but still really soft and
slick.
Practice went fine, and in a little while we went to the line for the
first moto. Apparently, a 4x4 club that also uses the track area for
dirt drags amd the occasional mud bog had decided that they didn't
like the perfectly fine cement start pad that was already there, so
they made a new one perpendicular to the old one and moved the gate to
the new slab. Unfortunately, the idiots poured the slab so narrow the
everyone's back tires were hanging right on the back edge of the slab
by the time they were far enough back for the gate to clear their
front wheel. Consequently, Scott was one of many, many riders that day
that got stuck in the gate, so he started his first real moto way in
the back, hitting the first turn 15th out of 19 riders. He rode smart
and conservative, didn't crash at all, and worked his way up to 12th
by the end of the pitifully short moto. He was bummed about the start,
but had fun and was happy. We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
thing for about 1 year). Moto 2 for Scott came around, we built up a
pile of mud and rocks behind his spot on the pad so he could pull back
a little more without falling off the pad, and he was rewarded with a
solid 4th place start against a gate full of 250F's.He faded back to
10th by the end of the race, once again staying on 2 wheels the entire
time and keeping out of trouble. He finished 10th overall for the day,
had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up). It was fun
for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
oader that I am today). We're still planning to hit practice days when
we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
of forcing him up to the 450s.
It's going to be a full year, I think.
Tim H
Re: 2 for 1 RR - Let the Games Begin (long)
In article
<d6a2ad4b-6496-4be1-871d-95cd0d1a01af@l28g2000prd.googlegroups,com >,
Tim H <tntharrell@msn,com > wrote:
> It's going to be a full year, I think.
Yee-hah!
Thanks for the report, a goodun.
--
Charles
'99 YZ250
In article
<d6a2ad4b-6496-4be1-871d-95cd0d1a01af@l28g2000prd.googlegroups,com >,
Tim H <tntharrell@msn,com > wrote:
> It's going to be a full year, I think.
Yee-hah!
Thanks for the report, a goodun.
--
Charles
'99 YZ250
Re: 2 for 1 RR - Let the Games Begin (long)
On Apr 15, 9:37 am, Tim H <tntharr...@msn,com > wrote a really cool
ride report and I snipped the hell out of it:
> I have
> gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
> others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
> and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there.
I feel your pain. It's also a drag when you want to be out there doing
it, too.
I was an absolute wreck before the green flag dropped when Eric was
roadracing. I kept a close eye on him and was always urging him to go
faster, but when he wouldn't show up on the front straight within the
allotted time, I would almost puke. I really really miss it, but I
don't miss that part of it.
> He wound up in second place in the
> 200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
> from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
> riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
> only finishers in the 200B class.
That's too damned cool! Congrats all the way around!
.
> The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race.
Uh-oh...Didn't disaster strike the last time Scott was on a MX track?
> He
> had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
> we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
> Scott's speed and aggression,
I discovered this little tidbit when I was trying to get in shape for
the 4-hour GP we did. It did help me pick up some of my long-lost
speed, and there was no getting around picking up some aggression,
since I was doing it on a 125. In fact, I'm about ready to start
hitting the tracks myself in preparation for a big ride we've got
coming up in the end of June. I am woefully out of riding shape.
> the other is that Scott has a friend at
> School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
> 4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
> squad because it took too much time away from her riding.
Oh!! Well, no wonder! Good for him!!
> She was
> racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
> Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
> to go just to watch.
I'm sure he was <G>
> We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
> good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
> thing for about 1 year).
How did she do?
> He finished 10th overall for the day,
Not bad!!
> had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
> with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
> she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
> indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up).
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Eric read that sentence and said
"Oh, no..."
> It was fun
> for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
> years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
> before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
> oader that I am today).
3 cheers for Joe Dowd!
> We're still planning to hit practice days when
> we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
> also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
> you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
> for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
> of forcing him up to the 450s.
Well, I suspect you don't see too many KTM 200's lining up at the
local MX tracks.
> It's going to be a full year, I think.
It sounds like it!
Thanks for the excellent ride report, Tim. Wish Scott good luck for
me, will ya?
>
> Tim H
Tami-
On Apr 15, 9:37 am, Tim H <tntharr...@msn,com > wrote a really cool
ride report and I snipped the hell out of it:
> I have
> gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
> others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
> and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there.
I feel your pain. It's also a drag when you want to be out there doing
it, too.
I was an absolute wreck before the green flag dropped when Eric was
roadracing. I kept a close eye on him and was always urging him to go
faster, but when he wouldn't show up on the front straight within the
allotted time, I would almost puke. I really really miss it, but I
don't miss that part of it.
> He wound up in second place in the
> 200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
> from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
> riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
> only finishers in the 200B class.
That's too damned cool! Congrats all the way around!
.
> The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race.
Uh-oh...Didn't disaster strike the last time Scott was on a MX track?
> He
> had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
> we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
> Scott's speed and aggression,
I discovered this little tidbit when I was trying to get in shape for
the 4-hour GP we did. It did help me pick up some of my long-lost
speed, and there was no getting around picking up some aggression,
since I was doing it on a 125. In fact, I'm about ready to start
hitting the tracks myself in preparation for a big ride we've got
coming up in the end of June. I am woefully out of riding shape.
> the other is that Scott has a friend at
> School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
> 4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
> squad because it took too much time away from her riding.
Oh!! Well, no wonder! Good for him!!
> She was
> racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
> Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
> to go just to watch.
I'm sure he was <G>
> We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
> good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
> thing for about 1 year).
How did she do?
> He finished 10th overall for the day,
Not bad!!
> had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
> with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
> she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
> indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up).
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Eric read that sentence and said
"Oh, no..."
> It was fun
> for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
> years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
> before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
> oader that I am today).
3 cheers for Joe Dowd!
> We're still planning to hit practice days when
> we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
> also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
> you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
> for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
> of forcing him up to the 450s.
Well, I suspect you don't see too many KTM 200's lining up at the
local MX tracks.
> It's going to be a full year, I think.
It sounds like it!
Thanks for the excellent ride report, Tim. Wish Scott good luck for
me, will ya?
>
> Tim H
Tami-
Re: 2 for 1 RR - Let the Games Begin (long)
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
>On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:37:34 -0700 (PDT), Tim H <tntharrell@msn,com > wrote:
>Springtime has finally arrived in the great Northwest, and with it,
>the beginning of our racing season. The weekend before last was the
>season opening Sparkplug Enduro, and we were there (of course).
>The past few years those of us that enjoy a tough, tight enduro have
>been treated to a wonderful rivalry between the clubs that put on the
>first and last enduros of the season, which are held in the same area.
>The 2 clubs have been one-upping each other for the past 3 years,
>trying to outdo each other with course layout, new trail mileage, and
>overall toughness factor. Great for us, hard on the club members
>pressed into service to build all of those new trails. God Bless 'em.
>The plan for this season was to pretty much turn Scott loose on his
>own. He's been running his own timekeeping equipment for the past 2
>seasons, but I've pretty much always been on his butt to keep track of
>him. We decided this year that if he started to drop off time and I
>was being held up that I'd go and let him work it out on his own. It
>sounded like a good plan to progress his skills, but I think I may
>have waited a bit too long to take advantage of that part about me
>going ahead if he's holding me up, because Scott has pretty much
>caught up to me in speed, though I might still have a very slight edge
>in the really nasty stuff. For now. It will NOT last out this year
>though, he's gaining speed faster than I'm getting it back. As it is,
>I don't think I'd be covering any bets on a race between us.
>Unfortunately, our whole family has been fighting some annoying viral
>thing for the past 3 or 4 weeks that has had us feeling crappy and low
>on energy. Prepping for this race I was wondering how I was going to
>hold up, but there's only one way to find out.
>Scott and I drew minute 8, which was about perfect: just enough riders
>in front of us to make the turns clear and splash out the smaller
>puddles, not enough to bottleneck. We'd had a week of nice, dry
>weather before the race, allowing the standing puddles to soak in and
>making for perfect conditions, then it rained Saturday before the
>race. Not too much, but enough to refill some of the puddles. No
>worries, though.
>They started us off fast and tight. There was a gas stop at 31.8
>miles, a gas available at around 60 miles, with the long course finish
>at around 83 miles. Scott led from the start, stayed right on our
>minute except for a few spots where we dropped back a minute or 2,
>then worked our way back on time. He was riding possibles really well,
>though he scared me a little at the first few, I quickly realized he
>was paying close attention and doing well. We zeroed the first 3
>checks, but it wasn't easy. The trail was tight, skinny, and twisted
>up and down every elevation change in the Tahuya Multiple Use Area
>(AKA "Belfair"). I couldn't help but think of the poor bastards in the
>short course classes that were going to have to ride this stuff a
>little later, and knew it was going to kick some butts.
>All through those first 25 miles, I was fighting concentration
>problems, making a lot of small mistakes but hanging in there. Scott
>was setting a pace that was everything I could handle at the time.
>After the 3rd check at about 25 miles, I started to deteriorate
>rapidly. My energy was drained, I was feeling really spacey and just
>couldn't stay focused on the trail. I barely saved a bunch of spodely
>crashes from wandering all over the trail, lost the front end over a
>berm and fell good once, then, in the defining moment of my day, I
>rode right into a freakin' tree while telling myself over and over
>"Don't hit that tree, don't hit that tree, don't...DAMN!". I felt like
>George of the Jungle. Tore a radiator shroud off, too. At about that
>point, I realized that this was NOT a day that I should be trying to
>race a tough, nasty course with high speed averages, and that I was
>going to hurt myself if I tried to push through 50 more miles of this
>stuff. Consequently, for thie first time in my life, I quit. I rolled
>into gas a couple of minutes behind Scott, who had already gassed up
>and changed goggles and was ready to go with time to spare. I
>announced my intentions, helped Scott leave on time, then parked the
>bike, took a shower and hung out for the rest of the day. I have
>gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
>others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
>and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there. Anyway,
>when Scott came thruogh the gas available he was looking pretty tired
>and had picked up some time on a couple of longer sections, but gassed
>and went. The last loop was a section we know well, and it's a long,
>fast section of single track winding through a patchwork of clearcuts
>and woods. I've heard some of the local dual-sporters refer to this
>area as Belfair's "Secret Trails", because most users in the area
>never even know they're there. That's fine with us, it gives us about
>30 miles of sweet single track that is untainted by kwads. Knowing
>this was the grand finale of the course was one of the reasons I
>bailed. Scott hit the wall in this section and piled on points at a
>couple of checks, but he finished. He wound up in second place in the
>200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
>from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
>riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
>only finishers in the 200B class. I'm proud of them both for
>finishing, I know the first 30 miles were tough, and they tell me the
>next 30 were even tougher, and the last 25 were typically too fast for
>any kind of energy conservation. There were a lot of DNFs and people
>houring out, and since Scott has had the same crap that kicked my @$$,
>I was proud of him for soldiering through to the finish. It's going to
>be a fun season.
>The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race. He
>had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
>we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
>Scott's speed and aggression, the other is that Scott has a friend at
>School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
>4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
>squad because it took too much time away from her riding. She was
>racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
>Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
>to go just to watch. Since we were expected to have the nicest weather
>we've seen in 6 months and Scott was willing to NOT ride, we knew it
>was important to him. Friday afternoon I got a call from Theresa (I
>was working second shift last week) about it, and we decided to cut
>the boy some slack and send him to the races. We had friends that were
>going to be there with their motorhome, so Theresa called Ray and
>asked if they'd put Scott up for the night so he could be there in the
>morning, and I could drive out after a way-too-short nights sleep
>after getting home at 1:00AM. Scott was amped, threw his bike and gear
>together and Theresa drove him out to the track. Ray was so pumped to
>have Scott come out that he insisted on buying Scott's AMA membership
>for us. Thanks a lot Ray!
>Saturday morning I drove out before practice. The track was muddy,
>VERY muddy, and they delayed the program an hour and a half while they
>bulldozed mud off the track. It was better, but still really soft and
>slick.
>Practice went fine, and in a little while we went to the line for the
>first moto. Apparently, a 4x4 club that also uses the track area for
>dirt drags amd the occasional mud bog had decided that they didn't
>like the perfectly fine cement start pad that was already there, so
>they made a new one perpendicular to the old one and moved the gate to
>the new slab. Unfortunately, the idiots poured the slab so narrow the
>everyone's back tires were hanging right on the back edge of the slab
>by the time they were far enough back for the gate to clear their
>front wheel. Consequently, Scott was one of many, many riders that day
>that got stuck in the gate, so he started his first real moto way in
>the back, hitting the first turn 15th out of 19 riders. He rode smart
>and conservative, didn't crash at all, and worked his way up to 12th
>by the end of the pitifully short moto. He was bummed about the start,
>but had fun and was happy. We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
>good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
>thing for about 1 year). Moto 2 for Scott came around, we built up a
>pile of mud and rocks behind his spot on the pad so he could pull back
>a little more without falling off the pad, and he was rewarded with a
>solid 4th place start against a gate full of 250F's.He faded back to
>10th by the end of the race, once again staying on 2 wheels the entire
>time and keeping out of trouble. He finished 10th overall for the day,
>had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
>with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
>she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
>indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up). It was fun
>for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
>years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
>before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
>oader that I am today). We're still planning to hit practice days when
>we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
>also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
>you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
>for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
>of forcing him up to the 450s.
>It's going to be a full year, I think.
>
>Tim H
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Thanks for the ride report, Tim. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tell everyone I said Hi. Tell Scott that I said "Congratulations!",
both for his finishes and the cute girlfriend who rides. WTG!
Wudsracer/Jim Cook
Smackover Racing
'06 Gas Gas DE300
'82 Husqvarna XC250
Team LAGNAF
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
>On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:37:34 -0700 (PDT), Tim H <tntharrell@msn,com > wrote:
>Springtime has finally arrived in the great Northwest, and with it,
>the beginning of our racing season. The weekend before last was the
>season opening Sparkplug Enduro, and we were there (of course).
>The past few years those of us that enjoy a tough, tight enduro have
>been treated to a wonderful rivalry between the clubs that put on the
>first and last enduros of the season, which are held in the same area.
>The 2 clubs have been one-upping each other for the past 3 years,
>trying to outdo each other with course layout, new trail mileage, and
>overall toughness factor. Great for us, hard on the club members
>pressed into service to build all of those new trails. God Bless 'em.
>The plan for this season was to pretty much turn Scott loose on his
>own. He's been running his own timekeeping equipment for the past 2
>seasons, but I've pretty much always been on his butt to keep track of
>him. We decided this year that if he started to drop off time and I
>was being held up that I'd go and let him work it out on his own. It
>sounded like a good plan to progress his skills, but I think I may
>have waited a bit too long to take advantage of that part about me
>going ahead if he's holding me up, because Scott has pretty much
>caught up to me in speed, though I might still have a very slight edge
>in the really nasty stuff. For now. It will NOT last out this year
>though, he's gaining speed faster than I'm getting it back. As it is,
>I don't think I'd be covering any bets on a race between us.
>Unfortunately, our whole family has been fighting some annoying viral
>thing for the past 3 or 4 weeks that has had us feeling crappy and low
>on energy. Prepping for this race I was wondering how I was going to
>hold up, but there's only one way to find out.
>Scott and I drew minute 8, which was about perfect: just enough riders
>in front of us to make the turns clear and splash out the smaller
>puddles, not enough to bottleneck. We'd had a week of nice, dry
>weather before the race, allowing the standing puddles to soak in and
>making for perfect conditions, then it rained Saturday before the
>race. Not too much, but enough to refill some of the puddles. No
>worries, though.
>They started us off fast and tight. There was a gas stop at 31.8
>miles, a gas available at around 60 miles, with the long course finish
>at around 83 miles. Scott led from the start, stayed right on our
>minute except for a few spots where we dropped back a minute or 2,
>then worked our way back on time. He was riding possibles really well,
>though he scared me a little at the first few, I quickly realized he
>was paying close attention and doing well. We zeroed the first 3
>checks, but it wasn't easy. The trail was tight, skinny, and twisted
>up and down every elevation change in the Tahuya Multiple Use Area
>(AKA "Belfair"). I couldn't help but think of the poor bastards in the
>short course classes that were going to have to ride this stuff a
>little later, and knew it was going to kick some butts.
>All through those first 25 miles, I was fighting concentration
>problems, making a lot of small mistakes but hanging in there. Scott
>was setting a pace that was everything I could handle at the time.
>After the 3rd check at about 25 miles, I started to deteriorate
>rapidly. My energy was drained, I was feeling really spacey and just
>couldn't stay focused on the trail. I barely saved a bunch of spodely
>crashes from wandering all over the trail, lost the front end over a
>berm and fell good once, then, in the defining moment of my day, I
>rode right into a freakin' tree while telling myself over and over
>"Don't hit that tree, don't hit that tree, don't...DAMN!". I felt like
>George of the Jungle. Tore a radiator shroud off, too. At about that
>point, I realized that this was NOT a day that I should be trying to
>race a tough, nasty course with high speed averages, and that I was
>going to hurt myself if I tried to push through 50 more miles of this
>stuff. Consequently, for thie first time in my life, I quit. I rolled
>into gas a couple of minutes behind Scott, who had already gassed up
>and changed goggles and was ready to go with time to spare. I
>announced my intentions, helped Scott leave on time, then parked the
>bike, took a shower and hung out for the rest of the day. I have
>gained a new respect for Theresa and the other Mom's and/or sigificant
>others that wait in in the pits all day. I've never done that before,
>and it's tough when there's someone you care about out there. Anyway,
>when Scott came thruogh the gas available he was looking pretty tired
>and had picked up some time on a couple of longer sections, but gassed
>and went. The last loop was a section we know well, and it's a long,
>fast section of single track winding through a patchwork of clearcuts
>and woods. I've heard some of the local dual-sporters refer to this
>area as Belfair's "Secret Trails", because most users in the area
>never even know they're there. That's fine with us, it gives us about
>30 miles of sweet single track that is untainted by kwads. Knowing
>this was the grand finale of the course was one of the reasons I
>bailed. Scott hit the wall in this section and piled on points at a
>couple of checks, but he finished. He wound up in second place in the
>200B class, which was won by Scott's good friend and his main rival
>from his first year in the 15 and Under class, Ty Mount, who was
>riding his first long course race. These two 15 year olds were the
>only finishers in the 200B class. I'm proud of them both for
>finishing, I know the first 30 miles were tough, and they tell me the
>next 30 were even tougher, and the last 25 were typically too fast for
>any kind of energy conservation. There were a lot of DNFs and people
>houring out, and since Scott has had the same crap that kicked my @$$,
>I was proud of him for soldiering through to the finish. It's going to
>be a fun season.
>The next weekend Scott was badgering us to go to a local MX race. He
>had a couple of good reasons, one of which is that we've decided that
>we're going to start hitting practice days at the tracks to work on
>Scott's speed and aggression, the other is that Scott has a friend at
>School that he really wanted to hook up with at the races. She's
>4'10", cute as hell, and this year she quit the school's cheerleading
>squad because it took too much time away from her riding. She was
>racing her CRF150R in the Womens Junior and the Supermini classes.
>Scott had never seen her ride before, and stated that he was willing
>to go just to watch. Since we were expected to have the nicest weather
>we've seen in 6 months and Scott was willing to NOT ride, we knew it
>was important to him. Friday afternoon I got a call from Theresa (I
>was working second shift last week) about it, and we decided to cut
>the boy some slack and send him to the races. We had friends that were
>going to be there with their motorhome, so Theresa called Ray and
>asked if they'd put Scott up for the night so he could be there in the
>morning, and I could drive out after a way-too-short nights sleep
>after getting home at 1:00AM. Scott was amped, threw his bike and gear
>together and Theresa drove him out to the track. Ray was so pumped to
>have Scott come out that he insisted on buying Scott's AMA membership
>for us. Thanks a lot Ray!
>Saturday morning I drove out before practice. The track was muddy,
>VERY muddy, and they delayed the program an hour and a half while they
>bulldozed mud off the track. It was better, but still really soft and
>slick.
>Practice went fine, and in a little while we went to the line for the
>first moto. Apparently, a 4x4 club that also uses the track area for
>dirt drags amd the occasional mud bog had decided that they didn't
>like the perfectly fine cement start pad that was already there, so
>they made a new one perpendicular to the old one and moved the gate to
>the new slab. Unfortunately, the idiots poured the slab so narrow the
>everyone's back tires were hanging right on the back edge of the slab
>by the time they were far enough back for the gate to clear their
>front wheel. Consequently, Scott was one of many, many riders that day
>that got stuck in the gate, so he started his first real moto way in
>the back, hitting the first turn 15th out of 19 riders. He rode smart
>and conservative, didn't crash at all, and worked his way up to 12th
>by the end of the pitifully short moto. He was bummed about the start,
>but had fun and was happy. We watched Amber's races (she's pretty
>good, and I was surprised to hear that she's just been doing the MX
>thing for about 1 year). Moto 2 for Scott came around, we built up a
>pile of mud and rocks behind his spot on the pad so he could pull back
>a little more without falling off the pad, and he was rewarded with a
>solid 4th place start against a gate full of 250F's.He faded back to
>10th by the end of the race, once again staying on 2 wheels the entire
>time and keeping out of trouble. He finished 10th overall for the day,
>had fun, didn't break or hurt anything, and spent some quality time
>with a young lady he's pretty interested in (and understandably so,
>she's really , really cute and a cool chick, who shows every
>indication of becoming almost Tami-like as she grows up). It was fun
>for me too, even not riding. I haven't been to a local MX race in 18
>years, and it was nice to return to my dirt roots (this is what I did
>before I came to the Northwest and Joe Dowd turned me into the off
>oader that I am today). We're still planning to hit practice days when
>we can, but I suspect that we'll be running a race or 2 along the way
>also. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to say "Thank
>you" to the AMA for pulling their heads out and redefining the classes
>for amateur racing so that Scott's 200 can run with the 250F's instead
>of forcing him up to the 450s.
>It's going to be a full year, I think.
>
>Tim H
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Thanks for the ride report, Tim. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tell everyone I said Hi. Tell Scott that I said "Congratulations!",
both for his finishes and the cute girlfriend who rides. WTG!
Wudsracer/Jim Cook
Smackover Racing
'06 Gas Gas DE300
'82 Husqvarna XC250
Team LAGNAF
