OMA National Race - The Moose Run

[dalewannbe]

The MOOSE RUN ???????? Race #5 of the OMA National Series

This couse is 10 minutes from my house, so driving there is easy. I got some correspondence from RX440 (Bob) the he would be making the trip with his son XCdale (Tom).

The course is about an 8-9 mile loop with about 25%-30% of it being really deep soft ruts through tall horse weeds. A couple long straight aways across super dusty bean fields, one road crossing to get into another parcel of land that has the mud and water crossings and one tricky fence crossing, and some trails weaving through trees, and a off camber section that wasn????????t much fun either. All in all this is a very tiring course due to the tremendous amounts of whoops that you deal with. They prevent you from being able to ride sitting down. For those that rode ???????The Race??????? you got a sample of the whoops. ???????The Race??????? encompasses about 60% to 70% of the course we rode, except you add in all the whoops and tight bermed out woods trails.

Day of the race.

I had to help get our house cleaned up and ready to show, we????????re trying to sell our house, so I didn????????t get to the race course as early as I had hoped. I get there around 10:30 am. for a noon start, and I met up with Bob and Tom and another rider. We take Bob????????s truck to check out the one water crossing were riders typically get stuck. We look over lines and alternatives lines and decide to plant Bob there to help us out. We head back to the pit and Bob graciously helps me change out my tires to some mud tires. I????????m finally ready and I head out to the starting line.

There were 48 quad racers signed up. 11 pros, 7 or 8 plus 30 riders, 2 A class riders, 10 or 11 B class riders and whatever makes up the rest. I lined up in the second row with the A class riders and 30+ class, behind the Pros. As we lined up I get to checking my plastic and noticed some loose bolts. I head back to my trailer and tighten the bolts and I line up closest to the first corner. After lining up, Commander420 comes up and says ???????Hi???????.
My class looks pretty tough again. The guy next to me is the local pro rider that has dropped down to the 30+ class and beat us at the last race. There????????s a guy from Missouri that has won all the 30+ OMA races. I was hoping to make the middle of the pack off the line, especially considering I was running larger mud tires.

We had a 300 foot straight away then around a flag, and weave around another flag into the dusty straight aways out to the whoops in the horse weeds. The flags drops, the dale fires fairly quickly and I????????m third around the first flag. I????????m running bigger mud tires so I????????m pleased with my start. We head off to the dusty field and it????????s a total brown out. I let off the gas a little and rode pretty conservative until we hit the whoops sections. I figured some crazy fool would try and pass me in the brown out but nobody did. I quickly come up on the 2nd place guy and first place is still in our sights. After the whoops comes some wooded trails, no real good places to pass and I????????m ready to make the pass when the opportunity arrives. The good thing was I didn????????t hear anyone behind me, so I figured we must have separated ourselves from the pack. Out of the first set of woods is a 200 yard smaller whooped out sand section. I make my pass here on the guy in front of me. I cut in front of him right before we enter the next section of whoops. These whoops just go on forever, up, down, jump a couple when possible, up down??????????????.I can see the dust from the guy in front of me but can????????t spot him. There????????s another small whoopy sandy dusty section along a road that we eventually cross and we head into some woods. After this woods is the small water crossing that has tricky banks to climbs. We planted Bob out there to help guide us to which lines to pick. I arrive and see several stuck riders already. Bob????????s pointing me down to option #1. I made it up the bank with no problem. Now there is a Pro on an Outlaw, between me and the first place rider. We hit a small patch of trees and across another corn field. Its dusty and basically a brown out again. After the corn field is more woods. I get hung up on a slight uphill which has a log across it. Its pretty rutted in front of the log. I hear quads coming up the rear, but get going before anyone catches me. (I think this is the log 27 was referring too at The Race). I catch back up the Outlaw and the leader. I????????m following them and then noticed they went straight when the arrow pointed right. I followed the arrow and soon meet a huge standing mud puddle about 30 to 40 feet wide and about a foot deep. I plow through it and still no signs of the other two riders that were in front of me. On to more tight twisty trails and then another small mud crossing, more tight trees, then it opens up along a fence row, take a left to a 200 yard shot across this pasture to another deeper mud hole with much higher banks to climb. I make it through no problem. On the gas for about a 100 yards then a left around a fence corner to another 100-200 yards to a metal ramp crossing the fence, to a 50 yard straight away into the off camber woods trails. Its up and down around trees on this road bank, all of it is off camber. There????????s probably 300-400 yards of this stuff then a right to take you up and over the road along the small sandy whoops to head back into some woods and into more of the deep soft whoops and more flat wooded trails that contained standing water. Finally acoss another dusty field, across and iron I beam bridge, and left, and right around to the check point. Then over a telephone pole and a couple turns down to pit row and onto the motocross track for a few berms and one jump, then back to the long dusty straight aways to lap two.

After the first lap riders settled into their positions so the dusty, brown out conditions got better???????..unless you were on someone????????s tail. I battled a pro rider on laps 2 and 3 for a while before losing him. I was fortunate enough after the first lap to not have to deal with too much dust. The dale ran flawlessly. No spitting or sputtering going through the mud. It started whenever I would kill it. The mud tires worked great in the mud and water crossing. My only damage that I????????m aware of after the race, is a blown rear shock.

I had a great race. I finished first in my class, (4 minutes ahead of 2nd) and sixth overall. Granted several of the pro riders didn????????t finish, but it was still a great run.


heading to the first water crossing


coming out of the water

what you do after you break your chain.

another


near the check point

heading for home