Well, a friend of mine called me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go and haul his quad. He is in the chase for an A class championship in the Midsouth Winter Harescramble Series and didn't have a way to get there. I have been wanting to get back into racing after my 2 year break to finish college so I said why not.
The weather wasn't exactly the best. It has rained quite a bit in the area and today it was sunny but cold. It was about 30 degrees.
When we arrived at the track we had 2 hours before the race. Plenty of time right? Not when the cannondale won't start. I had been having some issues with it being too rich or lean. I tried to straighten it out to get it started but nothing was working. While trying to get it started I killed the battery so I had to jump it. I finally decided to try a new spark plug. Thanks Brad. I used one from the goodie bag that I got at the Majestic ride. It fired right up. At this point, I had about 40 mintues and I still hadn't signed up or had my gear on. I scrambled to get ready before the start. I hate doing that!
I finally get ready, signed up for the C 21-24 class, and caught back up to schedule. My buddy and I head for the line. We were a little early so we had to stand there in race gear while the wind picked up. There was a 15 minute delay which didn't help the numbness in my fingers and toes. It wasn't going to be a good start.
I kept practicing my starts with the classes ahead of me. When it was finally go time...it just clicked. I drained my battery while trying to prepare for this great start. I was really embarrassed. There I sat on the line holding up the start of the class behind me. I started pushing and tried to bump start it. All of my class was long gone. Finally 2 people came over and helped me get it going. I haven't even started and I was worn out and still numb. Within a few minutes I started getting arm pump because I couldn't hold on with my fingers like I normally do. It was looking bleek already. I decided to just take it easy and just trail ride and see what happened. After the first mile or so a miracle happened. There was a huge bottleneck at the creek crossing. This crossing consisted of steep banks on each side. The drop was about 8 feet down and the climp was about 15 feet up with 3 rutted lines. I looked around for an alternate route and found none. I saw a couple people down the creek flipping back and landing in the water. No way in **** I'm going to do that! I watch a couple people drop down in the creek at another spot. They were cutting off the bottleneck and climbing the hill by coming up the creek. I went for it. The Cannondale just clawed its way to the top. I love this thing.
At this point, I'm still trying to take it easy but I'm feeling the adrenaline come on from that huge pass. I knew I made up a lot of positions there. I settled in at about 70% of my normal race pace, but still fighting the numb fingers and arm pump. I came up on a couple more bottlenecks and since I had plenty of time to scope out the best line while they followed the riders into the mud pit and got stuck. I slipped around about 6 people there! I was on a role. I made a few more passes thinks to good choices on lines through the slop. When I came around to the check point I was in 6th. I was pretty surprised.
I tried to ride a good paced 2nd lap without killing myself. I couldn't hold on at all. I started to stand up a little more and hold on with my legs. It was helping a lot. I was faster through the breaker bumps and jumps because I didn't have to hold on so tight. I was getting really tired. At the creek crossing, I stopped to check out the lines again. It was backed up a little still. A guy walked up and asked if I was Jess. It was a guy from kentuckyriders that I have been trying to meet for a long time. Something always comes up when we try to ride or race together. Anyway, I say hi and all that and talk to him for a minute about the race. His bike was flooded out. So I decide to take off again after resting and talking. I drop down into the creek the same way but the line I took before wasn't looking good. There was a line open but I had to squeeze by a stuck rider. People were cheering me on and yelling GO! I went for it. I had to put my foot down a couple times and heavy clutching to claw to the top. I just barely made it and turned around to see and hear the crowd cheering. Now I'm pumped. I made a few more passes there. So I take off and start riding a little harder. My numbness and arm pump starts to go away, but I was tired. I was making a few mistakes but nothing that killed me. I hit a tree pretty hard so I just backed up and took off again with nobody in sight behind me. Then I came up on some riders. The guy in front hit a stump and flipped. He was holding his leg and limping around so I stopped and asked if he was alright. He gave the thumbs up so I took off again trying to catch the guy that had been between us. I caught and passed him when he chose a bad line through the mud. Then I caught up to a kid on a green yfz. He reminded me of Bubba Stewart (not just because he was on green). He was fast but kept making mistakes. He got jammed up twice in front of me with no where to go. This caused a couple of faster riders to catch up. The kid on the green yfz let me go ahead when he got unstuck. I continued to push a little bit to keep the distance between us. I never passed anyone from this point on. I actually go passed a few times by some pros or A class riders and the kid on the green yfz. Now I'm really tired and struggling to hold on and push myself. I decide that I made a good showing for my first race back and that I'm going to call it quits before I break something, hurt myself, or get stranded in the dark.
Thankfully as I come in to the checkpoint the checkerd flag is out. I get tense as they are scanning me. Then the number 2 shows up! I didn't believe it. I came back from way behind and finished 2nd! I tried not to get too excited just incase there was a mistake. I honestly didn't believe that I got 2nd.
I headed back to the truck and got loaded up and cleaned up. Then we head back to the start for the posting of the results. Sure enough, there was the Cannondale in 2nd place! Woo hoo! Not a bad re-entry to racing after 2 years. I missed 1st place by a little over a minute. I'm pretty excited about this one.
The Cannondale ran strong all day...after it started. I ran the moto/speed map with ts110 (<-big mistake). I forgot out tight the midsouth races were. It was hard to stay in control. I want to say thank you to Wistech for building a strong motor. Thanks to Timbo for the stroker crank. Thanks to ****** for your support. Thanks to Brad at Blackwidow for the bag of goodies that came in really handy in a time of need. And a special thanks to the rest of the members for helping me work out the little bugs I had after the rebuild.
Sorry for the long post. I'm just really excited.
Another good showing!
Good job Jess. I heard the track turned to mush after it thawed out. But a great job, way to stay with it.
Some friends of mine tried to talk me into going, but no way, I rode mine the other day for about 10 minutes and the thing kept dieing, I bet it died atleast 5 times. So I parked it. It ran great at the Ironman. So who knoes.
I think my chain was too lose, someone said that may cause it to die. I'm replacing the front swingarm bearings this weekend and then I'm back to riding. I may start racing again right after Christmas, so look out trees.
Some friends of mine tried to talk me into going, but no way, I rode mine the other day for about 10 minutes and the thing kept dieing, I bet it died atleast 5 times. So I parked it. It ran great at the Ironman. So who knoes.
I think my chain was too lose, someone said that may cause it to die. I'm replacing the front swingarm bearings this weekend and then I'm back to riding. I may start racing again right after Christmas, so look out trees.
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jesshamner
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QUOTE (jesshamner @ Dec 4 2006, 09:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
My gear and boots are frozen solid.
Frozen gear is hilarious! I can just imagine a muddy block of hard pants and jersey! Great story! And Congrat's!!! Good Job! Glad to hear you're putting that thing through it's paces. Hopefully I can follow your lead next year and make a few more races than I did this year.