This was a national harescramble event for the bikes, and they offered the usual D-16 quad classes to fill up the schedule. The weather was perfect, mid 50s and sunny, light breeze. Only 3 of us showed up for the +40 class, but both of the other guys have won events during the year, so I figured there was good competition. A dead-engine start was used as usual, with the classes starting a minute apart.
When the start signal was given, my quad started, then died. Re-fired about 10 seconds later, which seemed like forever! Last off the line again! I was able to catch the guy in second place and pass him on a double that he rolled and I launched. I had raced a mx event at this track a few years ago and I knew or at least hoped this jump was still just a small double....it was, and I passed easily. It didn't take long to catch the first place guy. I followed him in some incredibly tight woods. I've never ridden in stuff like this before. You had to be creative to get through the trees. You couldn't just follow the path the bikes had taken earlier in the day. I didn't mind following at that point, I'm nervous about leading and trying to figure out where to go. Well, not long into the first lap, the guy in front of me wedged himself between two trees, so I drove around and off I went. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I tried to take my time and find the easiest way through. That section was the tightest. Lots of clutching, lots of bark missing from trees. The other woods sections were a little more open, still first gear speeds though. I'd say it was probably 3/4 woods, and 1/4 open areas. The open areas weren't all that open either. I was a little concerned about my fan running constantly and the low engine speeds, but the battery held up fine. I killed it several times in the woods, and oddly enough it fired right up everytime. Maybe I need to get it more heated up at the starting line or something, I really need to get that figured out.
But anyway, during the race it was pretty uneventful except for hitting a tree pretty good with the front tire, getting hung up on a log and having to push it off and getting my pants half pulled off from the rear tire spinning, but nothing serious. There were tons of rocks, stumps, and of course trees to really make this a challenge. The only thing missing was mud. Its been really dry up there. Dust wasn't a factor because the course was pretty long and nobody was in front of me most of the time except when lappers were there momentarily.
At the end unofficially from my wristwatch, I won the class by about a minute. The second place guy claimed he was catching me, and wished we had another lap. When the lap times are posted, I'll let you know if that is true or not.
This was the first race of any kind that I have won in quite awhile, so I'm pretty pumped. I looked the quad over afterwards, and it really looks good. I thought the wheels and nerfs would be destroyed from all the rocks and trees, but they look fine.
Before I loaded up, I had a talk with a guy named Corky Root I think it was...He said he was happy to see my ATK out there. He used to work for ATK back in the day before they bought Cannondale's stuff. It was a nice conversation. He said he won a few national harscramble +50 championships back in the '90s. When I was leaving I saw his motorhome, he had some cool old bikes sitting there. #66 I hope when I'm that age and retired I can do something like that, drive around the country racing vintage races or whatever. Good stuff.