foot of the mountain 6/5 - 6/6
foot of the mountain 6/5 - 6/6
we just got back from foot of the mountain. they had a dist 6 race on sat. and a dist 6 and 7 race on sunday. derno used the "force" and smoked me both days, but only cause my :furious: bike let me down. jlhughes and family was with us and it was an interesting weekend. too tired to give the story, but tune in tomorrow night!
ok...
forcast on saturday was rain and low 60's. don't think it ever hit the low 60's. i woke up at 1:30 am got ready and went to work early saturday. i planned on leaving right after work as derno said he was leaving at 8:30-9. racing started at 1pm with the kids and quads were at 4pm. the track is 150 miles from me and close to 200 for derno. i left work and stopped by wal mart for some new rain gear and hit the road. rained the whole way. got there at 11:30. probably only a dozen or so racers there, mostly bikes. took a quick nap for a couple minutes and called derno to see where he was. he hadn't even left yet!!! said he might not make the race. i was cool with that, easy victory for me!
forcast on saturday was rain and low 60's. don't think it ever hit the low 60's. i woke up at 1:30 am got ready and went to work early saturday. i planned on leaving right after work as derno said he was leaving at 8:30-9. racing started at 1pm with the kids and quads were at 4pm. the track is 150 miles from me and close to 200 for derno. i left work and stopped by wal mart for some new rain gear and hit the road. rained the whole way. got there at 11:30. probably only a dozen or so racers there, mostly bikes. took a quick nap for a couple minutes and called derno to see where he was. he hadn't even left yet!!! said he might not make the race. i was cool with that, easy victory for me!
walked the track and it wasn't nearly as rough and technical as the last race there. they cut the loop short and bypassed the low lying areas that were just too swampy. the track looked wide and fast and i was hoping derno wouldn't make it cause it looked like a v force track if there ever was one. got back and called derno, he was finally on the road but moving slowly cause the camper he was towing was the size of a bus!
said he didn't think he was gonna make it. to make matters worse, i told him they were running the kids around the grass switchbacks instead of through the woods. so it all looked to be on schedule.
J showed up then and we got him unpacked. he brought the grill, 100 gallons of water and the pressure washer, some shelter, a wife, a fast yfz with some fancy new parts, a 400 ex that never left the trailer, FOOD, and last but not least, his son jacob.
they ran the bikes and unfortunately, they were way behind schedule. derno showed up with time to spare as we never started till 5:30, i think.:mad:
said he didn't think he was gonna make it. to make matters worse, i told him they were running the kids around the grass switchbacks instead of through the woods. so it all looked to be on schedule.J showed up then and we got him unpacked. he brought the grill, 100 gallons of water and the pressure washer, some shelter, a wife, a fast yfz with some fancy new parts, a 400 ex that never left the trailer, FOOD, and last but not least, his son jacob.
they ran the bikes and unfortunately, they were way behind schedule. derno showed up with time to spare as we never started till 5:30, i think.:mad:
there was hardly anyone racing quads. maybe 15 of us, and that was pushing it. about 3 in each class excepy utility, only 1 there. unfortunately for J, his two competitors were named chris borich and rob hertz(i think that's his name). J was saying all afternoon how he wanted to do something different other than have chris and rob run away from him...
i'm not sure how much this cost him($$$$$$
), but when they sounded the horn, J was gone!!! and i mean GONE! he was through the first turn before the other guys got moving!:head:
there was 3 of us also, me, derno, and a girl on a 400 ex. the horn sounded and nobody wanted the holeshot. we just sat there looking stupid. figured we better get moving so i took off. holeshot city and i didn't see anyone behind me for a while. i knew the girl got derno off the line but she wouldn't hold him off for very long...
i'm not sure how much this cost him($$$$$$
), but when they sounded the horn, J was gone!!! and i mean GONE! he was through the first turn before the other guys got moving!:head: there was 3 of us also, me, derno, and a girl on a 400 ex. the horn sounded and nobody wanted the holeshot. we just sat there looking stupid. figured we better get moving so i took off. holeshot city and i didn't see anyone behind me for a while. i knew the girl got derno off the line but she wouldn't hold him off for very long...
i was hoping he didn't run her over with that big pro armor bumper. i was cruising along wondering if derno was gonna ride the pig or the pig ride derno:p . about half way through the first lap he was behind me and that's when the fun started!
we were going the same pace and having a blast battling for the lead. we swapped positions too many times to count. my bike needs the throttle recalibrated, but i just cranked the idle up and it was running great. only took it out of 1st a few times thanks to my tall gearing and 22's. the v force looked to be doing well also. a little springy in the rear maybe.
the track was soupy mud and tacky mud. my new rain pants had me sliding all over and off the seat. all my sliding around gave me arm pump so bad from just trying to hang on. our grips were covered and gloves were just about useless. my left grip decided it no longer wanted to race so it went flying off on a sharp right hander over some big square rocks. not good!
we were going the same pace and having a blast battling for the lead. we swapped positions too many times to count. my bike needs the throttle recalibrated, but i just cranked the idle up and it was running great. only took it out of 1st a few times thanks to my tall gearing and 22's. the v force looked to be doing well also. a little springy in the rear maybe.
the track was soupy mud and tacky mud. my new rain pants had me sliding all over and off the seat. all my sliding around gave me arm pump so bad from just trying to hang on. our grips were covered and gloves were just about useless. my left grip decided it no longer wanted to race so it went flying off on a sharp right hander over some big square rocks. not good!
i thought that was a good time to stop and connect my tether which i forgot to do, and pull a tear off. didn't think i'd see derno again but knew i'd finish no worse that 2nd, and that was fine with me. safety is more important than trophies when you get old like me.
saw derno exiting the switchbacks as i was coming into them. probabily a good 2-3 minutes ahead. kept riding at a comfy pace and was suprised to see derno ahead of me 2/3 of the way through the woods. he was going good in some sections and slow in others. i thought something was wrong with the bike, maybe a belt slipping from all the water, but turns out he couldn't hang on either.
we battled a little longer, for the lead:D , then on the third lap my tie rod nut came off! SOB!:mad: oh- well...
saw derno exiting the switchbacks as i was coming into them. probabily a good 2-3 minutes ahead. kept riding at a comfy pace and was suprised to see derno ahead of me 2/3 of the way through the woods. he was going good in some sections and slow in others. i thought something was wrong with the bike, maybe a belt slipping from all the water, but turns out he couldn't hang on either.
we battled a little longer, for the lead:D , then on the third lap my tie rod nut came off! SOB!:mad: oh- well...
thought that maybe i cound find the stud, spacer and nut since traffic was light. unfortunately only found the stud. wasn't too bad sitting along the track. it was amazing how fast borich and hertz were moving through the woods, nose to tail on the one lap, yfz vs. trx! randy was tearing up the vet class on his 'dale, just screaming through the woods. made it look like a desert race.
had a brainstorm and put the tie rod on top of the spindle and beat the stud into it. would go the whole way because it was hitting the hyper wheel. wasn't coming out either. i putted back out of the woods and ran into J cutting the course:p .
he said he lead the first lap and then he fell victim to the grip slip and couldn't hang on either. said chris and rob were just playing around and he was gonna wait for them to come back out of the woods and jump in with them. derno came along and we bottlenecked the track BSing. derno left, borich came flying by, i left, J was talking with some guys, hertz came along so i pulled off, and that was the end of saturdays race. derno 1st, me 2nd and a few laps down. J got a hard earned 3rd for his effort.
had a brainstorm and put the tie rod on top of the spindle and beat the stud into it. would go the whole way because it was hitting the hyper wheel. wasn't coming out either. i putted back out of the woods and ran into J cutting the course:p .
he said he lead the first lap and then he fell victim to the grip slip and couldn't hang on either. said chris and rob were just playing around and he was gonna wait for them to come back out of the woods and jump in with them. derno came along and we bottlenecked the track BSing. derno left, borich came flying by, i left, J was talking with some guys, hertz came along so i pulled off, and that was the end of saturdays race. derno 1st, me 2nd and a few laps down. J got a hard earned 3rd for his effort.
i think we all had a blast. i wasn't too happy with second when first was within my reach but it was a minor problem and i only lost 1 point.
having the camper there was sweet! nice and warm, had some good food, but derno forgot to put water in it so we couldn't get a shower.
sundays race was a different story...
having the camper there was sweet! nice and warm, had some good food, but derno forgot to put water in it so we couldn't get a shower.
sundays race was a different story...
i woke up at 6 am with a headache. layed on the couch till 11, feeling bad. J was up and out side at 8:30 working on his bike. derno was up, ate breakfast and went back to sleep till 10:30-10:45.
i had work to do on mine so i had to get up and get busy. found a couple nuts so i double nutted the stud on with no spacer. made a handlebar adjustment and made a custom "special" mud grip. took some pills for my head and realized i haven't had a mountain dew for nearly 36 hours!!!!!!!!! no wonder i was feeling bad!
drank the dew and was ready to rock and roll at 2:30 with the boys from dist 7, where ever that is...
i had work to do on mine so i had to get up and get busy. found a couple nuts so i double nutted the stud on with no spacer. made a handlebar adjustment and made a custom "special" mud grip. took some pills for my head and realized i haven't had a mountain dew for nearly 36 hours!!!!!!!!! no wonder i was feeling bad!
drank the dew and was ready to rock and roll at 2:30 with the boys from dist 7, where ever that is...
there was 12 of us c classers today. nice day, warmer for sure. all i know about the a class was that J must have run out of money cause he was last off the line today. there was around 10 of them and looked like J had trouble getting his bike started. i think borich lapped everybody at least once. the promoter said he did a 10 min and change lap! he did 11:15-11:30 lap times the whole race. the fastest bike guy ran 10 min laps for 2 hours! that's some serious stamina.
i was last off the line, by choice, and went over the first bump and discovered i had dirt in my goggles, now in my eyes. not the way to start a race.
got into the woods and at the first bridge crossing a guy dumped his 400ex blocking the trail. it seperated the group with derno being in the front part. got the honda out of the way and we caught derno pretty quick. a yfz got stuck in the mud and derno was right behind so he was stuck in the mud
:mad:
i was last off the line, by choice, and went over the first bump and discovered i had dirt in my goggles, now in my eyes. not the way to start a race.
got into the woods and at the first bridge crossing a guy dumped his 400ex blocking the trail. it seperated the group with derno being in the front part. got the honda out of the way and we caught derno pretty quick. a yfz got stuck in the mud and derno was right behind so he was stuck in the mud
:mad: