This weekend I raced the first round of the Gas It Off Road series in Alamogordo NM, the Tarantula 100, the 28 mile loops were made up out of sand, whoops, and high speed sections.
Saturday during the pre ride, somehow a circlip in the right fork let go and all the seals/bushings slid out, so between myself, the guy from the local race tech shop and my dad we managed to get it back together with minimal tools and with a bushing thats a bit out of round (probably why they popped to begin with)
Anyway, 9 A.M race start, heavily overcast, this would be my first desert race on the Kawi and first time racing a 450 in the desert. Off the start, I did not do very well, I entered the first corner with nothing but bikes and dust in view, over the distance to the 1st check point, I managed to reel in a few, but before the 2nd, I would make a wrong turn and drop to dead last :/ sometime around the 3rd checkpoint my rear tire went flat, but with driving 800 miles round trip and fork shenanigans the night before I wasn't stopping. Taking off after pitting on lap 1 I was in 12th. Having a blown rear tire I'd have to be fairly careful coming into corners as well as slow it down for some of the whoops and high speed jumps on the track. However, I did end up riding rather hard, passing another racer almost sideways in the sand dune zig zag just before the finish line, and I pulled into the pits in what I didn't know was 4th, as 3rd was leaving. With a full tank of fuel, I focused purely on catching the guy in front of me, I didn't know where we were in the pack, but he was my goal. Through the 24 miles of most of that lap, I closed in on him slowly but surely, in a high speed section, trailing 3rd, we came up on a slower rider who wasn't paying attention, but he looked back and saw me and for whatever reason decided to get into my line, it was straight and flat, so I went into the weeds long enough to pass him and continued chasing that guy. as we approached the final 4 miles, really deep sharp sandwhoops, I managed to pull up along side him for a minute until his better line choice let him pull away from me, my rear tire kinda slid coming into a corner and I almost went down but managed to stay up, he put a little time between us coming into the final straight, I held it wide open and pulled up close enough to slap his rear fender, we entered the zig zags in the sand real close, I couldn't pass him, too close in speed and not enough room, I finished, not know where I had finished, rear tire completly destroyed and somewhat melted to the rim, my dad and the race tech guy walked over and explained that I had managed to shoot from dead last to a few seconds too slow to take 3rd in 2 laps, riding on a flat. All in all, I'm still fairly stoked, it was a lot of fun charging and I really enjoyed the course
Saturday during the pre ride, somehow a circlip in the right fork let go and all the seals/bushings slid out, so between myself, the guy from the local race tech shop and my dad we managed to get it back together with minimal tools and with a bushing thats a bit out of round (probably why they popped to begin with)
Anyway, 9 A.M race start, heavily overcast, this would be my first desert race on the Kawi and first time racing a 450 in the desert. Off the start, I did not do very well, I entered the first corner with nothing but bikes and dust in view, over the distance to the 1st check point, I managed to reel in a few, but before the 2nd, I would make a wrong turn and drop to dead last :/ sometime around the 3rd checkpoint my rear tire went flat, but with driving 800 miles round trip and fork shenanigans the night before I wasn't stopping. Taking off after pitting on lap 1 I was in 12th. Having a blown rear tire I'd have to be fairly careful coming into corners as well as slow it down for some of the whoops and high speed jumps on the track. However, I did end up riding rather hard, passing another racer almost sideways in the sand dune zig zag just before the finish line, and I pulled into the pits in what I didn't know was 4th, as 3rd was leaving. With a full tank of fuel, I focused purely on catching the guy in front of me, I didn't know where we were in the pack, but he was my goal. Through the 24 miles of most of that lap, I closed in on him slowly but surely, in a high speed section, trailing 3rd, we came up on a slower rider who wasn't paying attention, but he looked back and saw me and for whatever reason decided to get into my line, it was straight and flat, so I went into the weeds long enough to pass him and continued chasing that guy. as we approached the final 4 miles, really deep sharp sandwhoops, I managed to pull up along side him for a minute until his better line choice let him pull away from me, my rear tire kinda slid coming into a corner and I almost went down but managed to stay up, he put a little time between us coming into the final straight, I held it wide open and pulled up close enough to slap his rear fender, we entered the zig zags in the sand real close, I couldn't pass him, too close in speed and not enough room, I finished, not know where I had finished, rear tire completly destroyed and somewhat melted to the rim, my dad and the race tech guy walked over and explained that I had managed to shoot from dead last to a few seconds too slow to take 3rd in 2 laps, riding on a flat. All in all, I'm still fairly stoked, it was a lot of fun charging and I really enjoyed the course
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only you Mike, only you 
