This is the race that almost didn't happen. Following a spectacular weekend at the last race, I had a crf that wouldn't run till the weekend before the race and a pair of boots that got stolen.
Fortunately, with some help from friends and the good people at Forma, I got both problems taken care of.
I rolled into the pits early Saturday morning, geared up, and was meeted with the sweet sound of the BRO250R actually starting on the 2nd kick, or maybe it started so easily because I've kicked it like 2,000 times in the past couple weeks.
Did the pre ride, no real issues other than I was a little rusty, the course was very fast roads that connected tight sand washes together, which had received plenty of rain so there were lots of ruts. I've never been the best sand rider, but everything I thought I knew was completely forgotten and I would struggle greatly with these for the vast majority of the weekend.
I spent the better part of the night sleeping on the seat of the F150, as there are no hotels in this little no stop light town (note: they have them, I'd just rather not get shot in a crack deal gone bad outside my room) as my dad, who as nice enough to pull the camper up there didn't show till midnight. So, with about 5 hours of sleep, I geared up, tried to start CRF in the cool morning, and kick, kick, kick, kick. Nada, I was taking a break the friend who helped me fix it in the first place, came by, fiddled with the carb, basically just pushed the choke in and pulled it out, and it fired right up, maybe it likes him?
Anyway, off the start, 2 bikes at a time numerical order, drag race to the first corner, live engine. I lined up next to the guy I was to start with, a newer honda than mine. Green flag dropped, and off we went, at first, the taller gearing on my bike kept me maybe a wheel or 2 down, but as we neared the halfway point of the long straight, the taller gearing came into play and away I was. There wasn't a lot of dust, unusual for a desert race, so I just enjoyed the high speed roads and worked on riding my own race. We dropped into the first sandwash, and towards the end of it, there just so happened to be a sink hole, it didn't grab me, but it managed to grab the front end of one of the pro bro's ktm and stand it straight up and down with the nose pointing down, track crews came to his rescue, so I continued. I popped out of the ravine, and towards a "gravity cavity" if you will, it should tell you something that there were EMT's on the other side
the dude in front of me entered it nice and cautious and proceeded to pin it on his way out, unfortunately for him he caught way more air than he was ready for and in the most glorious boner air I've ever seen, managed to end his race as a KTM 2 stroke went bounding down the hard pack without him.
This was one of the faster, plays tricks with your mind sections, it was fast, but it was 2 track through tall weeds, which usually hide stuff like rocks, logs, and braking bumps quite well, fortunately for me it wasn't the case, as I stuck to the far left and worked on picking the bike in front of me off. This continued to about mile marker 6 and while trying to pass someone, I wasn't look far enough ahead and headed to where they had it marked off to go left, I swung hard on the outside with tires and boots nibbling at mesquite bushes, in choppy terrain, I managed to stick it, but hit the light weight course marker with my right boot sending it down win in several pieces. I'm ready for Hollywood
Nothing to exciting happened lap 1, I continued to ride like crap in the sandwashes and had to work hard in the fast sections to make it up.
Lap 2, the guy I took off with passed me in a sandwash as I fall down go boom, but we popped back out and I hadn't lost too much time, so I put the throttle to the stop, caught and passed him when he wasn't ready for it, and stayed there till the next sandwash, where once again, I fall down go boom. Arghhhhh. We finished lap 2, sitting in 4th. I didn't have to pit, and quickly took off once I was clear of the 1st gear pit area. I rode hard, and 2 miles in riding up on a road, I looked down and saw the guy I wanted to pass in the sandwash I was almost to. I entered it, and rode it to the best of my capability, passing the mud hole that had swallowed a ktm, had now swallowed a kawi. Up and out, through gravity cavity, he's a dust trail up ahead, but we're closely matched so if I want to beat him I'll have to dig deeper. Didn't get it done lap 2, I sucked.
Lap 3, I gave chase, feeling pretty good, not really fatigued, I felt like I was narrowly faster than the guy in front of me, but he had quite a bit of time on me, so narrowly faster wasn't going to cut it. I was going to have to dig deep. in the first sandwash I got passed by the guy who had narrowly beat me in year end points last year, if nothing else, it was for bragging rights. It just turned out to be the thing I needed to kicked it up a gear, he put some time on me in the wash, and on the exit to a high speed area, I cranked the throttle wide open and held it there, I remember a rain rut running down the trail as it curved left, left was wider, but off camber and rockier, but the right, although narrow, was smooth and would lend good rewards if you kept the tires out of the rut. I took the right, he seemed to be cruising, just enjoying his ride through the forest, then I passed him, as fast as I could go, I'm pretty sure it scared him as there wasn't time to read the # on his jersey. Guess who was in front of him? 3rd place. I passed him too, and kept it going. All of a sudden it was like hey, in tight sand pick a lower gear and keep the rpms high through the corners, it worked alot better than my previous approach. At this point, said washes were really beat up, sink holes foot peg deep developing, I managed to keep it clean, and toward the finish, a short wash is followed by a sharp right to the final straight to the finish, ye olde nemesis and I entered that last corner bar to bar, throttles pinned, I had the inside line, and it held, we passed through the checkers on the same tenth, it went down to the hundreths, in my favor.
I finished 3rd in Lites AM.
Fortunately, with some help from friends and the good people at Forma, I got both problems taken care of.
I rolled into the pits early Saturday morning, geared up, and was meeted with the sweet sound of the BRO250R actually starting on the 2nd kick, or maybe it started so easily because I've kicked it like 2,000 times in the past couple weeks.
Did the pre ride, no real issues other than I was a little rusty, the course was very fast roads that connected tight sand washes together, which had received plenty of rain so there were lots of ruts. I've never been the best sand rider, but everything I thought I knew was completely forgotten and I would struggle greatly with these for the vast majority of the weekend.
I spent the better part of the night sleeping on the seat of the F150, as there are no hotels in this little no stop light town (note: they have them, I'd just rather not get shot in a crack deal gone bad outside my room) as my dad, who as nice enough to pull the camper up there didn't show till midnight. So, with about 5 hours of sleep, I geared up, tried to start CRF in the cool morning, and kick, kick, kick, kick. Nada, I was taking a break the friend who helped me fix it in the first place, came by, fiddled with the carb, basically just pushed the choke in and pulled it out, and it fired right up, maybe it likes him?
Anyway, off the start, 2 bikes at a time numerical order, drag race to the first corner, live engine. I lined up next to the guy I was to start with, a newer honda than mine. Green flag dropped, and off we went, at first, the taller gearing on my bike kept me maybe a wheel or 2 down, but as we neared the halfway point of the long straight, the taller gearing came into play and away I was. There wasn't a lot of dust, unusual for a desert race, so I just enjoyed the high speed roads and worked on riding my own race. We dropped into the first sandwash, and towards the end of it, there just so happened to be a sink hole, it didn't grab me, but it managed to grab the front end of one of the pro bro's ktm and stand it straight up and down with the nose pointing down, track crews came to his rescue, so I continued. I popped out of the ravine, and towards a "gravity cavity" if you will, it should tell you something that there were EMT's on the other side
the dude in front of me entered it nice and cautious and proceeded to pin it on his way out, unfortunately for him he caught way more air than he was ready for and in the most glorious boner air I've ever seen, managed to end his race as a KTM 2 stroke went bounding down the hard pack without him.This was one of the faster, plays tricks with your mind sections, it was fast, but it was 2 track through tall weeds, which usually hide stuff like rocks, logs, and braking bumps quite well, fortunately for me it wasn't the case, as I stuck to the far left and worked on picking the bike in front of me off. This continued to about mile marker 6 and while trying to pass someone, I wasn't look far enough ahead and headed to where they had it marked off to go left, I swung hard on the outside with tires and boots nibbling at mesquite bushes, in choppy terrain, I managed to stick it, but hit the light weight course marker with my right boot sending it down win in several pieces. I'm ready for Hollywood
Nothing to exciting happened lap 1, I continued to ride like crap in the sandwashes and had to work hard in the fast sections to make it up.
Lap 2, the guy I took off with passed me in a sandwash as I fall down go boom, but we popped back out and I hadn't lost too much time, so I put the throttle to the stop, caught and passed him when he wasn't ready for it, and stayed there till the next sandwash, where once again, I fall down go boom. Arghhhhh. We finished lap 2, sitting in 4th. I didn't have to pit, and quickly took off once I was clear of the 1st gear pit area. I rode hard, and 2 miles in riding up on a road, I looked down and saw the guy I wanted to pass in the sandwash I was almost to. I entered it, and rode it to the best of my capability, passing the mud hole that had swallowed a ktm, had now swallowed a kawi. Up and out, through gravity cavity, he's a dust trail up ahead, but we're closely matched so if I want to beat him I'll have to dig deeper. Didn't get it done lap 2, I sucked.
Lap 3, I gave chase, feeling pretty good, not really fatigued, I felt like I was narrowly faster than the guy in front of me, but he had quite a bit of time on me, so narrowly faster wasn't going to cut it. I was going to have to dig deep. in the first sandwash I got passed by the guy who had narrowly beat me in year end points last year, if nothing else, it was for bragging rights. It just turned out to be the thing I needed to kicked it up a gear, he put some time on me in the wash, and on the exit to a high speed area, I cranked the throttle wide open and held it there, I remember a rain rut running down the trail as it curved left, left was wider, but off camber and rockier, but the right, although narrow, was smooth and would lend good rewards if you kept the tires out of the rut. I took the right, he seemed to be cruising, just enjoying his ride through the forest, then I passed him, as fast as I could go, I'm pretty sure it scared him as there wasn't time to read the # on his jersey. Guess who was in front of him? 3rd place. I passed him too, and kept it going. All of a sudden it was like hey, in tight sand pick a lower gear and keep the rpms high through the corners, it worked alot better than my previous approach. At this point, said washes were really beat up, sink holes foot peg deep developing, I managed to keep it clean, and toward the finish, a short wash is followed by a sharp right to the final straight to the finish, ye olde nemesis and I entered that last corner bar to bar, throttles pinned, I had the inside line, and it held, we passed through the checkers on the same tenth, it went down to the hundreths, in my favor.
I finished 3rd in Lites AM.
