Despite feeling like I wasn't ready for the pro class, by the rules of the series I had to move up. So I did.
This weekend, valentines day weekend 2016, I raced my first pro event, now, in this series, novice does 2 laps, amateurs do 3, and pro's do 4, so 30 mile loops means 120 miles of rugged and unforgiving desert terrain, first lap, the whoops are deep, and as more and more bikes pass over it, the deeper they get, by the 4th lap some of them were so deep myself and a few others in the class couldn't hit them with any speed anymore, not without severe personal injury anyway.
Race started at 9 a.m, bar to bar, dead engine. 1st row of pro's took off, and then the 2nd row, my row took off, I was near the back, its a hard right hander, off camber at that from the start to enter the full course, so alot of us were putting flat track skills we didn't know we had to use. I could see a yamaha rider I'd never met before, and the other 2 from my class last year dead ahead of me, they both got around the yamaha rider quite easily, maybe I'm not as good at passing as they are, or maybe yamaha bro just decided he would block pass me for 120 miles, because everytime I'd get close he'd start coming over into my line, well it didn't work, because I managed to pass him in a long whoop section where I just so happened to have one of my holy shit how did I do that moments and carried the front wheel through about 5 of them. After that, I started getting passed by the fast old dudes in the 30 over, Kyle Abney, who usually makes the baja events, put the 6 speed of a shiny ktm 500 to use and blew by me while kx was pinned to its top speed. through the course of the 120 miles and 4 hours I was on the bike I didn't make very much forward progress, I'm pretty certain I had the slowest lap times in the class, but this is an endurance race, not a sprint, so I did my best to conserve myself so as to finish. On Lap 3 I dropped the bike in the rocks, and badly bent the left radiator, however it was not leaking so I kept going. I managed to not get lapped by super human Travis porter, and finished, I was out there well over 4 hours, and was probably the last pro to actually finish the race, but 120 miles is no joke, especially out of shape.
I finished, despite feeling so much like quitting at the end of lap 3, and as a result, out of 16 of us who started, 9 of us finished all 4 laps so that was the position I got.
Although I don't quite have the lap times to be top of the class, I can finish them, I would rather have the endurance to finish them than be a one lap wonder, I can get in better shape and put in more seat time easier than I can pick myself up out of a DNF' type of rider.
This weekend, valentines day weekend 2016, I raced my first pro event, now, in this series, novice does 2 laps, amateurs do 3, and pro's do 4, so 30 mile loops means 120 miles of rugged and unforgiving desert terrain, first lap, the whoops are deep, and as more and more bikes pass over it, the deeper they get, by the 4th lap some of them were so deep myself and a few others in the class couldn't hit them with any speed anymore, not without severe personal injury anyway.
Race started at 9 a.m, bar to bar, dead engine. 1st row of pro's took off, and then the 2nd row, my row took off, I was near the back, its a hard right hander, off camber at that from the start to enter the full course, so alot of us were putting flat track skills we didn't know we had to use. I could see a yamaha rider I'd never met before, and the other 2 from my class last year dead ahead of me, they both got around the yamaha rider quite easily, maybe I'm not as good at passing as they are, or maybe yamaha bro just decided he would block pass me for 120 miles, because everytime I'd get close he'd start coming over into my line, well it didn't work, because I managed to pass him in a long whoop section where I just so happened to have one of my holy shit how did I do that moments and carried the front wheel through about 5 of them. After that, I started getting passed by the fast old dudes in the 30 over, Kyle Abney, who usually makes the baja events, put the 6 speed of a shiny ktm 500 to use and blew by me while kx was pinned to its top speed. through the course of the 120 miles and 4 hours I was on the bike I didn't make very much forward progress, I'm pretty certain I had the slowest lap times in the class, but this is an endurance race, not a sprint, so I did my best to conserve myself so as to finish. On Lap 3 I dropped the bike in the rocks, and badly bent the left radiator, however it was not leaking so I kept going. I managed to not get lapped by super human Travis porter, and finished, I was out there well over 4 hours, and was probably the last pro to actually finish the race, but 120 miles is no joke, especially out of shape.
I finished, despite feeling so much like quitting at the end of lap 3, and as a result, out of 16 of us who started, 9 of us finished all 4 laps so that was the position I got.
Although I don't quite have the lap times to be top of the class, I can finish them, I would rather have the endurance to finish them than be a one lap wonder, I can get in better shape and put in more seat time easier than I can pick myself up out of a DNF' type of rider.
The speed will come after you concur the endurance.