I'd been watching the weather forecast for days, and all indications were for perfect riding conditions.
At the last minute, everyone who was thinking about going with me, bailed out. I decided to go anyway since I knew a lot of other people who would be up there. I'd also been planning on doing this trip for years and never made it.
The drive was about 600 miles from my house, but leaving saturday morning @ 6 am was a good call, as I hit no traffic anywhere the whole trip up. From Redding CA up to Elkton OR is a scenic drive for sure, so I took my time and enjoyed it.
I got to the Big K Ranch as the ametuer race was about half way over. From what I could see, it looked unbelievably good. Tons of grass tracks and woods everywhere. I parked and headed straight out to root on Kelly in the Vet B class. I could see he was tired, but he pushed on for over 3 hrs and finished 5th in class.
The track layout had me drooling. I ran into Endoquest and he let me know that they were adding 4 more miles of difficult woods riding for Sundays race. I was happy and ready to go. I spent the rest of the day checking things out and talking to the many D-36'ers who showed up for the race. The weather looked great as a changed to a new rear tire. I stole a brand new rear from Kelly and slapped it on. It was an intermediate tire, so I prayed for no rain.
At 5:30 am, I woke up to the sound of rain on my tent. I was worried that it would get nasty. Luckilly, it never rained very hard or very long, just on and off right up to our 11am start. Riding Vet A, we started in row 4. I started in 2nd gear and got a good start. We went right onto a grass track at the start, and it got crazy. I went into turn 1 in 4th or 5th, but someone wiped out in front of me and while I avoided him 2 guys passed me. I entered the first woods section still in the top ten. I felt good right away, but I had trouble passing a KTM rider and lost contact with the leaders. After some semi-technical woods, the trail slithered down a steep slippery forest sidehill. It was way slick and off camber and Steep. The trail had bikes all over the place and I was somehow pushing through. Then, just when I thought I was good, I hit a wet root and dropped it. A few guys passed me and I got going again. We came out on a fast dirt road right next to the Umqua River and I got passed by 3 guys on the fast stuff. After that we wound back up a series of switchbacks and then back onto another grass track. The next few miles was perfect race course. Grass tracks and dark thick woods for several miles. After the tight stuff, came fast grassy sidehills and up and down hills and a little more woods and eventually back to another grass track that joined up with the first grass track at the start finish.
The rain had stopped for good, and my tire started to work good. Unfortunately, I hit my head Hard on a tree branch and broke my roll-offs. I had to stop after 1 lap and get new goggles. I had passed a bunch of people before then, but several repassed me as my pit crew was caught off guard by the early stop. I took off and was riding really good. That is when I was not on the ground. I had a serious incident with a tree on the nastiest part of the course. It was a very steep and slippery hill that you had to slalom through several trees to get down. There was a bottleneck of about 5 riders, but I saw a hot line between 2 trees. I went right for it, but I clipped my bar and planted my headlite right into the trunk of the tree. I stopped with a huge thud in the upright position. The headlight was smashed and the workers and racers alike let out a big groan on my account. Like I said, I was upright and the engine was running. I just stayed on the bike and wrestled it through and still passed 4 of the 5 bikes. I rode well for a while and caught up to one of the fast SR riders and we began a 3 1/2 lap duel to the finish. Along the way, I tempararilly lost my clutch (why I don't know) wrecked a few more times and pitted for fuel. I was really having a good time battling with a group of riders, I got the best of most of them in the end.
On lap 4, the leaders began to lap us. Chuck Woodford was the 1st by, followed closely by Shane and Brian Garrahan. As I tried to let Brian by, I crashed using a bad line. I was able to steal a good line from him as I passed 3 downed riders in a very nasty tree section. Soon after, on the high speed river road section, Jason Raines blazed by. I follwed his lines and really picked up my pace. On the last lap, Destry Abbott and Patrick Garrahan both passed me about 5 minutes apart. Patrick was riding a brand new exc200 that he took out of the crate that thursday, rode for a couple hours, changed tires adjusted nothing else and finished 6th overall. Nate Kanney was the last pro to lap me before the finish. I was tired, but still wishing for another lap. Watts ended up winning with Woodford and Brian the top 3.
I had trouble at times, but was fairly satisfied with 6th and final trophy position in Vet expert. The top 5 were all seasoned vets who have beaten me all year long, so no shame there.
The race up in Oregon is the most well organized and laid out race anywhere I've been. ETRA does an awesome job!!! :cool:
My season is half way over, and I've done OK so far. I'm getting some help this year from Faultline Suspension, FMF, Iron Man Sprockets and my friends at Chris Kane Racing. Every bit helps, Thanks!
At the last minute, everyone who was thinking about going with me, bailed out. I decided to go anyway since I knew a lot of other people who would be up there. I'd also been planning on doing this trip for years and never made it.
The drive was about 600 miles from my house, but leaving saturday morning @ 6 am was a good call, as I hit no traffic anywhere the whole trip up. From Redding CA up to Elkton OR is a scenic drive for sure, so I took my time and enjoyed it.
I got to the Big K Ranch as the ametuer race was about half way over. From what I could see, it looked unbelievably good. Tons of grass tracks and woods everywhere. I parked and headed straight out to root on Kelly in the Vet B class. I could see he was tired, but he pushed on for over 3 hrs and finished 5th in class.
The track layout had me drooling. I ran into Endoquest and he let me know that they were adding 4 more miles of difficult woods riding for Sundays race. I was happy and ready to go. I spent the rest of the day checking things out and talking to the many D-36'ers who showed up for the race. The weather looked great as a changed to a new rear tire. I stole a brand new rear from Kelly and slapped it on. It was an intermediate tire, so I prayed for no rain.
At 5:30 am, I woke up to the sound of rain on my tent. I was worried that it would get nasty. Luckilly, it never rained very hard or very long, just on and off right up to our 11am start. Riding Vet A, we started in row 4. I started in 2nd gear and got a good start. We went right onto a grass track at the start, and it got crazy. I went into turn 1 in 4th or 5th, but someone wiped out in front of me and while I avoided him 2 guys passed me. I entered the first woods section still in the top ten. I felt good right away, but I had trouble passing a KTM rider and lost contact with the leaders. After some semi-technical woods, the trail slithered down a steep slippery forest sidehill. It was way slick and off camber and Steep. The trail had bikes all over the place and I was somehow pushing through. Then, just when I thought I was good, I hit a wet root and dropped it. A few guys passed me and I got going again. We came out on a fast dirt road right next to the Umqua River and I got passed by 3 guys on the fast stuff. After that we wound back up a series of switchbacks and then back onto another grass track. The next few miles was perfect race course. Grass tracks and dark thick woods for several miles. After the tight stuff, came fast grassy sidehills and up and down hills and a little more woods and eventually back to another grass track that joined up with the first grass track at the start finish.
The rain had stopped for good, and my tire started to work good. Unfortunately, I hit my head Hard on a tree branch and broke my roll-offs. I had to stop after 1 lap and get new goggles. I had passed a bunch of people before then, but several repassed me as my pit crew was caught off guard by the early stop. I took off and was riding really good. That is when I was not on the ground. I had a serious incident with a tree on the nastiest part of the course. It was a very steep and slippery hill that you had to slalom through several trees to get down. There was a bottleneck of about 5 riders, but I saw a hot line between 2 trees. I went right for it, but I clipped my bar and planted my headlite right into the trunk of the tree. I stopped with a huge thud in the upright position. The headlight was smashed and the workers and racers alike let out a big groan on my account. Like I said, I was upright and the engine was running. I just stayed on the bike and wrestled it through and still passed 4 of the 5 bikes. I rode well for a while and caught up to one of the fast SR riders and we began a 3 1/2 lap duel to the finish. Along the way, I tempararilly lost my clutch (why I don't know) wrecked a few more times and pitted for fuel. I was really having a good time battling with a group of riders, I got the best of most of them in the end.
On lap 4, the leaders began to lap us. Chuck Woodford was the 1st by, followed closely by Shane and Brian Garrahan. As I tried to let Brian by, I crashed using a bad line. I was able to steal a good line from him as I passed 3 downed riders in a very nasty tree section. Soon after, on the high speed river road section, Jason Raines blazed by. I follwed his lines and really picked up my pace. On the last lap, Destry Abbott and Patrick Garrahan both passed me about 5 minutes apart. Patrick was riding a brand new exc200 that he took out of the crate that thursday, rode for a couple hours, changed tires adjusted nothing else and finished 6th overall. Nate Kanney was the last pro to lap me before the finish. I was tired, but still wishing for another lap. Watts ended up winning with Woodford and Brian the top 3.
I had trouble at times, but was fairly satisfied with 6th and final trophy position in Vet expert. The top 5 were all seasoned vets who have beaten me all year long, so no shame there.
The race up in Oregon is the most well organized and laid out race anywhere I've been. ETRA does an awesome job!!! :cool:
My season is half way over, and I've done OK so far. I'm getting some help this year from Faultline Suspension, FMF, Iron Man Sprockets and my friends at Chris Kane Racing. Every bit helps, Thanks!
