- Nov 24, 2000
- 4,784
- 103
friday: kendall rode two practice sessions and looked okay. the track was dry and hard-packed. after watching the girls practice, i figured her to run around tenth place.
saturday: it rained early and the track became very rutted. she rode her two-lap practice in the drizzle. her moto was fourth to last and they were scheduled to run two four-lap motos for every class, with a third four-lap moto on sunday, so we had a long day of waiting. many classes had to run qualifiers so that pushed kendall's motos further down the list. finally, her first moto came. the track had dried out again and looked very rideable. kendall got a good start and finished the first lap in ninth. she immediately proceeded to fade back to 19th by moto's end. i think they had some scoring errors due to lappers, i had her in 15th, but it didn't matter anyway because i figured she was too far back to make a difference. the rest of the classes finished their first motos and they began over again. at about 6:20, with probably two hours of daylight left, the promoters committed the cardinal sin. they postponed the last five motos of the day, including kendall's, until sunday. of course, it rained like hell saturday nite. it was so wet, i couldn't even get my truck back to my trailer and had to park it (stuck) away from my pit.
sunday: still raining, instead of starting the races on time and just running them in the rain, they kept screwing around, wasting time. finally, they announced that the third motos would be canceled. but five classes had yet to run their second motos, including kendall's. the ama wouldn't let them cancel those so they had to run. they cut the track down to about a fifth of it's original length, which included only one jump, and ran one lap motos (yes, one lap at an ama regional) for the remaining five classes. the inside five or so gates had a fairly dry run to the first turn so all the high finishers from the first moto took those spots. since kendall had such a late gate pick, she got one of the muddy ones. it was next to the starter's box but had the straightest line to the first turn so i thought if she could hook up a little, she might have a chance. the gate dropped, she got a good start and several of the fast girls on the inside tangled and went down. kendall came into the final turn in fifth! (remember, it's a one-lap moto). then, the girl in fourth went down and took kendall with her. it was so slick that every time she tried to pick up her bike she fell down. finally, one of the track workers helped her get going but it was too late. she finished dead last among those that didn't dnf. she cried. i felt terrible for her but i was proud of her effort and told her so. i guess this was one of those learning experiences.
i guess we're going to san antonio in two weeks for one more try.
saturday: it rained early and the track became very rutted. she rode her two-lap practice in the drizzle. her moto was fourth to last and they were scheduled to run two four-lap motos for every class, with a third four-lap moto on sunday, so we had a long day of waiting. many classes had to run qualifiers so that pushed kendall's motos further down the list. finally, her first moto came. the track had dried out again and looked very rideable. kendall got a good start and finished the first lap in ninth. she immediately proceeded to fade back to 19th by moto's end. i think they had some scoring errors due to lappers, i had her in 15th, but it didn't matter anyway because i figured she was too far back to make a difference. the rest of the classes finished their first motos and they began over again. at about 6:20, with probably two hours of daylight left, the promoters committed the cardinal sin. they postponed the last five motos of the day, including kendall's, until sunday. of course, it rained like hell saturday nite. it was so wet, i couldn't even get my truck back to my trailer and had to park it (stuck) away from my pit.
sunday: still raining, instead of starting the races on time and just running them in the rain, they kept screwing around, wasting time. finally, they announced that the third motos would be canceled. but five classes had yet to run their second motos, including kendall's. the ama wouldn't let them cancel those so they had to run. they cut the track down to about a fifth of it's original length, which included only one jump, and ran one lap motos (yes, one lap at an ama regional) for the remaining five classes. the inside five or so gates had a fairly dry run to the first turn so all the high finishers from the first moto took those spots. since kendall had such a late gate pick, she got one of the muddy ones. it was next to the starter's box but had the straightest line to the first turn so i thought if she could hook up a little, she might have a chance. the gate dropped, she got a good start and several of the fast girls on the inside tangled and went down. kendall came into the final turn in fifth! (remember, it's a one-lap moto). then, the girl in fourth went down and took kendall with her. it was so slick that every time she tried to pick up her bike she fell down. finally, one of the track workers helped her get going but it was too late. she finished dead last among those that didn't dnf. she cried. i felt terrible for her but i was proud of her effort and told her so. i guess this was one of those learning experiences.
i guess we're going to san antonio in two weeks for one more try.