Friday night I looked at the Stillwater weather for Saturday and saw a high of 35 and then checked Bulcher and saw that 50 degrees was forecast. Easy decision, I'm going!
I got up and headed out the door at 7:30 to icy streets and heavy fog. Not good. I took it easy and by the time I got to OKC I was out of the fog but the roads were wet/frozen almost the whole way down. I pulled in at about 11:40 thinking I had plenty of time to see the start and find out they started everyone early because of the conditions.
I headed out following the crowd having no idea where I was going and end up at Texas stadium. According to the map it is the last made for tv obstacle so I move on to Triple Threat and before long here comes David Knight on his 300xc/w in the lead. He heads down the hill and across a pasture and into Bills woods. I followed one of the team KTM guys around listening to his radio and find that they are expecting him at Triple Threat in about 30 minutes. While we are waiting Wayne Braybrook goes by on a Gas Gas and then behind him is Guy Cooper on a 250sx in 3rd.
The rules were a little different this year. Rider's couldn't receive assistance from anyone other than other riders so they often teamed up with each other. Course workers could help them drag their bikes back down the hill as long as it didn't advance them on the course. Add the snow to the equation and it makes for a much tougher event than last year.
As expected Knight is the first to Triple Threat. The first part of it consists of an uphill ravine. He came to a stop about half way up but didn't take long to make it up. Stops for a drink, talks to his crew and heads down in and back up the next uphill part of it that has a nasty rock ledge. About half way up he either ran out of traction or didn't like his line and came to a stop, surveyed the hill and then in three easy blips of the clutch and throttle popped the front wheel up and around and headed back down the hill for another try. He made it look like he was on a bicycle the way he turned it around and you could tell he used very little energy in the process. The next try he made it up. Now there was one more down hill and you are done with Triple Threat. It consisted of large ledges and huge rocks and trees. Everything was wet and covered with snow. He heads down and about halfway stops on this big flat rock covered in snow and balanced perfectly peering over the ledge and then with a little brap was off the ledge right between two trees that were not much wider than his handlebars landing on another rock covered in snow without so much as a bobble and was gone. Everyone shook their heads in disbelief looked at each other and laughed.
Wayne Baybrook was next and the two times he got stuck he made it on pure strength getting off the bike picking it up grunting and screaming until he was to the point where he could continue.
Guy was next and he had trouble in the same spots the other two had. He used more finesse than Wayne had. For someone who had a pin to win reputation as a motocrosser Guy has some unbelievable bike skills getting traction in places that it was nearly nonexistent.
I moved on to Texas Stadium in time to see Guy come through and he made it look easy, stopping once to pick a line and then he was on his way.
I headed back to the pits and found Guy's brother Chuck getting his bike ready for the night loop so I helped. Someone had Kamikazied his bike into Guy's knocking a hole in the ignition cover and it wouldn't start after his interview at the finish so Chuck stole the ignition off of his brand new 300 and the light off of his 525 along with a set of battery powered lights that he bought the day before. We put this on hacking and sawing on the number plate until it was out of the way of the add on lights. It looked like hell but got the job done and Guy had a laugh when he saw our creation.
As we were doing this I listened to him being interviewed and he admitted that he was worn out. He was told that there were only 9 going into the second lap and shrugged his shoulders and said "Well I guess I can't get worse than 9th, but really would like a top 5 because they pay out through 5th." There ended up being 10 or 11 on the start.
I watched them blast off on what they called the bomb run onto a grass track section that wound around to an Endurocross section that the riders went over at the start and finish of each lap. Knight was in first and Guy was in second as they headed off into the woods.
By now I was hungry and cold so I went and got something to eat and put on some more clothes and headed to the Joshua Tree. This was a straight up hill about 225 feet high with no run at it that did a u-turn and came right back down. To me it looked ridiculous and impossible. Knight was the first one there (of course) and made it look easy. He is so smooth with the throttle, truly amazing to watch. About 25 minutes later Braybrook showed up and went right up it no problem but didn't look as comfortable coming down the other side. Over an hour later than when Knight went by Russel Bobbit came through with Guy Cooper right behind him. They had both houred out and headed back to the pits.
I overheard a couple of guys talking about Gas Gas bikes so I went over and stuck my nose into the conversation and met one of the guys who had raced it. He was number 4 on an 06 Gas Gas. He claimed the made for tv stuff wasn't the hard part. I guess people were going everywhere when they first went into the woods (128 riders) running into each other and that there wasn't such thing as a good line if you were not one of the first few. A broken chain ended his day.
The second loop was in reverse meaning the course became more chewed up the farther you got in the second loop making all that much more impressive that Knight and Braybrook were able to finish.