Chapter 18
When the boys got done swimming it was around 9:30, so they all changed out of their swimming suits and went upstairs to the room that they were staying in. The oldest kids got to sleep in the beds, but since Mark was only 13 so he slept on the floor with the other kids. They started talking about this year’s Loretta Lynn National and about past ones.
“How come you’ve never been to Loretta’s Mark?”
“I don’t know,” Mark said, “I never went to the qualifiers.”
“Why not?”
“I just never raced nationals,” said Mark.
“Then why are you now?”
“Well you have to if you’re on a factory team don’t you?” Mark asked. Just then Jordan came into the room.
“Lights out guys,” he said. He left and closed the door, turning off the lights. Mark started to lay down.
“What’re you doing?” Jason asked.
“He said time to go to bed,” Mark said.
“Yeah, but no one really does do they?”
“Uhh?” Mark said confused.
“You just have to whisper.” They started talking about hot girls they went to school with, or have met, or their girlfriends. There were only 2 kids on the team that had girlfriends.
“Do you have a girlfriend Mark?” someone asked.
“Me? Nah,” Mark said.
“How come?”
“I don’t know. There’s this one girl I like named Payton. But she got mad at me before I left to come here.”
“Why is she mad at you?”
“Oh I just told her that I was mad that I got second in a race,” Mark said.
“You’ve got to be happy with whatever place you get,” Austin said, “There are kids getting last and- ,”
‘Yeah I know” Mark cut him off. “It’s just I should have won that race.”
“Well you just have to make up with her this weekend. Will she be there?”
“I think so,” Mark said. “The race is in our home town.”
The next morning an alarm went off at 6:15 but no one got up. Fifteen minutes later Clint, the trainer, came in and said: “Time to get up guys. We’re going for a 35 mile bike ride.” Everyone started getting up and getting cycling gear out of their bags. “Mark you can borrow some gear until you get a bike and some gear of your own.”
It sounded as if the team used cycling for training a lot. Mark went with Clint to get some gear. It was a little too big for him but it still fit okay. The bike was also a little large.
They started down the gravel road. By the end of it Mark was already tired. It was obvious that the others were in better shape than him. Mark struggled to keep up the whole ride. Most of the kids finished ahead of him. For Mark the ride took over two hours. Mark’s legs were aching by the time they got back to the house. He knew he would have to get a bike and start riding every other day or something like that.
They walked into the dining room for breakfast. Mark saw Bud and 2 other guys sitting together.
“Mark this is Jeff Courtney,” Bud said. “He’s gonna be your main mechanic.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mark said as they shook hands.
“And this is Lance Haney, the suspension tech guy,” Bud introduced them. “They’re here to get your bike set up for you.”
“I sent you guys my weight and stuff. Wasn’t that for the suspension?” Mark asked.
‘Yes, but we have to see how aggressive you are and what your style is,” Lance said.
“Oh. Okay.” He talked to them while they ate breakfast then went to get suited up for riding.
Out in the garage, Mark’s mechanic Jeff was telling him about his 85’s.
“There is one stock, and 2 modified, for AMA races,” He said. “The way you tell them apart is the grips. The stock one has gray grips. See?” He pointed at the gray grips on the stock bike. Mark nodded as Jeff continued, “And this modded bike has red grips. It has a lot of top end power and the suspension is for rougher tracks. This bike with the blue grips has a suspension for smoother tracks and has more low end power.”
“So which one are we gonna ride today?” Mark asked.
“The red gripped bike,” Jeff said.
Everyone was gearing up and getting ready to ride when Bud came in. “Okay boys, you know the procedure.”
“I don’t,” Mark said.
“Oh yeah I forgot,” Bud said. “The way we do things around here is in the morning you guys warm up for ten laps. Then you all go over to the starting gates and you race each other in a 25 minute
event.”
During the first ten minutes of practice, the other guys were going much faster than Mark. It was obvious that they had ridden a lot more at Bud’s house than he had. After a few laps he started doing more jumps and was keeping up with the other kids, but he still wasn’t as fast as they were on this track.
After 10 laps Bud waved them off and they went over to the starting gates. They were dirt which Mark was thankful of, but he knew he needed to practice concrete starts. He was very good at dirt and wished that all starts were dirt.
Bud walked out in front of the gates and held up a 30 second card. He turned it sideways and walked off the track. The gate dropped and the nine riders all dashed to the first corner. Mark was in 4th and passed number 119 for third. It was a fun race because they were all around the same skill level. Eli Tomac being one of the oldest and more experienced ones won and Mark got 4th. Ian Trettel had re passed him over a jump but Mark didn’t really care. They were right about how fast his factory 85 was. It was way faster than his basically stock CR which had FMF pipes and V-force reeds but no other engine work. This 85 definitely had some money into it. When they came across the last jump Mark pulled over to the side to talk to Lance about the suspension.
“Why don’t you take your bike up to the garage and I will do the suspension. You can ride your supermini,” Lance said. Mark did as he was told. He rode up to the garage and put the bike on a stand. He pulled his 112cc off one and pushed it outside. He let it warm up and took off for the track. He came around a turn and accelerated for the next triple. He did it with ease. He came down a long straight into a corner, through the whoops. He did the whoops way faster than he would on his CR. The suspensions on these bikes were amazing!
Two hours later Lance and Jeff had his bike all set up. He rode it. It was even better than before. But still it had problems. After a while Mark road back up to Jeff and said, “It has too much top end. I’m not using it all, could you change the gearing?” Jeff took the bike back to the garage and Mark got back on his Supermini and road some more. He was really getting accustomed to the track and was getting a little faster.
Mark also saw a guy coaching some of the other riders. He wondered why he wasn’t getting coached, too.
They had hot dogs for lunch on Bud’s porch. “How come I’m not being coached?” Mark asked.
“Because were getting your bike’s set up,” Said Bud “We don’t want you learning how to do things and then do a major bike change and have to relearn it.” Mark understood. After lunch Jeff was done with his bike and it was time for the second race. This time Eli got the holeshot again but Mark was in second. He was on his tail the whole race, but couldn’t pass him. He supposed a couple years more experience really made a difference. But Eli fell in a corner and Mark took the lead. Now he had to hold off the rest of the pack, too! He couldn’t do it. Jason Anderson passed him a few corners before the finish line.
Mark really liked doing this kind of racing because there was no pressure on him to win, just to have fun with his teammates. The bike was awesome too. The suspension and the top end were the most noticeable things on the bike.
Mark stopped next to Jeff and said, “The bike is great! I don’t know what else there is to change,”
“Oh there’s something,” Jeff said. “We need to make it as fast as we can. How’s the gearing?” Mark and Jeff went through some stuff on the bike and Jeff took it back into the garage. Mark hopped back on his Supermini and rode some more. Bud was timing all of them. Mark threw down a lap time of 2:24.7 which was the same as Eli Tomac’s fastest lap time.
By the time of the 3rd moto Jeff had the bike set up and Mark was at the starting line. Mark fell in the start. He got up and spit the dirt out from his mouth and started laughing. Then he got his bike started and went to catch up with the pack. Mark finished fourth but he didn’t care. Jeff and Mark had the bike dialed and it was working great for him.
At about 5:30, they finished up, washed their bikes and went inside for dinner. They were having some kind of vegetable casserole and fruit.
“Bud won’t let us eat junk-food,” Ian muttered to Mark. The casserole was actually pretty good. Mark ate 2 helpings.
After dinner the boys went and watched TV. They were watching some freestyle show when someone said, “You should call that girl that you like and apologize to her Mark,”
“Huh?” Mark said, caught off guard. “Why should I apologize? I didn’t do anything.”
“Yeah I know, but she thinks you’re really greedy for wanting first place and-,”
“But everyone wants first place!” said Mark.
“Do you expect a girl to think like that?” Jason said.
“You’re right,” Mark said. “But what should I say to her?”
“Just say sorry or something.”
RING RING RING
“Hello?”
“Hey, this is Mark.”
“Hey, What’s up?”
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for being a jerk that day. I should have been happy with second. You’re right. I don’t have to win every time. And I hope you’re not too mad at me.”
“I was never mad at you.”
“You weren’t?!”
“No. I was just trying to knock some sense into you.”
“Oh.”
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Over the next couple of days 2 things happened to Mark that he wouldn’t have thought possible.
1- Mark started wearing hats. He had always hated hats before. He occasionally wore a TPA hat, but not often. Suzuki gave him a new flat billed hat along with some pit shirts and other clothes. When Mark wasn’t wearing his helmet he was wearing a hat and wouldn’t take it off.
2-Mark started drinking Rockstar Energy drinks. His mom had never let him drink energy drinks before, but Bud had a fridge full of Rockstar and Mark’s mom wasn’t there so he drank 2 in the morning and was bouncing off the walls all day, then he would drop to sleep like a log at night. Two boys put shaving cream in his hand and tickled his nose with a feather, but he was so out-of-it he didn’t even move his hand.
That night on the computer Mark checked the USMXN series website. It said Western Round 7 was at Fishermen’s Motocross Park which was close to Mark’s house. He had grown up riding that track which he could use to his advantage against the other riders.
Mark had the time of his life over the next three days. He got to test his new bikes and race in the day and partied with the other kids at night while drinking Rockstar. Mark won one of the motos on Thursday and was happy about that. He was getting faster training everyday. Even though he was sore as heck from falling, lifting weights, cycling and everything else, he didn’t care. He really fit in with the other boys well. Most of them had the same interests: Motocross and Girls.
Mark was sad to leave all of his friends, but he knew they would see each other soon. Clint drove Mark and Jeff to the airport where they got on a flight back to California. Jeff would be staying at Mark’s house. It turns out that Mark’s dad and Jeff had gone to college together and were friends. Mr. Peterson was happy to have him as his son’s mechanic.