dirtbike_freak
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- Dec 10, 2006
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- #576
Chapter 23
Mark spent the next day hammering down some hard laps on his 85 practice bike with Bobby. He had been doing the two table tops all day. He didn’t know why he hadn’t done them the day before because now they seemed easy.
At 2:00 they parked their bikes and went into the house to relax for the rest of the day. They went to bed at 8:00 because their flight left at 5:00 AM.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. The alarm went off in Mark’s room and he got out of bed. He pulled on some jeans and a Rockstar Energy tee-shirt and woke Bobby up. They walked down stairs where everyone was waiting for them. Mark’s mom had a suitcase for her and Mr. Peterson.
“Mom, you’re only gonna be there 5 days. You didn’t need to pack your whole closet!” Mark told her.
“Oh well,” she shrugged.
.
They took 2 cars to the airport, because they couldn’t all fit into the back seat. Mark found himself crammed between Bobby and Carson in the back seat.
“Eww, didn’t you take a shower last night?” Mark asked Carson.
“Uhh no,” Carson answered.
Mark huffily lectured his little brother: “You should take a shower every night. Or at least put on deodorant!” After about 15 minutes they arrived at the airport. They sat in the hard plastic seats at their gate waiting to load. It was starting to get light out about now. Mark had just fallen asleep when he was shook awake by Jeff. Jeff had just been lecturing Mark on the importance of air filter changes.
“So like I was saying, if the dirt gets past that filter”-
“Jeff,” Mark yawned, “I thought the reason I have a mechanic is for you to do all that stuff.”
“Well it is, but I might not be around someday so you’ll need to change your own air filter.” Just then the plane started boarding. Mark and his family got in line. They were happy to give the lady their ticket so that they could finally go sit in the comfortable seats and go to sleep. Suzuki was paying for the family’s plane ride to Washington so his whole family could attend the final race. They would also have an RV for them to stay in
“Why didn’t Suzuki get us first class seats?” Mark asked Jeff.
“Good question,” Jeff said dryly. “I’ll have to talk to Bud about that.” Mark looked longingly at the first class leather seats as he went by.
For an hour Mark sat next to Bobby in silence thinking about the race.
Bobby looked at his friend. “Are you nervous?”
“For the race? Yeah,” Mark said moodily. “I feel like I have something to prove.”
“Prove to who?” Bobby asked.
“I don’t know,” Mark muttered, “Suzuki maybe.”
“Or maybe just to yourself,” Bobby said. “If I win all three motos this weekend and you get second all of them, will you still win the series?”
“Yeah, but why would that happen?” Mark asked.
“I think riding with you has made me faster this week!” Bobby laughed happily to his friend.
They got off the plane and walked out into the baggage claim area to get Mark’s parent suitcase.
As they were walking to the exit Mark asked “Jeff, how are we getting to the track?” Before Jeff had a chance, Mark’s question was answered when he saw Bud Smith wearing the Factory Suzuki pit shirt.
“I didn’t think you guys would want to walk to the track, so I came to pick you up!” Bud called out to them. Jeff introduced Mark’s parents and brothers to Bud.
“Very nice to meet you,” he said, shaking Mark’s dad’s hand. They walked into the parking lot where they got in to a large van. It wasn’t like one of the nice vans that Mark had ridden in with TPA. There was a dent in the side and on the seat there was a stain that looked like someone had puked on it. Mark tried very hard not to get this seat. Carson ended up getting it.
“Sorry about the crappy van.” Bud said, “We rented it. This was the only one there was.”
“Oh it’s fine,” Mark’s mom said. “We’re very glad we didn’t have to drive up! Thank you so very much for the plane ride.”
“Oh and about the flight,” Mark started, “Why didn’t we get to sit first-,” Mark mom flashed him a look and Mark stopped.
“What’s that Mark?” Bud asked.
“Nothing I was just agreeing with my mom. Thanks for the plane ride,” he quickly recovered under his mom’s glare.
“No problem buddy,” Bud said. It was about 9:45 and it was starting to heat up. So was the van, and it didn’t have any air conditioning.
“Why’d you rent a van? Just to pick us up?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, and I need to pick up some more of the team tomorrow.” Bud answered.
“The rest of the team?” Mark asked confused.
“Yeah some of your teammates are coming up to watch you,” Bud said.
“Really?!” Mark exclaimed. “Sweet!”
The forest thickened as they got farther and farther into the mountains. “Are we there yet?” Mark asked impatiently as he glanced out the window at some passing houses.
“Almost,” Bud said. After another 15 minutes, they came to a line of cars and trailers. The line was moving surprisingly quick, but not quick enough. Their van was stuck behind a diesel truck and it was smelling pretty bad when they entered the gates of the track. They dropped Bobby off at his trailer. Mark shouted after him: “I’ll see you in a couple of hours!”
They pulled up next to the semi. Mark hopped out and ran through the grass to the semi where his bikes were sitting on stands. Mark pulled out his brand new mountain bike that Pro-Taper had given him. He was already pedaling away toward Bobby’s trailer while Jeff started getting the tools to rebuild Mark’s engines. Mark rode slowly by all the trailers, seeing who was there. He spotted TPA’s semi and rode over to it. Mark still couldn’t believe that they were sponsoring Blake Gopy.
Kasey and Matt were sitting at a picnic table, Mark went over to them.
“Well, well ,well,” Kasey said. “Look who we have here.”
“It’s Mister “I’m to good for TPA!” Matt said.
“Listen guys, I’m sorry-,” Mark started.
“It’s okay,” Kasey cut him off.
“I would have done the same thing,” Matt told him.
‘So you guys aren’t mad?” Mark asked, surprised.
“Nah,” Matt said shaking his head. “Jordan was though. I don’t know if team managers ever take it well when a rider quits.”
“How mad” Mark asked.
“Mad enough to hire that little brat to be our 85 rider!” Kasey exclaimed.
They spent a few minutes criticizing Blake. Finally Mark grew restless. “I’ve got to go and walk the track,” he told them. He rode down to Bobby’s trailer. Stephanie was there, but he didn’t see Bobby.
“Hey Mark,” Steph said when she saw him.
“Hi,” Mark said.
“You look hot. Do you want anything to drink?”
“No thanks,” Mark said. He was tempted, but he needed to find Bobby. “Where’s Bobby?”
“He went looking for you,” she said. “He should be up by the track.” The Andrews were parked near the bottom of the pits. It was a steep hill back up to the top. Mark shifted his bike into first and started pedaling up the hill. He glanced over at Chris Gillworth’s trailer, where he was surprised to see Chris Gillworth and Bobby sitting in chairs. Mark rode over to them and sat down.
“What’s up?” Chris asked.
“Nuthin much,” Mark said.
“We were talking about the track,” Bobby commented. “Do you guys wanna go walk it?”
The agreed and all three of them got on their bikes and headed up to the track. The trees shaded them from the 85 degree heat until they pulled onto the track. Chris pulled off his shirt followed by Mark and Bobby. Chris had a six pack and all the girls were glancing at him as they road their bikes down the dirt. When they got to Horsepower Hill, the long and straight uphill, they hopped off their bikes and started pushing them up the hill. All the while Chris was telling them about his trips to Loretta’s and other nationals.
“I wanna go to Loretta’s next year,” Mark interrupted.
“It’s fun!” Bobby said.
“You’ve been there?” Mark asked surprised.
“Yeah, I raced 85 7-11. I broke my arm in 3 places first lap of practice,” Bobby told them.
“That was you?!” Chris asked. “I remember that! I was there!”
“Yeah… I got it fixed and then stayed for the rest of the week. It was fun.”
Mark, Chris and Bobby continued walking the track and talking about regular stuff like school, girls, teachers, bikes, girls. By the time they had walked the whole track, it was around 4:00. Mark asked the other two if they wanted to go back to the Suzuki semi to hang out.
“Nah I’ve got to go find my parent and sign up,” Chris said. Mark road his muddy bike back to the trailer where he found Jeff working on one of his bikes as usual.
“You ready to go sign up?” Mark asked.
“Yep, let me wash my hands.” Jeff went in the trailer and came out a minute later. “Lets go.” They walked over to the tower where the sign up was. The lines were extremely long. They got in the right line and stood there.
“I think we’ll be here a while,” said a man standing in front of Jeff and Mark.
“Yeah it looks that way,” Jeff replied, looking around at the hundreds of other people fanning themselves and waiting to sign up.
“You’re Mark Peterson, huh?” the man asked. “Josh races you.” He put his hand on his son’s shoulder. Mark took him to be Josh. He was a tiny kid. Couldn’t be over 4 foot 5.
“Yeah that’s me,” Mark told them. “How’d you do last weekend?”
“I got 12th,” Josh said. “I heard you got second. I was right next to you in the start. Why didn’t you go when the gate dropped?”
“My bike died,” Mark grimaced.
‘Oh, that sticks,” said Josh nodding. “But at least you got back to second. You passed me. You’re so fast!! You like don’t even let off the gas to go through a corner!”
“Uhh, thanks… It just takes practice,” Mark answered modestly. “Where are you guys from?”
“Florida. That track that we were at last weekend is our home track,” Josh’s dad replied. They talked to Josh and his father until they were at the front of the line and signed up. The conversation made the heat and long wait a bit more bearable.
Mark couldn’t wait for the next day’s practice.
As Jeff and mark headed back to the semi, they talked about the track.
“It’s gonna get rutted, I can already tell,” Jeff explained to Mark, “It’s already over-watered and it’s just gonna get worse tomorrow.”
Mark looked at the soft tilled brown dirt just waiting to be torn up by hundreds of rear tires the next day. As they approached the trailer, he saw some of his teammates sitting around. They must of gotten there while Mark was signing up. When the other boys caught sight of Mark, they ran up to him. Eli Tomac, Jason Anderson, Ian Trettel were all there.
“Hey guys,” Mark said.
‘Wanna go walk the track?” Eli asked.
“Sure,” Mark replied.
And once again Mark was walking the track.
“I heard about you going 1-2 in the 85 class last week,” Ian commented, “What happened?”
“My bike died off the line so I had to work my way through the pack, and by the time I was in second, Gillworth was already like 10 seconds ahead.”
“Dang,” Eli said, “I’ve raced against Gillworth before, he’s fast,”
It was dark by the time they were nearing the whoops at the end of the track. There were at least 200 kids riding their bikes up and down the large whoops. Mark didn’t even know why they were called whoops, it was more like a rhythm section. He spotted Bobby sitting at a picnic table watching everyone. They walked over to him.
‘Guys, this is my best friend Bobby. Bobby this is Jason, Eli and Ian.” Mark introduced them.
“Nice to meet you,” Bobby replied. He glanced at their muddy shoes, “been walking the track?”
“Yep,” Jason replied, “It looks good, I sure wish I could ride it,”
“yeah, I’m pretty excited myself,” Mark said. The three of them talked for a while and then started heading back for the Semi to go to bed.
“Where are you guys sleeping?” Mark asked.
“In a tent,” Ian replied.
“Jeff would never let me sleep in a tent tonight he would say it would hurt my back or make me sore or something.” Mark said. And that’s exactly what he did say when Mark asked him. So he was stuck sleeping in the RV with his parents.
The next morning Mark woke up to the revving of his 85. He hopped out of bed and went outside. It was a cloudy misty day, but the weatherman promised the sun would come out.
Jeff was working on his 85. “I just realized,” Jeff said, “It needed re-jetting. Get your gear on, your first practice starts in half an hour.” Mark went inside the trailer and looked in the closet. He had 10 sets of gear. He finally picked out some blue and white pants, with a pair of yellow and black boots. He only had 3 pairs of boots. There was a brand new helmet waiting for him in the trailer as well. Suzuki had gotten him a Leatt Brace and he had been riding with it the week before. It was custom painted. Completely white with decals that said his sponsors name and stuff like that. It was really cool.
“Let’s head down to the starting line,” jeff called into the trailer. Mark got onto his bike which jeff was holding for him, and Jeff got on the back. The rear suspension was compressed by now, with Mark weighing about 120 and who knows how much Jeff ways.
Mark pulled up to josh, the boy who was in front of them in the signup line the day before.
“What’s up?” Mark asked.
“Not much,” Josh said looking at Marks bike. Mark glanced at Josh’s bike. It was a Suzuki also, but not anywhere as nice as Marks.
“Jeez, how much money is in that suspension?” Josh asked.
“I really don’t know,” Mark answered glancing at his forks. They were done by Factory Connection and were anodized a dark brownish sort of color. “A lot probably.” A guy walked out onto the track and signaled the right side to go. Mark tried to get near the front and he did.
The track was a little bit muddy, and ruts were starting to form. Mark was doubling through the whoops, but wanted to triple into them. There was a rut up the face on the outside line, but it wouldn’t get him far enough. Before Mark could try the inside line, the practice was over. Only 3 laps. At least he got 5 more practices that day. He made his way back to the trailer.
“get on your supermini bike you have another practice in 10 minutes.” Jeff said. Mark did as he was told and headed for the practice line. The superminis were just starting when Mark got their. He waited a minute before going so he would’t have to work his way through much traffic.
Mark headed up the long Horsepower Hill. He made his way through the wet soil to the whoops. Mark came into the corner in second gear, took the outside, cut away from the rut, pinned it and sailed over 3 whoops. Mark was so happy he pumped his fist in the air, then went another lap. The next lap Mark triples into the whoops, then tried tripling the next three, but wasn’t so lucky this time. He cased the landing and went over the bars. Luckily he landed in the sand and didn’t land that hard. He went back to his bike, picked it up and threw a leg over it.
“Shoot!” Mark exclaimed. His bars were terribly bent. He was gonna have to finish this practice a little early.
It was 40 minutes until Marks next practice, so he was standing on the side of the track watching the 85 open practice. Bobby was looking very, very fast. He was riding the ruts like it was flat ground, but he was not tripling through the whoops. The practice ended and the 125 Intermediate’s were out on the track. None of them were tripling the whoops. After the 125’s were done Mark headed back to the semi to get ready. Eli, Jason and Ian were all watching the practices with Mark’s parents and Bud.
“Let’s get movin,” Jeff said, “I want to see your lap time drop over a second alright?”
“Alright,” Mark answered. He thought he could do it if he triple tripled the whoops. Jeff headed to the mechanics area to hold the pitboard.
Bobby got to the front of the practice line this time, bobby was the only person ahead of him. When they gave them the signal to go, Bobby got on the gas with Mark hot on his tail. Mark was very surprised when Bobby pulled about 2 seconds ahead. He was doing everything he could to catch up, while Bobby looked very smooth and consistent in the ruts. The only place Mark caught up was on Horsepower Hill because of his strong factory motor, and in the rough straight-aways because of his superb suspension. The whoops made up the most time though. When practice ended Bobby was a good 5 seconds ahead.
“I see you took your vitamins this morning,” Mark told bobby back at his trailer.
“Yeah,” Bobby answered, “I felt really good,”
“Good job,” Mark rode back to the Suzuki trailer. He asked Jeff, “Did I look slow out there or was Bobby just fast?”
“That boy is on fire,” Jeff emphasized, “He just rips through those corners.”
“Yeah. I could barely keep up.”
“As far as I could see, you couldn’t keep up. Those whoops are the only spot you make up any time.” Jeff said, “Get ready you have another practice in a few minutes.”
Mark spent the next day hammering down some hard laps on his 85 practice bike with Bobby. He had been doing the two table tops all day. He didn’t know why he hadn’t done them the day before because now they seemed easy.
At 2:00 they parked their bikes and went into the house to relax for the rest of the day. They went to bed at 8:00 because their flight left at 5:00 AM.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. The alarm went off in Mark’s room and he got out of bed. He pulled on some jeans and a Rockstar Energy tee-shirt and woke Bobby up. They walked down stairs where everyone was waiting for them. Mark’s mom had a suitcase for her and Mr. Peterson.
“Mom, you’re only gonna be there 5 days. You didn’t need to pack your whole closet!” Mark told her.
“Oh well,” she shrugged.
.
They took 2 cars to the airport, because they couldn’t all fit into the back seat. Mark found himself crammed between Bobby and Carson in the back seat.
“Eww, didn’t you take a shower last night?” Mark asked Carson.
“Uhh no,” Carson answered.
Mark huffily lectured his little brother: “You should take a shower every night. Or at least put on deodorant!” After about 15 minutes they arrived at the airport. They sat in the hard plastic seats at their gate waiting to load. It was starting to get light out about now. Mark had just fallen asleep when he was shook awake by Jeff. Jeff had just been lecturing Mark on the importance of air filter changes.
“So like I was saying, if the dirt gets past that filter”-
“Jeff,” Mark yawned, “I thought the reason I have a mechanic is for you to do all that stuff.”
“Well it is, but I might not be around someday so you’ll need to change your own air filter.” Just then the plane started boarding. Mark and his family got in line. They were happy to give the lady their ticket so that they could finally go sit in the comfortable seats and go to sleep. Suzuki was paying for the family’s plane ride to Washington so his whole family could attend the final race. They would also have an RV for them to stay in
“Why didn’t Suzuki get us first class seats?” Mark asked Jeff.
“Good question,” Jeff said dryly. “I’ll have to talk to Bud about that.” Mark looked longingly at the first class leather seats as he went by.
For an hour Mark sat next to Bobby in silence thinking about the race.
Bobby looked at his friend. “Are you nervous?”
“For the race? Yeah,” Mark said moodily. “I feel like I have something to prove.”
“Prove to who?” Bobby asked.
“I don’t know,” Mark muttered, “Suzuki maybe.”
“Or maybe just to yourself,” Bobby said. “If I win all three motos this weekend and you get second all of them, will you still win the series?”
“Yeah, but why would that happen?” Mark asked.
“I think riding with you has made me faster this week!” Bobby laughed happily to his friend.
They got off the plane and walked out into the baggage claim area to get Mark’s parent suitcase.
As they were walking to the exit Mark asked “Jeff, how are we getting to the track?” Before Jeff had a chance, Mark’s question was answered when he saw Bud Smith wearing the Factory Suzuki pit shirt.
“I didn’t think you guys would want to walk to the track, so I came to pick you up!” Bud called out to them. Jeff introduced Mark’s parents and brothers to Bud.
“Very nice to meet you,” he said, shaking Mark’s dad’s hand. They walked into the parking lot where they got in to a large van. It wasn’t like one of the nice vans that Mark had ridden in with TPA. There was a dent in the side and on the seat there was a stain that looked like someone had puked on it. Mark tried very hard not to get this seat. Carson ended up getting it.
“Sorry about the crappy van.” Bud said, “We rented it. This was the only one there was.”
“Oh it’s fine,” Mark’s mom said. “We’re very glad we didn’t have to drive up! Thank you so very much for the plane ride.”
“Oh and about the flight,” Mark started, “Why didn’t we get to sit first-,” Mark mom flashed him a look and Mark stopped.
“What’s that Mark?” Bud asked.
“Nothing I was just agreeing with my mom. Thanks for the plane ride,” he quickly recovered under his mom’s glare.
“No problem buddy,” Bud said. It was about 9:45 and it was starting to heat up. So was the van, and it didn’t have any air conditioning.
“Why’d you rent a van? Just to pick us up?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, and I need to pick up some more of the team tomorrow.” Bud answered.
“The rest of the team?” Mark asked confused.
“Yeah some of your teammates are coming up to watch you,” Bud said.
“Really?!” Mark exclaimed. “Sweet!”
The forest thickened as they got farther and farther into the mountains. “Are we there yet?” Mark asked impatiently as he glanced out the window at some passing houses.
“Almost,” Bud said. After another 15 minutes, they came to a line of cars and trailers. The line was moving surprisingly quick, but not quick enough. Their van was stuck behind a diesel truck and it was smelling pretty bad when they entered the gates of the track. They dropped Bobby off at his trailer. Mark shouted after him: “I’ll see you in a couple of hours!”
They pulled up next to the semi. Mark hopped out and ran through the grass to the semi where his bikes were sitting on stands. Mark pulled out his brand new mountain bike that Pro-Taper had given him. He was already pedaling away toward Bobby’s trailer while Jeff started getting the tools to rebuild Mark’s engines. Mark rode slowly by all the trailers, seeing who was there. He spotted TPA’s semi and rode over to it. Mark still couldn’t believe that they were sponsoring Blake Gopy.
Kasey and Matt were sitting at a picnic table, Mark went over to them.
“Well, well ,well,” Kasey said. “Look who we have here.”
“It’s Mister “I’m to good for TPA!” Matt said.
“Listen guys, I’m sorry-,” Mark started.
“It’s okay,” Kasey cut him off.
“I would have done the same thing,” Matt told him.
‘So you guys aren’t mad?” Mark asked, surprised.
“Nah,” Matt said shaking his head. “Jordan was though. I don’t know if team managers ever take it well when a rider quits.”
“How mad” Mark asked.
“Mad enough to hire that little brat to be our 85 rider!” Kasey exclaimed.
They spent a few minutes criticizing Blake. Finally Mark grew restless. “I’ve got to go and walk the track,” he told them. He rode down to Bobby’s trailer. Stephanie was there, but he didn’t see Bobby.
“Hey Mark,” Steph said when she saw him.
“Hi,” Mark said.
“You look hot. Do you want anything to drink?”
“No thanks,” Mark said. He was tempted, but he needed to find Bobby. “Where’s Bobby?”
“He went looking for you,” she said. “He should be up by the track.” The Andrews were parked near the bottom of the pits. It was a steep hill back up to the top. Mark shifted his bike into first and started pedaling up the hill. He glanced over at Chris Gillworth’s trailer, where he was surprised to see Chris Gillworth and Bobby sitting in chairs. Mark rode over to them and sat down.
“What’s up?” Chris asked.
“Nuthin much,” Mark said.
“We were talking about the track,” Bobby commented. “Do you guys wanna go walk it?”
The agreed and all three of them got on their bikes and headed up to the track. The trees shaded them from the 85 degree heat until they pulled onto the track. Chris pulled off his shirt followed by Mark and Bobby. Chris had a six pack and all the girls were glancing at him as they road their bikes down the dirt. When they got to Horsepower Hill, the long and straight uphill, they hopped off their bikes and started pushing them up the hill. All the while Chris was telling them about his trips to Loretta’s and other nationals.
“I wanna go to Loretta’s next year,” Mark interrupted.
“It’s fun!” Bobby said.
“You’ve been there?” Mark asked surprised.
“Yeah, I raced 85 7-11. I broke my arm in 3 places first lap of practice,” Bobby told them.
“That was you?!” Chris asked. “I remember that! I was there!”
“Yeah… I got it fixed and then stayed for the rest of the week. It was fun.”
Mark, Chris and Bobby continued walking the track and talking about regular stuff like school, girls, teachers, bikes, girls. By the time they had walked the whole track, it was around 4:00. Mark asked the other two if they wanted to go back to the Suzuki semi to hang out.
“Nah I’ve got to go find my parent and sign up,” Chris said. Mark road his muddy bike back to the trailer where he found Jeff working on one of his bikes as usual.
“You ready to go sign up?” Mark asked.
“Yep, let me wash my hands.” Jeff went in the trailer and came out a minute later. “Lets go.” They walked over to the tower where the sign up was. The lines were extremely long. They got in the right line and stood there.
“I think we’ll be here a while,” said a man standing in front of Jeff and Mark.
“Yeah it looks that way,” Jeff replied, looking around at the hundreds of other people fanning themselves and waiting to sign up.
“You’re Mark Peterson, huh?” the man asked. “Josh races you.” He put his hand on his son’s shoulder. Mark took him to be Josh. He was a tiny kid. Couldn’t be over 4 foot 5.
“Yeah that’s me,” Mark told them. “How’d you do last weekend?”
“I got 12th,” Josh said. “I heard you got second. I was right next to you in the start. Why didn’t you go when the gate dropped?”
“My bike died,” Mark grimaced.
‘Oh, that sticks,” said Josh nodding. “But at least you got back to second. You passed me. You’re so fast!! You like don’t even let off the gas to go through a corner!”
“Uhh, thanks… It just takes practice,” Mark answered modestly. “Where are you guys from?”
“Florida. That track that we were at last weekend is our home track,” Josh’s dad replied. They talked to Josh and his father until they were at the front of the line and signed up. The conversation made the heat and long wait a bit more bearable.
Mark couldn’t wait for the next day’s practice.
As Jeff and mark headed back to the semi, they talked about the track.
“It’s gonna get rutted, I can already tell,” Jeff explained to Mark, “It’s already over-watered and it’s just gonna get worse tomorrow.”
Mark looked at the soft tilled brown dirt just waiting to be torn up by hundreds of rear tires the next day. As they approached the trailer, he saw some of his teammates sitting around. They must of gotten there while Mark was signing up. When the other boys caught sight of Mark, they ran up to him. Eli Tomac, Jason Anderson, Ian Trettel were all there.
“Hey guys,” Mark said.
‘Wanna go walk the track?” Eli asked.
“Sure,” Mark replied.
And once again Mark was walking the track.
“I heard about you going 1-2 in the 85 class last week,” Ian commented, “What happened?”
“My bike died off the line so I had to work my way through the pack, and by the time I was in second, Gillworth was already like 10 seconds ahead.”
“Dang,” Eli said, “I’ve raced against Gillworth before, he’s fast,”
It was dark by the time they were nearing the whoops at the end of the track. There were at least 200 kids riding their bikes up and down the large whoops. Mark didn’t even know why they were called whoops, it was more like a rhythm section. He spotted Bobby sitting at a picnic table watching everyone. They walked over to him.
‘Guys, this is my best friend Bobby. Bobby this is Jason, Eli and Ian.” Mark introduced them.
“Nice to meet you,” Bobby replied. He glanced at their muddy shoes, “been walking the track?”
“Yep,” Jason replied, “It looks good, I sure wish I could ride it,”
“yeah, I’m pretty excited myself,” Mark said. The three of them talked for a while and then started heading back for the Semi to go to bed.
“Where are you guys sleeping?” Mark asked.
“In a tent,” Ian replied.
“Jeff would never let me sleep in a tent tonight he would say it would hurt my back or make me sore or something.” Mark said. And that’s exactly what he did say when Mark asked him. So he was stuck sleeping in the RV with his parents.
The next morning Mark woke up to the revving of his 85. He hopped out of bed and went outside. It was a cloudy misty day, but the weatherman promised the sun would come out.
Jeff was working on his 85. “I just realized,” Jeff said, “It needed re-jetting. Get your gear on, your first practice starts in half an hour.” Mark went inside the trailer and looked in the closet. He had 10 sets of gear. He finally picked out some blue and white pants, with a pair of yellow and black boots. He only had 3 pairs of boots. There was a brand new helmet waiting for him in the trailer as well. Suzuki had gotten him a Leatt Brace and he had been riding with it the week before. It was custom painted. Completely white with decals that said his sponsors name and stuff like that. It was really cool.
“Let’s head down to the starting line,” jeff called into the trailer. Mark got onto his bike which jeff was holding for him, and Jeff got on the back. The rear suspension was compressed by now, with Mark weighing about 120 and who knows how much Jeff ways.
Mark pulled up to josh, the boy who was in front of them in the signup line the day before.
“What’s up?” Mark asked.
“Not much,” Josh said looking at Marks bike. Mark glanced at Josh’s bike. It was a Suzuki also, but not anywhere as nice as Marks.
“Jeez, how much money is in that suspension?” Josh asked.
“I really don’t know,” Mark answered glancing at his forks. They were done by Factory Connection and were anodized a dark brownish sort of color. “A lot probably.” A guy walked out onto the track and signaled the right side to go. Mark tried to get near the front and he did.
The track was a little bit muddy, and ruts were starting to form. Mark was doubling through the whoops, but wanted to triple into them. There was a rut up the face on the outside line, but it wouldn’t get him far enough. Before Mark could try the inside line, the practice was over. Only 3 laps. At least he got 5 more practices that day. He made his way back to the trailer.
“get on your supermini bike you have another practice in 10 minutes.” Jeff said. Mark did as he was told and headed for the practice line. The superminis were just starting when Mark got their. He waited a minute before going so he would’t have to work his way through much traffic.
Mark headed up the long Horsepower Hill. He made his way through the wet soil to the whoops. Mark came into the corner in second gear, took the outside, cut away from the rut, pinned it and sailed over 3 whoops. Mark was so happy he pumped his fist in the air, then went another lap. The next lap Mark triples into the whoops, then tried tripling the next three, but wasn’t so lucky this time. He cased the landing and went over the bars. Luckily he landed in the sand and didn’t land that hard. He went back to his bike, picked it up and threw a leg over it.
“Shoot!” Mark exclaimed. His bars were terribly bent. He was gonna have to finish this practice a little early.
It was 40 minutes until Marks next practice, so he was standing on the side of the track watching the 85 open practice. Bobby was looking very, very fast. He was riding the ruts like it was flat ground, but he was not tripling through the whoops. The practice ended and the 125 Intermediate’s were out on the track. None of them were tripling the whoops. After the 125’s were done Mark headed back to the semi to get ready. Eli, Jason and Ian were all watching the practices with Mark’s parents and Bud.
“Let’s get movin,” Jeff said, “I want to see your lap time drop over a second alright?”
“Alright,” Mark answered. He thought he could do it if he triple tripled the whoops. Jeff headed to the mechanics area to hold the pitboard.
Bobby got to the front of the practice line this time, bobby was the only person ahead of him. When they gave them the signal to go, Bobby got on the gas with Mark hot on his tail. Mark was very surprised when Bobby pulled about 2 seconds ahead. He was doing everything he could to catch up, while Bobby looked very smooth and consistent in the ruts. The only place Mark caught up was on Horsepower Hill because of his strong factory motor, and in the rough straight-aways because of his superb suspension. The whoops made up the most time though. When practice ended Bobby was a good 5 seconds ahead.
“I see you took your vitamins this morning,” Mark told bobby back at his trailer.
“Yeah,” Bobby answered, “I felt really good,”
“Good job,” Mark rode back to the Suzuki trailer. He asked Jeff, “Did I look slow out there or was Bobby just fast?”
“That boy is on fire,” Jeff emphasized, “He just rips through those corners.”
“Yeah. I could barely keep up.”
“As far as I could see, you couldn’t keep up. Those whoops are the only spot you make up any time.” Jeff said, “Get ready you have another practice in a few minutes.”
