Wow. What a freakin weekend. What you will find here is nothing but the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth... as I see it :)
Friday I fly in from San Diego. I give Gomer a call as I am heading towards baggage. I'm feelin good up to this point, then I step out of the airport and an immediate wave of humidity and heat hit me like a brick wall!!! My body is already screaming at me for food and now it feels the heat so my hunger turns to nausia and as the humidity ignites my sweat glands on comes the migraine! I don't even get to my truck before my sight goes cross, head starts to hurt and I get the dry heaves.
Fortunately, a full blast of a/c from the truck and sitting there with my eyes closed for 10 minutes made me feel well enough to run to the nearest fast food joint and get some food inside. I hit Krystals and grab some bite size burgers, tastes good and keeps the dry heaves at bay but the migraine is still there. Friday night sucked... but I did get to watch SG-1 (my favorite show right now).
Saturday morning I wake up and I am feeling really, really, really, really, really, really, really good. My bed is so damn comfortable that I stayed in it another 2 hours with the post migraine euphoria :)
I get to TNT around 1pm. Dave 96whyzee125, Jer SOLO and I take a ride through the woods. It was HOT. Not hot as in "wow I'm hot" but DAMN HOT!! I was hating life. I wanted to take off and get back to the cool temps and low humidity of San Diego as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards. I did take some time to talk to Dave and SOLO's mom. Dave is a pretty good guy and his son didn't seem to tire out the entire day. SOLO's parents are great. I really appreciate the sacrifice they make for SOLO so he can ride and enjoy things at his age. They are very nice people and are raising a really, really good son (he just needs to do his homework <g>).
Got to see a Cannondale C440. It sure did look nice. Didn't ride it b/c I was tired and didn't want to wear myself out since I was racing that night. Wrench gets there and after he and Gomer get the new tires on Wrench's bike he and I take off to Top Gun MX to race. Unfortunately, the ride was longer than I thought and we got there too late to practice :( The good news is that Lincolnton / Iron Gate NC is high enough in the mountains / foothills that the temps were a good 5 to 10 degrees cooler.
The heat race starts with two drops. 250A/B and C on one drop and 250D on the second. Unfortunately, the track is way too small for that many riders (over 20) and that many different skills. Wrench gets a good start. I don't. I go too far straight and completely blow the turn. All of my class is heading over the ski jump before I even get oriented enough to turn.
The ski jump is cool. It is about 25 feet from take off to the drop down landing. I like it. There are also 2 triples on the track and a few easy doubles. The triples are both set up around 70 feet or so. The take off dips afterwards and slightly comes up so if you double and come up short it isn't that bad. Then the second lip goes down slightly but tapers down over the remainder of the jump so it almost is like a single to a table top but there is enough of a lip between the first and second landing that it looks like a cool triple. The A riders definately made it look cool. Then again, they made the single single into a large double so I guess they make anything look cool.
Ok, so now I'm way, way behind on an unfamiliar track. I decide just to enjoy it. Everyone, including Wrench, is so far ahead that I know I have no hope. Then I come around after the 1st lap and see the ski jump. I'm in 2nd gear and I twist it. I hit the face and fly and notice Wrench entering the left-hander after the ski jump. The jump was cool but since the ski jump fell away when I landed I was in too low of a gear to keep my momentum going well. I start trying to remember the track and double both triples and double one of the easy doubles. Then we come back and I can see Wrench close enough that I feel I can catch him. Good since it is the 3rd lap and time is running out (heat races are 3 laps and the main is 5 laps).
I hit the throttle in 2nd and loft off of the ski jump. I see Wrench and I shift to 3rd. Then I hit the ground and keep my momentum up and around the turn and then around the next. He stays in all the good lines and I have a time getting around him. Finally, I double the first triple and move right up with him. Then I double the second triple and almost go off the side and into the pond!!! Fortunately, I keep dirt under me and make the pass.
2 or 3 turns later I am thinking how much I like the track when I see a table top and I think it is a long one so I shift to third and hit it hard. OH SHINOLA!!!! Behind me goes the landing and up comes the turn. I am hard on the brakes when I land and slide up and and over the berm sideways!!! The flagman is standing there soiling his shorts as Wrench goes by, takes a right hander and over the finish line jump.
Well, overall last place isn't too bad since I was forced to learn the track in 3 hot laps. Then again, so did Wrench.
In the gate waiting to go out for the main I heard that there was a kid in the 125D class running a 250D. That upset me a little since he was allowed and I wasn't. Then I remembered, if I had the chance to run 125D I'd lie and say I had a 267 just so I could stay in the 250D class. Those 125D kids are scary :)
Also, on the 4-wheeler start two guys got tangled up and after about 30 seconds one threw a punch at the other. A real punch too, not one of those Vuilleman wimpy slaps. He was thrown out on the spot. The other guy took off and bobbled and went into the chain link fence.
On the start, instead of 5 people that were in the heat there were 7 for the main in 250D. They trophy 5 spots so I'll have to earn it or get lucky.
On the start I'm in last place but in the hunt. I end up getting around Wrench by following a guy on a Honda. The guy on the Honda and I are battling pretty good. I'm behind him and then on the 3rd lap I try to pass him on a table top. The same table top that I overjumped, I overjump again. I do the same brake lock up and the flagman gets another opportunity to dirty his shorts... ooops.
That took me away from the battle and the Honda is gone and I have my position locked up so I decide just to chill since the A riders are lapping us. 3 of them go by no problem as I hold my line and double while they triple. Then on the last lap I move up on a corner and go wide so I can give the A rider the inside. I go high and am already exiting the corner when one of the A riders tries to take me on the outside... all 4" of it!!!
Needless to say our bars get tangled, I go down and he goes down. I notice as we are going down that we almost hit a flagger. Poor guys.
I jump up and start yelling at the guy, "Sir, might I inquire why you didn't take the inside as I gave you as much of an opportunity to take that line as possible. I held my line on the outside, sir and am quite perplexed as to why you didn't take the inside." However, it sounded a lot more like "You stupid $%^& I gave you the entire *&^%$$# inside line. You A riders are dumber than most &^$% D *&%^#@ riders!!"
He didn't reply but just got his bike off mine and took off. I drive up a little and see a pack coming so I pull to the side and let them fly by. I then pull out and finish the final lap in last place of my class. They mark me as a DNF for some reason but I got that sorted out. The last thing I wanted was to waste my 7th place points, the skin on my elbow and the small bruise bubbling on my upper right thigh b/c of a scoring error. Granted it was last place but it was worth 7th place points and last place any other time would be 14th or 15th so I wanted those 7th place points.
Wrench and I hit the bed around midnight (seperate beds... I slept with my wife, honest <vbg>) and plan on getting up around 7 or 8am to hit TNT and ride with everyone. I remember thinking as I laid my head down... tomorrow will be better.
We get up a little later than expected and immediately start up and take off. We get 10 feet and I notice I had a flat front tire!!!
(**&&^^ &(&&( (&(^(*^ oh, and (&(Y(*(&_*&(*)&IU!!!!!!!
We get the tire changed and get to TNT but I'm not feeling good so I take it easy. I miss out on riding with the Scott's and others b/c of bad timing on my part. I miss out on riding with Stumpy b/c he decided at the most inoportune time on Tuesday that he needed a nail sample from his right big toe!!! Yep. Come to find out he hit something and broke his toe. It also popped his toe nail out. Yuck.
Finally, I do a light loop through the woods with SpokerAce and it was a nice loop. Then I take a long break and go talk to Bruce McCrarry and his son, Bryan, in their air conditioned motorhome. Finally they talk me into a loop in the woods.
As we hit the woods I can actually feel the temperature dropping a degree or two. Bryan takes off on his KX250 and is flying. He definately has some great speed. Bruce is kind enough to let me try... try... and chase him down!! Wow. Bryan is fast. This is only his third ride on the 250 after moving up from the 125 but you can tell he is really comfortable. There were a couple sections where he'd wheelie over all the rough stuff while I just pounded through. I tried to wheelie once and it felt good over the rough stuff until my back tire broke loose and I almost hit... ok, I did... hit a tree. I didn't go down but by the time I looked up Bryan was gone, yet again!
We did the entire loop at TNT, the one over the creek on both ends and up. The only thing we didn't do was the tight single track. We took a few breaks but we were moving for the most part. That was the fastest I've ever went through the woods at TNT. I made a lot of mistakes, bounced off a few trees and really enjoyed it.
I then hit the track for a lap and jump everything that I normally jump but one jump. It was nice and I felt really good. However, the temps were dropping and as soon as I got back to the pits it started to rain. I go to concession and wait it out. Then I load up, bs a litlte and go home.
Overall, it was a weekend rating of a 7 and a Sunday rating of a 10. Saturday only sucked b/c of the crash and the flat tire which I noticed on Sunday but attribute to Saturday's ride home.
I had fun and really enjoyed talking to everyone and bs'ing. Riding with so many great people is what I like the most about all this and this was great. I also am very appreciative of Jenni. I was gone for an entire week, come home and take off for two days to hang out with other dirt-heads like myself. I get home and she helps me unload and lock everything up. It's nice to be home.
Now, I look for the rest of the stuff that I missed Saturday night while everyone camped out :eek:
Ivan