- Oct 20, 2000
- 2,963
- 2
Nice and long 4-day weekend so Tigger & I loaded up Saturday afternoon for the last two days of camping & racing at our local monthly mx races. It was very windy Saturday, plus it was a workday at the track, so I didn't even get on my bike until just before dark. It hasn't been running well since DW so I figured it was time for a top end. One of the guys suggested I use his compression tester to compare against my baseline from the last top end, turned out my compression was still very good. What could it be? I had already replaced the plug and still ran bad. (I use the Iridium plugs and hadn't noticed that the electrode was broken on the new plug.) I thought the gap was extremely wide but left my feeler gauge at home. When I pulled it back out, I estimated a 50 -60 gap. Put in another new plug and presto, bike was good as new again. I had about given up entering the race Sunday until I found the problem. Sad part is I know better than to just toss a plug in without gapping it.
Spent the rest of the evening around a campfire with a host of other campers, very nice time was had by all. Before anyone realized it, it was almost 1am so we all turned in. Hopped in the RV where the heater was blasting away and settled in for a short but great nights sleep. The alarm was set for 7am to squeeze in all the sleep I could after staying up so late on a race night.
It was 6am when the voice of God spoke to me. He said "GET UP, THE RV IS ON FIRE!" Battery was dead in the smoke detector and I have no other explanation than this. What ever you want to believe, I woke up just as fire was shooting out from under the central heat unit and flames were starting to creep up the refrigerator. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and it wouldn't work. Showed a full charge but it just wouldn't work. I yelled for Tigger to get up as the motorhome filled with thick smoke from the fire. The fan was still running in the damn thing and wouldn't turn off. I reached through the flames and turned off the gas valve, grabbed a picture of water and threw it on the fire. One wasn't enough. I filled it again and finally got the fire out. Several minutes had passed and the damn heater fan was still running so I ripped the wires out that ran to it. 20 minutes later the smoke had cleared enough to start the generator and get some electric heat going. Back to bed for that last 20 minutes of sleep before the alarm went off.
I let Tigger sleep since I knew she was stressed from the fire. She seemed to recover quickly and was snoozing like a baby so it was on to practice for me.
My local track just finished building another new track. We now have the old track filled with big jumps, whoops and all the other modern day obstacles and now a new track that is more off camber turns, tight turns and a knarley section that resembles stretched out SX whoops leading up to the finish line jump. This was the track we would all run today. I didn't feel disadvantaged because no one has raced this track before. Practice for me was short. I did about two laps and decided I was gonna suck so why waste the energy. There were two races before mine so I took my time getting to the gate. I lined up on the opposite side from everyone else thinking I was gonna get spanked. As the gate dropped I was off faster than a dress on prom night. I had just pulled a hole-shot from hell against all the "big bores" parked next to me. The length of this track is 1 3/4 miles and I held the lead until the last corner. A rider was on my back tire but I wasn't worried because we were running a combined class & I just knew that rider was in the other class. I actually took an outside line to let him pass. Oh crap, he was in my class! Two more riders were sticking a wheel in on me but I wasn't letting anyone else around this time. The next four laps were extreme! In the back section there is a long sweeping, sandy section, that has about 3" of water standing on the inside line. Nobody was taking it until now. The guy on my back wheel was pushing me hard so I thought for a moment. "I can take the dry outside line but I think he's gonna take me by the next corner. It's for sure the faster line but if I take the inside line it's shorter but I'll loose traction, however I'll throw water and mud all over him. I took the inside. :laugh: That held him off until we crossed the finish line dang it. I was thinking we still had one more lap to go so instead of wfo, I set up for the turn and he beat me by a mere 6 inches. I had to settle for 3rd but it was probably the best racing I had ever done. The 2nd moto I got stuffed in the 1st turn and had to settle for 3rd again. It wasn't as much fun as the 1st race but overall, had a good weekend. I gotta count my blessings in each account.
Spent the rest of the evening around a campfire with a host of other campers, very nice time was had by all. Before anyone realized it, it was almost 1am so we all turned in. Hopped in the RV where the heater was blasting away and settled in for a short but great nights sleep. The alarm was set for 7am to squeeze in all the sleep I could after staying up so late on a race night.
It was 6am when the voice of God spoke to me. He said "GET UP, THE RV IS ON FIRE!" Battery was dead in the smoke detector and I have no other explanation than this. What ever you want to believe, I woke up just as fire was shooting out from under the central heat unit and flames were starting to creep up the refrigerator. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and it wouldn't work. Showed a full charge but it just wouldn't work. I yelled for Tigger to get up as the motorhome filled with thick smoke from the fire. The fan was still running in the damn thing and wouldn't turn off. I reached through the flames and turned off the gas valve, grabbed a picture of water and threw it on the fire. One wasn't enough. I filled it again and finally got the fire out. Several minutes had passed and the damn heater fan was still running so I ripped the wires out that ran to it. 20 minutes later the smoke had cleared enough to start the generator and get some electric heat going. Back to bed for that last 20 minutes of sleep before the alarm went off.
I let Tigger sleep since I knew she was stressed from the fire. She seemed to recover quickly and was snoozing like a baby so it was on to practice for me.
My local track just finished building another new track. We now have the old track filled with big jumps, whoops and all the other modern day obstacles and now a new track that is more off camber turns, tight turns and a knarley section that resembles stretched out SX whoops leading up to the finish line jump. This was the track we would all run today. I didn't feel disadvantaged because no one has raced this track before. Practice for me was short. I did about two laps and decided I was gonna suck so why waste the energy. There were two races before mine so I took my time getting to the gate. I lined up on the opposite side from everyone else thinking I was gonna get spanked. As the gate dropped I was off faster than a dress on prom night. I had just pulled a hole-shot from hell against all the "big bores" parked next to me. The length of this track is 1 3/4 miles and I held the lead until the last corner. A rider was on my back tire but I wasn't worried because we were running a combined class & I just knew that rider was in the other class. I actually took an outside line to let him pass. Oh crap, he was in my class! Two more riders were sticking a wheel in on me but I wasn't letting anyone else around this time. The next four laps were extreme! In the back section there is a long sweeping, sandy section, that has about 3" of water standing on the inside line. Nobody was taking it until now. The guy on my back wheel was pushing me hard so I thought for a moment. "I can take the dry outside line but I think he's gonna take me by the next corner. It's for sure the faster line but if I take the inside line it's shorter but I'll loose traction, however I'll throw water and mud all over him. I took the inside. :laugh: That held him off until we crossed the finish line dang it. I was thinking we still had one more lap to go so instead of wfo, I set up for the turn and he beat me by a mere 6 inches. I had to settle for 3rd but it was probably the best racing I had ever done. The 2nd moto I got stuffed in the 1st turn and had to settle for 3rd again. It wasn't as much fun as the 1st race but overall, had a good weekend. I gotta count my blessings in each account.
