Viewfinders GP report

[holeshot]

I left at 5:15 am, hoping to make Ridgecrest in time for the unclassified, but I got there just a little too late, so I entered the four stroke class instead (scheduled later in the day). I had a few "incidents", including a crashed bike that took 20 minutes to restart, tear-offs that came of all at once (couldn't see, crashed), plugged alternate line, etc., so I didn’t even make one good lap, but at least I finished.

The second day, I went to the Ridgecrest Honda dealer and bought some laminated tearoffs (packs of 7) and then to Walmart to purchase a plastic “For Rent” sign to construct a homemade mud flap for the front fender. Things would be better now – I was prepared. Through the first mudhole, my homemade mud flap seemed to be working and, as I neared the end of the first lap, I was thinking, “ Damn, I'll bet my lap time is at least 2 minutes faster than my best yesterday”. Nope. As I enter the grandstand waterhole, for some reason I decided to go to the right. Almost immediately, something grabbed my front wheel and turned it into a rudder. I hit the deepest part of the pond with a big splash and the grandstand crowd cheered. I’ve always been a crowd pleaser – I feel it’s my duty. My homemade mud flap was half ripped off, but the bike hadn’t sucked any water (I hope) because it landed near the edge, wheels pointing up. Both boots felt like they had a gallon of water in them (nice). At this point, I felt ready to take a snooze right there on the bike, so I called it a day.

Oh well, maybe next time……

 

[kelsorat]

Good report. How was the tire garden portion of the track?

 

[holeshot]

The tire garden was two alternate lines in lieu of the grandstand water hole. I tried an alternate my first time through, but someone had knocked a tire into the line, leaving no place to go except a tiny space leading through to the second alternate (after back peddaling a bit). The course worker says, "go through, you have room". Yeah right, maybe if I were riding a mini-bike and knew in advance. That's the last time I went for the tire garden.

The second, deeper mudhole on the far side of the course had no alternates - you had to go though it.

The logs proved to be fairly easy. I high centered a little at the top a few times, but no biggie.

The Viewfinders made good use of the flat terrain out there and kept the course well watered.