| 1999 Race Reports |
July 18, 1999
Kahoka, Missouri
4th of 9 in Open B
One word sums up this race...HOT!! I had been to this race a few years back when it
was very cold and slippery, so I was looking forward to better conditions.
Unfortunately it was very dry and dusty this time. I had stayed up a little later than I
should have the night before, so I didn't have the energy I needed. This was a
National race that draws the pro riders, and the promoters make them longer than
the usual 2 hours (was 2.5, shortened from 3 because of the heat). The entry fee
was a ridiculous $40, plus a $10 gate fee. I wasn't expecting this and didn't have
enough money in my wallet, so I started cleaning out the change cup in my truck for
every spare coin, looking under the seats, hoping to find a forgotten stash of cash.
No luck--I ended up about a buck short. I loaded up my pockets with the coins and
jingled to the signup area, hoping they would have mercy on me and still let me race.
I started dumping my assortment of coins and currency on the signup table and the
nice lady collecting money looked at me funny and said "We do take checks."
A complimentary t-shirt helped ease the pain of the $50 cost of racing. The course
was well suited to my riding style, with a lot of tight woods. They had a nice
motocross track that we came onto a couple of times each lap. Each loop was 10
miles long, and after the second loop I was dead tired. The fourth lap was pure
torture. The heat took its toll on all of the riders. I came across one guy passed out
on the trail, being helped by some EMT's. One of the few things keeping me going
was a sporty young girl hanging out at one of the checkpoints. As the race went on
and the temperature increased, she wore less and less each time I came around.
Talk about inspiration!
After the race mercifully ended, I felt horrible and just laid on the ground for about an
hour. I tried to walk to the signup area and see where I finished, but 20 yards into the
200-yard trip, I felt like I was going to puke so I went back to the truck and cranked up
the air conditioning. After another hour of sleep in the cool confines of the truck, I was
able to try again. I stumbled to the signup area and they had just presented the
overall trophy, won by national rider Doug Blackwell. The Missouri hare scrambles
point leader (Steve Leivan) got 2nd, followed by one of the Garrahan brothers who
later competed in the International Six Days Enduro in Portugal. I ended up in 4th
place in my class, which was my best finish in the Missouri series and one of the
better finishes for the year. I accepted my trophy in a daze. It was very large and now
sits on display on my dining room table. When compared to all riders, I finished well
within the top half. A successful day, but the ride home was very long.
August 8, 1999
Roselawn, Indiana
5th of 19 in C Class
All of the riding I'd been doing this year finally started to pay off at this enduro. I was
on the bike for over 4 hours and didn't start getting tired until just a few miles from the
end. And I rode about as good as I could have. Conditions were perfect, and I got off
to a decent start. In the first section there was one annoying guy who absolutely
refused to get out of the way and let me pass, for about 10 minutes. He was either
an inexperienced racer without knowledge of trail etiquette, or just a real a**hole.
The very last part of the race ran through the same section, and once again I caught
up with the same guy and he still wouldn't move over. No other major hang-ups
except a series of log crossings that held up everyone. Typical Roselawn sand with
lots of whoops. The first and last sections were much drier than the previous two
times I had done the race. During my first ride here in 1996, I got stuck in the
deepest rut I had ever seen. It literally swallowed my bike. This time, the swamp had
somehow been drained.
I did a decent job with the timekeeping, and I was finally starting to understand it
better. I was one minute early to a check, which I shouldn't ever do, but I nailed the
emergency "tiebreaker" check. The object is to get there at 30 seconds into your
minute. At most checks, there's basically a one-minute window for you to reach the
checkpoint. If you're scheduled to arrive at 10:17 a.m., you can get there one second
before 10:18 and not get penalized. Of course, you never know where these
checkpoints are going to be. So the emergency checks serve as tiebreakers in case
you finish with the same score as someone else. They time you down to the second,
and your goal is to arrive exactly in the "center" of your minute, which is what I did. I'll
probably never do that again, so it felt good.
One other "highlight" of the race was the folks from the local nudist colony who lets
the race run through their property. They were out watching the race in their normal
attire. Unfortunately, the kind of people you hope will be at nudist camps are almost
never there, and this day was no exception. One word best describes the scene of
the 15 or 20 naked spectators: Saggy. I rode faster just to keep from having to look at
them any longer than I had to.
I finished in 5th place and received my first ever enduro trophy. Another good day of
racing.
August 22, 1999
Lebanon, Missouri
5th of 8 in Open B
Another hot, extremely dusty Missouri race. The guy at the gate said they hadn't had
rain for about 7 weeks. I had spent the prior two days at the Ozarks with friends, so I
wasn't exactly rested and got a late start in the morning. I didn't have time to pre-ride
the course but figured that the way I ride it probably wouldn't matter anyway. Also, I
forgot my jersey and could only find a black long-sleeved t-shirt at Walmart, so that
made me hotter while sitting on the line waiting for the race to start.
We started off in an open field and it was so dusty that I had to stay back about 50
feet from the rider in front of me. Needless to say I couldn't see much, and that can
be a bad thing. About ¼ mile into the course I hit some nasty ruts and crashed. The
guy behind me couldn't see I was down and ran over my rear fender. Of course, I
didn't actually see him run over it, just heard the thump and crackle. It had already
been cracked before, and by the end of the race was only being held on by the fender
brace. This was the rockiest place I have ever ridden. There was a long rocky creek
bed to ride through and a lot of flat, sharp-edged rocks. They had some long straight
sections that were balls-out fast. After the first crash I got around two guys but
couldn't make up any more places. The guy at the scoring gate kept telling me I was
in 5th place and that I needed to hurry, but that's where I finished. Near the end of the
last lap I took a hard crash in third gear after hitting one of those "no-see-em" rocks. I
decided then and there that if I was going to be riding in Missouri, I needed to get a
steering damper. With it, I probably wouldn't have crashed. No injuries, fortunately,
but it definitely rang my bell. I was glad to see the race end. The rocks took their toll
on my pipe, which had another major dent just above the pipe guard.
Damage Report: Major dent in pipe; rear fender bit the dust.
Kahoka, Missouri
4th of 9 in Open B
One word sums up this race...HOT!! I had been to this race a few years back when it
was very cold and slippery, so I was looking forward to better conditions.
Unfortunately it was very dry and dusty this time. I had stayed up a little later than I
should have the night before, so I didn't have the energy I needed. This was a
National race that draws the pro riders, and the promoters make them longer than
the usual 2 hours (was 2.5, shortened from 3 because of the heat). The entry fee
was a ridiculous $40, plus a $10 gate fee. I wasn't expecting this and didn't have
enough money in my wallet, so I started cleaning out the change cup in my truck for
every spare coin, looking under the seats, hoping to find a forgotten stash of cash.
No luck--I ended up about a buck short. I loaded up my pockets with the coins and
jingled to the signup area, hoping they would have mercy on me and still let me race.
I started dumping my assortment of coins and currency on the signup table and the
nice lady collecting money looked at me funny and said "We do take checks."
A complimentary t-shirt helped ease the pain of the $50 cost of racing. The course
was well suited to my riding style, with a lot of tight woods. They had a nice
motocross track that we came onto a couple of times each lap. Each loop was 10
miles long, and after the second loop I was dead tired. The fourth lap was pure
torture. The heat took its toll on all of the riders. I came across one guy passed out
on the trail, being helped by some EMT's. One of the few things keeping me going
was a sporty young girl hanging out at one of the checkpoints. As the race went on
and the temperature increased, she wore less and less each time I came around.
Talk about inspiration!
After the race mercifully ended, I felt horrible and just laid on the ground for about an
hour. I tried to walk to the signup area and see where I finished, but 20 yards into the
200-yard trip, I felt like I was going to puke so I went back to the truck and cranked up
the air conditioning. After another hour of sleep in the cool confines of the truck, I was
able to try again. I stumbled to the signup area and they had just presented the
overall trophy, won by national rider Doug Blackwell. The Missouri hare scrambles
point leader (Steve Leivan) got 2nd, followed by one of the Garrahan brothers who
later competed in the International Six Days Enduro in Portugal. I ended up in 4th
place in my class, which was my best finish in the Missouri series and one of the
better finishes for the year. I accepted my trophy in a daze. It was very large and now
sits on display on my dining room table. When compared to all riders, I finished well
within the top half. A successful day, but the ride home was very long.
August 8, 1999
Roselawn, Indiana
5th of 19 in C Class
All of the riding I'd been doing this year finally started to pay off at this enduro. I was
on the bike for over 4 hours and didn't start getting tired until just a few miles from the
end. And I rode about as good as I could have. Conditions were perfect, and I got off
to a decent start. In the first section there was one annoying guy who absolutely
refused to get out of the way and let me pass, for about 10 minutes. He was either
an inexperienced racer without knowledge of trail etiquette, or just a real a**hole.
The very last part of the race ran through the same section, and once again I caught
up with the same guy and he still wouldn't move over. No other major hang-ups
except a series of log crossings that held up everyone. Typical Roselawn sand with
lots of whoops. The first and last sections were much drier than the previous two
times I had done the race. During my first ride here in 1996, I got stuck in the
deepest rut I had ever seen. It literally swallowed my bike. This time, the swamp had
somehow been drained.
I did a decent job with the timekeeping, and I was finally starting to understand it
better. I was one minute early to a check, which I shouldn't ever do, but I nailed the
emergency "tiebreaker" check. The object is to get there at 30 seconds into your
minute. At most checks, there's basically a one-minute window for you to reach the
checkpoint. If you're scheduled to arrive at 10:17 a.m., you can get there one second
before 10:18 and not get penalized. Of course, you never know where these
checkpoints are going to be. So the emergency checks serve as tiebreakers in case
you finish with the same score as someone else. They time you down to the second,
and your goal is to arrive exactly in the "center" of your minute, which is what I did. I'll
probably never do that again, so it felt good.
One other "highlight" of the race was the folks from the local nudist colony who lets
the race run through their property. They were out watching the race in their normal
attire. Unfortunately, the kind of people you hope will be at nudist camps are almost
never there, and this day was no exception. One word best describes the scene of
the 15 or 20 naked spectators: Saggy. I rode faster just to keep from having to look at
them any longer than I had to.
I finished in 5th place and received my first ever enduro trophy. Another good day of
racing.
August 22, 1999
Lebanon, Missouri
5th of 8 in Open B
Another hot, extremely dusty Missouri race. The guy at the gate said they hadn't had
rain for about 7 weeks. I had spent the prior two days at the Ozarks with friends, so I
wasn't exactly rested and got a late start in the morning. I didn't have time to pre-ride
the course but figured that the way I ride it probably wouldn't matter anyway. Also, I
forgot my jersey and could only find a black long-sleeved t-shirt at Walmart, so that
made me hotter while sitting on the line waiting for the race to start.
We started off in an open field and it was so dusty that I had to stay back about 50
feet from the rider in front of me. Needless to say I couldn't see much, and that can
be a bad thing. About ¼ mile into the course I hit some nasty ruts and crashed. The
guy behind me couldn't see I was down and ran over my rear fender. Of course, I
didn't actually see him run over it, just heard the thump and crackle. It had already
been cracked before, and by the end of the race was only being held on by the fender
brace. This was the rockiest place I have ever ridden. There was a long rocky creek
bed to ride through and a lot of flat, sharp-edged rocks. They had some long straight
sections that were balls-out fast. After the first crash I got around two guys but
couldn't make up any more places. The guy at the scoring gate kept telling me I was
in 5th place and that I needed to hurry, but that's where I finished. Near the end of the
last lap I took a hard crash in third gear after hitting one of those "no-see-em" rocks. I
decided then and there that if I was going to be riding in Missouri, I needed to get a
steering damper. With it, I probably wouldn't have crashed. No injuries, fortunately,
but it definitely rang my bell. I was glad to see the race end. The rocks took their toll
on my pipe, which had another major dent just above the pipe guard.
Damage Report: Major dent in pipe; rear fender bit the dust.
Kahoka, Missouri
Roselawn, Indiana
Lebanon, Missouri
Roselawn, Indiana
Lebanon, Missouri
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