| 2000 Race Reports |
April 2, 2000
Finger Lakes State Park
Columbia, Missouri
6th of 11 in Open B
Another repeat of Westphalia, with Matt finishing in 5th place and me in 6th. This time
he beat me fair and square. Columbia can be terribly muddy this time of year, but
today conditions were about as good as they get. I got off to another decent start but
rode like a fool for the first 5 minutes or so. Matt passed me after I went down going
around a slow corner. I caught up to him while he dug himself out of a mud hole at a
creek crossing, but then I got hung up there, too. We both got going again at the
same time, but he lost me when I took a slower line through a section. The next two
laps I could see him ahead of me on the motocross track, but I never could catch him.
When I tried, I kept crashing, once on the motocross track right in front of the
spectators. I did get the balls to do the big double jump, but I went over it with the
bike almost vertical. The landing was soft, but it scared the hell out of me and I didn't
try it again. Plus, I couldn't slow down in time and overshot the next curve, passing
dangerously close to a group of spectators. Actually it was kind of funny watching
them try to decide if they needed to scramble (fortunately they didn't need to). On the
last lap, the bite valve on my Camelbak came off again, and just like at the White City
enduro last year, it started siphoning out the water and providing an unnecessary nut
cooler. Matt finished about 3 minutes ahead of me, but they gave out trophies
through 6th place, so we both took home some hardware.
April 9, 2000
Roselawn, Indiana
6th of 22 in Open B
This event was the fifth consecutive Sunday I had raced, and my body was starting to
feel the effects. All week my back had been sore from a hard landing off a jump at
Columbia, and my throttle hand had some soreness. Roselawn normally has only
one enduro each year in August, called the Summer Bummer. But this year they
added a Spring race to the schedule, called "Brrr in the Bush." Based on the early
morning temperatures and the narrow trails, this was a good name for the race. Last
year I earned my first-ever enduro trophy here, so in 2000 I decided to move myself up
to the B class for enduros. The week before the race, I happened to see that one of
the club members heading up the race was an active participant in an internet
discussion group called dirtrider.net. His name is Bill Steele, and what really caught
my eye was that he lives in Bourbonnais, my old place of residence. I exchanged
e-mails with Bill and got some route information before the race, and he hooked me
up with another Bourbonnais guy who was looking for someone to share a row with.
Funny how all the time I spent in Momence and Bourbonnais, I never came across
any enduro riders, but now that I'm 4 hours away, I meet two guys from that town who
are into the sport. The guy I rode with, Ryan Baker, has a buddy who he usually rides
with but couldn't go to the race. He said they know a few riding areas around
Kankakee, one with a 6-mile loop. Geez, all those weekends I drove down to the farm
to ride my measly 3-mile trail...these guys drive a few miles outside of town and ride
on weeknights!
Anyway, Ryan raced the C class, and right away I could tell he would probably be
moving up soon. He rides a Kawasaki KDX220, which works great on the narrow
Roselawn trails. We started on row 32, which was good because at least 100 riders
had already cleared the trails for us. They ran us through the same 8.5-mile loop
around the Naked City airport (our setup area) and I lost 10 points in the section. As
always, they gave us a nice long reset to gas up and head out on the road.
The next 20 miles followed familiar trails to a checkpoint that began the long 20-mile
all-woods marathon. I started following a fast guy and kept up pretty well until I hit a
tree and went down. It was a small tree, but it got stuck between the back wheel and
the sidepanel, so I had to spend some time dragging the bike away from the tree
before it could be uprighted again. The rest of the section was fairly uneventful, just a
lot of narrow trails and some very loose "sugar" sand. There was one log, however,
that stood out. It was about 3 feet in diameter and they made us ride over it. Ryan
and I both agreed that it was the largest log we'd ever had to cross. They had another
long reset at about the halfway point, and it was there that I noticed my odometer was
not working. Thanks to a bonehead oversight, the cable was flopping loose against
the wheel and stretched itself out of the odometer drive. I had forgotten to strap the
cable to the fork. Turned out that it didn't really matter because the major timekeeping
sections were over with, and there were numerous signs posted that listed the
mileage.
The last loop was through the same section we started in and I finished it with no
problems. My final score was 61, my best ever. I tied with another rider in my class,
but beat him on tiebreakers and got 6th place. Not bad, considering the huge size of
the class. Ryan did well in the C-class, despite bruising his foot, and finished in 3rd
place with a score of 74. Not bad for a guy who's only been racing for a couple years.
The season was going well, and but for a couple of mechanical problems I might
have won trophies in all 5 races to date.
April 30, 2000
Oakley, Illinois
10th of 16 in Big B
Great weather and dry conditions made for a large turnout, considering this was an
Illinois race. The C class had over 30 entrants, and my B class was also big. They
started all of the B classes in one row, so there must have been 25-30 guys all
gunning for the same corner. The start was in an open field with a quarter-mile of
wide-open acceleration and then hard braking at a 90-degree left-hand turn into the
woods. I was mid-pack going into the corner and never really got by anyone else
during the whole race. This was one of those races that I never found my groove, or
hit that "zone" where everything feels fast and easy. The trails were so hard-packed
that at times the rear wheel wanted to spin out even when going straight. The club
has a small motocross course that we went around, which then led back to the open
field where we started. At the border of the motocross track and the field, there was a
nice little jump that I was hitting in 4th gear and sailing 30 or 40 feet across the
cultivated dirt before landing softly and then pulling hard on the throttle. Other
interesting obstacles were a troublesome log sitting high across the trail and a
tremendously steep 40-foot downhill with a hard right-hand turn at the bottom.
Anyone missing the turn would have taken a cool swim in the Sangamon River.
At the halfway point the engine started to cut out, and eventually the bike ran out of
gas...again. I filled up at the truck and probably lost 5 minutes. A few weeks later I
finally found the culprit-a hole in the fuel line that wasn't very noticeable. Back on the
course, I finished up the race uneventfully. Had I not stopped for gas, I probably
would have placed high enough to bring home a trophy.
Finger Lakes State Park
Columbia, Missouri
6th of 11 in Open B
Another repeat of Westphalia, with Matt finishing in 5th place and me in 6th. This time
he beat me fair and square. Columbia can be terribly muddy this time of year, but
today conditions were about as good as they get. I got off to another decent start but
rode like a fool for the first 5 minutes or so. Matt passed me after I went down going
around a slow corner. I caught up to him while he dug himself out of a mud hole at a
creek crossing, but then I got hung up there, too. We both got going again at the
same time, but he lost me when I took a slower line through a section. The next two
laps I could see him ahead of me on the motocross track, but I never could catch him.
When I tried, I kept crashing, once on the motocross track right in front of the
spectators. I did get the balls to do the big double jump, but I went over it with the
bike almost vertical. The landing was soft, but it scared the hell out of me and I didn't
try it again. Plus, I couldn't slow down in time and overshot the next curve, passing
dangerously close to a group of spectators. Actually it was kind of funny watching
them try to decide if they needed to scramble (fortunately they didn't need to). On the
last lap, the bite valve on my Camelbak came off again, and just like at the White City
enduro last year, it started siphoning out the water and providing an unnecessary nut
cooler. Matt finished about 3 minutes ahead of me, but they gave out trophies
through 6th place, so we both took home some hardware.
April 9, 2000
Roselawn, Indiana
6th of 22 in Open B
This event was the fifth consecutive Sunday I had raced, and my body was starting to
feel the effects. All week my back had been sore from a hard landing off a jump at
Columbia, and my throttle hand had some soreness. Roselawn normally has only
one enduro each year in August, called the Summer Bummer. But this year they
added a Spring race to the schedule, called "Brrr in the Bush." Based on the early
morning temperatures and the narrow trails, this was a good name for the race. Last
year I earned my first-ever enduro trophy here, so in 2000 I decided to move myself up
to the B class for enduros. The week before the race, I happened to see that one of
the club members heading up the race was an active participant in an internet
discussion group called dirtrider.net. His name is Bill Steele, and what really caught
my eye was that he lives in Bourbonnais, my old place of residence. I exchanged
e-mails with Bill and got some route information before the race, and he hooked me
up with another Bourbonnais guy who was looking for someone to share a row with.
Funny how all the time I spent in Momence and Bourbonnais, I never came across
any enduro riders, but now that I'm 4 hours away, I meet two guys from that town who
are into the sport. The guy I rode with, Ryan Baker, has a buddy who he usually rides
with but couldn't go to the race. He said they know a few riding areas around
Kankakee, one with a 6-mile loop. Geez, all those weekends I drove down to the farm
to ride my measly 3-mile trail...these guys drive a few miles outside of town and ride
on weeknights!
Anyway, Ryan raced the C class, and right away I could tell he would probably be
moving up soon. He rides a Kawasaki KDX220, which works great on the narrow
Roselawn trails. We started on row 32, which was good because at least 100 riders
had already cleared the trails for us. They ran us through the same 8.5-mile loop
around the Naked City airport (our setup area) and I lost 10 points in the section. As
always, they gave us a nice long reset to gas up and head out on the road.
The next 20 miles followed familiar trails to a checkpoint that began the long 20-mile
all-woods marathon. I started following a fast guy and kept up pretty well until I hit a
tree and went down. It was a small tree, but it got stuck between the back wheel and
the sidepanel, so I had to spend some time dragging the bike away from the tree
before it could be uprighted again. The rest of the section was fairly uneventful, just a
lot of narrow trails and some very loose "sugar" sand. There was one log, however,
that stood out. It was about 3 feet in diameter and they made us ride over it. Ryan
and I both agreed that it was the largest log we'd ever had to cross. They had another
long reset at about the halfway point, and it was there that I noticed my odometer was
not working. Thanks to a bonehead oversight, the cable was flopping loose against
the wheel and stretched itself out of the odometer drive. I had forgotten to strap the
cable to the fork. Turned out that it didn't really matter because the major timekeeping
sections were over with, and there were numerous signs posted that listed the
mileage.
The last loop was through the same section we started in and I finished it with no
problems. My final score was 61, my best ever. I tied with another rider in my class,
but beat him on tiebreakers and got 6th place. Not bad, considering the huge size of
the class. Ryan did well in the C-class, despite bruising his foot, and finished in 3rd
place with a score of 74. Not bad for a guy who's only been racing for a couple years.
The season was going well, and but for a couple of mechanical problems I might
have won trophies in all 5 races to date.
April 30, 2000
Oakley, Illinois
10th of 16 in Big B
Great weather and dry conditions made for a large turnout, considering this was an
Illinois race. The C class had over 30 entrants, and my B class was also big. They
started all of the B classes in one row, so there must have been 25-30 guys all
gunning for the same corner. The start was in an open field with a quarter-mile of
wide-open acceleration and then hard braking at a 90-degree left-hand turn into the
woods. I was mid-pack going into the corner and never really got by anyone else
during the whole race. This was one of those races that I never found my groove, or
hit that "zone" where everything feels fast and easy. The trails were so hard-packed
that at times the rear wheel wanted to spin out even when going straight. The club
has a small motocross course that we went around, which then led back to the open
field where we started. At the border of the motocross track and the field, there was a
nice little jump that I was hitting in 4th gear and sailing 30 or 40 feet across the
cultivated dirt before landing softly and then pulling hard on the throttle. Other
interesting obstacles were a troublesome log sitting high across the trail and a
tremendously steep 40-foot downhill with a hard right-hand turn at the bottom.
Anyone missing the turn would have taken a cool swim in the Sangamon River.
At the halfway point the engine started to cut out, and eventually the bike ran out of
gas...again. I filled up at the truck and probably lost 5 minutes. A few weeks later I
finally found the culprit-a hole in the fuel line that wasn't very noticeable. Back on the
course, I finished up the race uneventfully. Had I not stopped for gas, I probably
would have placed high enough to bring home a trophy.
Columbia, Missouri
Roselawn, Indiana
Oakley, Illinois
Roselawn, Indiana
Oakley, Illinois
| Relaxing at Columbia GT Sports Photography |
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