| 2003 Race Reports |
| For the Kids |
November 30, 2003
Toys for Tots Team Race
White City, Illinois
For the last several months, I’ve been corresponding by e-mail (and phone,
occasionally) with Jim Walker of Team RocketRacing.net. Jim does some hare
scramble racing and writes about his exploits on the RocketRacing website in similar
fashion as myself, only in a much prettier format. Throughout the year we had tried to
hook up and go to races together, but hadn’t been successful. With the annual
Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders Toys for Tots charity team race upcoming, we decided to
join forces and ride the 3-hour hare scramble together.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Cahokia Creek club is located just up the road from St.
Louis near a racially sensitive town called White City. I would call it the best riding in
Illinois, with a few hundred acres of beautiful woods used exclusively for motorcycles.
Each year the club organizes a charity event that benefits the Toys for Tots
organization. Naturally, the goal is to help less fortunate kids have a nice Christmas,
and the club does its part by donating a massive amount of toys contributed by riders
as part of the race fee. So I braved the Thanksgiving retail frenzy (also called torture)
on Saturday night to track down a $10 toy. I bought two – one for the Tots and one for
me.
Sunday morning I drove the short distance north to the Cahokia Creek club and met
up with Mike Goforth and David Brewster, who were teaming up in the B class. Jim
Walker arrived shortly after with his KTM 200EXC and we signed up for the same
class. John Yarnell also showed up to race his new KX250 in the Iron Man class,
which is for partner-less individuals who want the whole 3 hours for themselves.
Actually, Yarnell’s teammate didn’t show, so it was either Iron Man or Pit Boy.
As an honorary member of Team RocketRacing, I was nominated to ride the first lap,
which meant I would be lining up with the 20 or so teams in the B class. Since the
course was laid out exclusively on the south side of the highway, there would be no
crossing under the road bridge and thus, no starting line in the open field on the far
side of the staging area. Instead, we lined up at the little motocross track, headed for a
makeshift hairpin left turn, another hard left shortly after, the tabletop jump, and then
into the woods.
The KX started up quickly and I jockeyed for position around the first turn. I was
somewhere in the top half of the group when we entered the woods, and moved up a
few spots through the usual maneuvering around guys packed tightly together during
the first couple of miles. Within a few minutes from the start, I had worked my way up
to somewhere close to the top five. Near the halfway point I clipped a tree with my
handguard and fell down, losing several places. The course was a bit slippery, with
more mud than I had seen during the October hare scramble. At some point early in
the lap, my goggles became smeared with more mud than the roll-offs could handle.
Since I was only riding one lap before Jim was to take over, I decided to take off the
goggles. Big mistake. As I caught up to a guy who had passed me during my earlier
crash, his back tire spit out a piece of mud that landed squarely in my right eye. With
one eye closed and a numbing case of arm pump, I finished the lap and searched for
Jim. Apparently I missed him in the “hand-off” area and had to circle back. After we
found each other, Jim took off while I went back to the truck to clean out my eye.
The rest of the race, I never could get all the crap out of my eye. And the arm pump only
subsided late in the day. The fancy clutch lever/perch I had installed didn’t do much to
alleviate my sore forearms, even though the clutch pull was noticeably lighter. [note to
self: for a change, put some grip exercisers in your hands during The Simple Life on
Fox]
Jim and I each completed 6 or 7 laps around the course. After I finished each lap, Jim
would take over and return about 17 minutes later, like clockwork. We had no idea
where we were in the standings, nor did we care. The race was for fun, and other than
the mud in my eye, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Goforth and Brewster took the
win in the B class, while Team RocketRacing.net finished somewhere around mid-
pack. Yarnell took the title of Champion Iron Man, winning the class after more than 3
hours alone on the bike. If you're ever in the vicinity of White City over the Thanksgiving
weekend, I’d highly recommend bring your bike and a toy and trying out the Toys for
Tots team race. Lots of fun.
Toys for Tots Team Race
White City, Illinois
For the last several months, I’ve been corresponding by e-mail (and phone,
occasionally) with Jim Walker of Team RocketRacing.net. Jim does some hare
scramble racing and writes about his exploits on the RocketRacing website in similar
fashion as myself, only in a much prettier format. Throughout the year we had tried to
hook up and go to races together, but hadn’t been successful. With the annual
Cahokia Creek Dirt Riders Toys for Tots charity team race upcoming, we decided to
join forces and ride the 3-hour hare scramble together.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Cahokia Creek club is located just up the road from St.
Louis near a racially sensitive town called White City. I would call it the best riding in
Illinois, with a few hundred acres of beautiful woods used exclusively for motorcycles.
Each year the club organizes a charity event that benefits the Toys for Tots
organization. Naturally, the goal is to help less fortunate kids have a nice Christmas,
and the club does its part by donating a massive amount of toys contributed by riders
as part of the race fee. So I braved the Thanksgiving retail frenzy (also called torture)
on Saturday night to track down a $10 toy. I bought two – one for the Tots and one for
me.
Sunday morning I drove the short distance north to the Cahokia Creek club and met
up with Mike Goforth and David Brewster, who were teaming up in the B class. Jim
Walker arrived shortly after with his KTM 200EXC and we signed up for the same
class. John Yarnell also showed up to race his new KX250 in the Iron Man class,
which is for partner-less individuals who want the whole 3 hours for themselves.
Actually, Yarnell’s teammate didn’t show, so it was either Iron Man or Pit Boy.
As an honorary member of Team RocketRacing, I was nominated to ride the first lap,
which meant I would be lining up with the 20 or so teams in the B class. Since the
course was laid out exclusively on the south side of the highway, there would be no
crossing under the road bridge and thus, no starting line in the open field on the far
side of the staging area. Instead, we lined up at the little motocross track, headed for a
makeshift hairpin left turn, another hard left shortly after, the tabletop jump, and then
into the woods.
The KX started up quickly and I jockeyed for position around the first turn. I was
somewhere in the top half of the group when we entered the woods, and moved up a
few spots through the usual maneuvering around guys packed tightly together during
the first couple of miles. Within a few minutes from the start, I had worked my way up
to somewhere close to the top five. Near the halfway point I clipped a tree with my
handguard and fell down, losing several places. The course was a bit slippery, with
more mud than I had seen during the October hare scramble. At some point early in
the lap, my goggles became smeared with more mud than the roll-offs could handle.
Since I was only riding one lap before Jim was to take over, I decided to take off the
goggles. Big mistake. As I caught up to a guy who had passed me during my earlier
crash, his back tire spit out a piece of mud that landed squarely in my right eye. With
one eye closed and a numbing case of arm pump, I finished the lap and searched for
Jim. Apparently I missed him in the “hand-off” area and had to circle back. After we
found each other, Jim took off while I went back to the truck to clean out my eye.
The rest of the race, I never could get all the crap out of my eye. And the arm pump only
subsided late in the day. The fancy clutch lever/perch I had installed didn’t do much to
alleviate my sore forearms, even though the clutch pull was noticeably lighter. [note to
self: for a change, put some grip exercisers in your hands during The Simple Life on
Fox]
Jim and I each completed 6 or 7 laps around the course. After I finished each lap, Jim
would take over and return about 17 minutes later, like clockwork. We had no idea
where we were in the standings, nor did we care. The race was for fun, and other than
the mud in my eye, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Goforth and Brewster took the
win in the B class, while Team RocketRacing.net finished somewhere around mid-
pack. Yarnell took the title of Champion Iron Man, winning the class after more than 3
hours alone on the bike. If you're ever in the vicinity of White City over the Thanksgiving
weekend, I’d highly recommend bring your bike and a toy and trying out the Toys for
Tots team race. Lots of fun.
White City, Illinois
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