| 2007 Race Reports |
August 26, 2007
Wedron, Illinois
2nd of 5 in Vet A
I will admit, I was skeptical when Gerhard “Wardy” Ward advertised a rideable hare
scramble course just two days in advance of Round 4 of the Fox Valley Offroad
series. He also advertised free T-shirts for all racers and even challenged motocross
riders to harden up and put some mud on their pristine rides for 90 minutes, all in
time to be home for Denim Hour on QVC. Something was fishy. Being the farm kid
that I am, I've seen what five inches of rain can do to the lowlands of Central Illinois
over a period of a week. And with a decent portion of those five inches coming only
three days in advance of the race, it had ugly potential.
Thursday’s storms leading up to the Sunday event were fierce – the kind that turn
trickling streams into raging rivers. As evidence, the creek through the center of the
property, always a highlight of any Fox Valley hare scramble, was rearranged a bit. A
three-foot diameter log in the center of the creek had laid waste to a pair of Wardy’s
tow straps, neither strong enough to do anything but shift the log so bikes could fit on
either side of it. Another spot had a pool of water deep enough to produce a
resounding “ker-PLUNK” when I tossed a 5-pound rock into its center.
The rains held off on Friday and Saturday, leaving the Fox Valley grounds mostly
devoid of the kind of standing water that cancels races. On hand to enjoy a slippery
course was #104 Jeff Snedcor, gracious enough to park beside my pickup truck and
share his pop-up awning. Tony Smith also made the trip from Warrenville and
stopped by to introduce himself to Jeff as his dirtrider.net handle, Dist1740b, to which
Jeff responded, “I’m jsned.” It’s the world we live in, folks.
As for the racing, the start was eventful for me for the sole reason that I actually got a
good one, following the surprising holeshot of #401 Will Heitman and #418 Paul
Mitzelfelt. Paul’s been riding pretty well since I took him out at Prophetstown back in
April. He passed Will shortly into the first lap, while I followed the pair in the third spot
through the flat trails on the northeast side of the riding area. The transition out of this
section was an open field, next to which was a water-filled trench that Wardy had
warned us to avoid. Naturally, the front end of my KX250 was pointed straight at it in
3rd gear as I rounded a sweeping corner. My rear wheel had a particularly strong
attraction to the water. As the wheel slid down the side of the trench, I could do
nothing but crack open the throttle as far as it would let me and hope for the best. As
luck would have it, my front wheel stayed dry and somehow the rear tire chewed its
way up the side of the trench. Disaster averted.
Later in the lap I missed a turn and stalled the engine while attempting to duck under
ribbon meant to keep me on the marked trail. Paul and Will were long gone, as were
most of the rest of the riders on my row. Shortly after, an odd sight appeared ahead of
me: lappers. On the first lap? Did I cut off part of the course where I’d ducked under
the ribbon? Granted, it wouldn't have been the first time (see Wedron, May 2007), but I
wasn't in the mood to start that kind of trend. I felt a little better when I caught up to
some of the same riders who’d passed me earlier, and felt lots better when the
second lap appeared to be exactly the same trail as the first.
The scoring system would show me as being ahead of Paul for nearly the entire race,
but inside the course was another story. After a miscue early in the race, he slowly
narrowed the gap until passing me like a AA rider with about 30 minutes to go. Jim
Wancket in the +40A class also passed me at about the same time, then got caught
up in some lappers inside the creek. I got back around him by taking the long way
around the 3-foot log. Later, I saw Paul again, held up behind several lappers trying to
climb a steep hill. I bullied my way through the single-file line of bikes, performed
what Elston Moore once coined as a “sucker pass”, and took off around Paul and
shot up the hill.
On the last lap, Paul was right behind me as I waited for a guy move out of the way
while stuck at the bottom of another steep hill. On my way past, ISDE-bound #27 Dan
Janus screamed around both of us and disappeared quickly from sight. A few
minutes later, I came to Wardy’s familiar log ahead of the finish line and saw Dan
Janus pulling off the track. The checkered flag was out. My race was over.
My performance was good enough for 2nd place behind Will Heitman, who pretty
much smoked the +30A class on his way to 7th overall. Jeff Snedcor followed #100
Mike Armstrong’s rear wheel for all but the second half of the last lap, then tried a
shorter route across a nasty gully and saw Mike ride away to the A class win and 2nd
overall behind Dan Janus. In the end, Wardy was not baiting anyone into riding. My
bike was only moderately muddy and I was home in time to buy some new denim
drawers on QVC.
September 16, 2007
New Berlin, New York
Grand National Cross Country
8th of 37 in Vet B
It’s a rare occasion that I make a New Years resolution. Until 2007 I’d made exactly
two: beat my brother at Donkey Kong (an impossibility) and consummate my non-
existent relationship with Debbie Kinsey in college (turns out I’d actually wanted to
date her roommate but got their names mixed up). I made another resolution this
year, a promise to do a better job of combining business with pleasure. The Unadilla
round of the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series, the NASCAR of my sport,
gave just such an opportunity. A business client in upstate New York was
conveniently located just 90 miles from the Unadilla Valley Sports Center, home to
the legendary Unadilla AMA Pro National Motocross race for more years running than
most folks can calculate without an algorithm. Turns out there's some woods
surrounding the mostly natural-terrain track, and with the ability to host many
thousands of spectators and off-road vehicles, Unadilla makes for a great GNCC
venue.
It's a long drive from Chicago to New Berlin (744 buttock-numbing miles, to be exact),
fresh off its 200th birthday in the rolling hills of central New York. The motocross track
rolls throughout those hills a few miles north of town. New Berlin sees more than its
fair share of off-road vehicles and spectators, for sure a contributor to its economy
when 20,000 show up for the national motocross race and another 5,000 or so attend
a weekend of GNCC racing. The official number of racers competing over the two day
GNCC event was 1,600. Think about that: ATV's on Saturday, bikes on Sunday; all ride
on more or less the same course, and 1,600 guys, gals, kids and adults show up to
race.
With those numbers, the course was predictably choppy. The talk over the huge PA
system was of last year's terrible mud, but this year the weather cooperated very well
and some of the Pro class interviews reflected appreciation for the excellent course
conditions. I had a slightly different opinion. Just before the morning race began for
the C classes and various others who would not be racing with the A and B classes
in the afternoon, I took a walk through the woods. Only the ATV's had ridden the
course the day before, along with the kid's bike classes first thing Sunday morning,
and already the course was similar to what a typical local hare scramble course
looks like after everyone is done racing. Beat up, rutted, whooped-out, alternate lines
everywhere, and nothing even remotely resembling singletrack. And 474 more riders
would be spending two hours on the course before my tires touched even a square
inch of it.
On my way down a gravel road leading to the back side of the motocross track, I
paused for a half-hour to watch the first groups of riders tackle a special obstacle
called The Wall. Conveniently situated next to the road, The Wall was the manmade
result of dirt removed for what was presumably the sculpting of the motocross track,
into the shape of a large half-bowl. A winding, slightly longer but easier route around
The Wall would get most riders to the top just fine, but the fast line was straight up its
20-foot face. I took a closer look at the top of the wall and saw its main line had a
slight lip at the top, which suggested that if a guy were give his bike a blip of throttle
just before sailing over (as many would surely do), the rear wheel would kick up and
force the front end down. Remarkably, this is exactly what happened - to the first few
riders in each class. The ensuing carnage would slow down the rest of the group, but
the first guy to hit the wall with a healthy twist of throttle at the top was always the most
entertaining.
For the afternoon race, I signed up in the Vet B class. Consistent with most other
average guys at GNCC races, I dropped down a class mostly to avoid being run over
by aggressive riders looking for national glory in the form of a 12x14-inch plaque. My
class was positioned in the very last row and would depart 14 minutes behind the
Pro's. As such, I had 13 opportunities to observe guys racing around the first turns of
a grass track. After the 375 riders ahead of me had their way with the grass, it was
mulch. I two-kicked the KX and took off near the back of our 37-bike class.
Passing at the beginning of a heavily attended race is as simple as keeping your bike
on two wheels. The first tightly rutted corner on the track was littered with bikes and
riders on the ground. I gained several spots before arriving at The Wall a mile later,
where the morning classes had shaved off the lip at the top and it was now a much
less entertaining obstacle for spectators. I bounced my way through the wide trails to
the first stretch of motocross track, then headed back into the woods. The 9-mile
course was set up in a cloverleaf shape, where we would spend some time in the
woods, loop back to the track, do a short section of it, and then head back into the
woods again. The track itself was the highlight of the course. For anyone who's
watched national motocross races at Unadilla, it's as cool to ride as it looks on TV.
The approach to the Gravity Cavity looks innocent enough, until you drop down into it
and realize if you'd taken it in 3rd gear instead of 2nd, you'd have been a mess of
broken bones 40 feet below.
With my late start and the fact that the Pro class was turning laps 10 minutes quicker
than me, overall winner David Knight passed me on his KTM about 2/3 of the way
through my first lap. The Pro's make it look easy, but not necessarily 10 minutes per
lap easier. Somehow, though, they churn through the choppy trails and the lappers
effortlessly. The faster guys of the A classes were close behind, and in GNCC racing,
these are the racers to clear a path for. In most local off-road circuits, the leaders of
Unadilla's 200, 250, and Open A classes would challenge for overall wins. Here,
however, they were riding their collective asses off to see how they ranked with the
top dogs of off-road racing in the United States. At one of the checkpoints inside the
woods, a bike emblazoned with Monster Energy graphics tried to shove his way
around me while I was in line to get my helmet-mounted bar code sticker scanned.
The scanner guy yelled at him to get back in line, but the message was clear: move
or you will get moved.
After the Pro and A classes began lapping me, I battled constantly to get out of the
way. Every so often I'd come up to slower B riders and work my around with a
complete understanding of why GNCC courses must be designed as they are. Guys
like David Knight will usually lap almost everyone at least once and some of the B
classes will get lapped twice. Odds are, Knight is passing close to 500 riders every
time he takes to a GNCC course. A tight course couldn't work - the best riders simply
wouldn't race.
About two hours into the race, I was finally figuring out some of the trouble spots and
rode a couple of laps without hang-ups. The woods were relatively free of large rocks,
but the small round ones made hill climbs challenging. At my first pause on the side
of a hill, waiting for traffic to clear out, I thought I'd just ease my way up a side route.
Slight problem: the clutch released, yet I went nowhere. The round stones wouldn't let
me spin my way up the hill. Abundant alternate routes eventually got me past all of
these obstacles, but not without some effort.
I stopped for fuel just after the two hour mark and tried to ride a decent pace for the
rest of my 6 laps. The sight of the checkered flag felt good, but half an hour later my
body felt bad. Three hours at a race pace is just plain hard. The guys who do this
regularly are fantastic athletes, and the athletes who win these races are freaks of
nature – glorious freaks.
Epilogue:
The overall results had an international flavor, with Isle of Man, Australia and New
Zealand represented in the top 5 (in the runner-up spot, Jimmy Jarrett was the lone
American to fill out the first five). Once again I was bested in the overall results by a
guy named Jeff Smith of Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, who two years ago finished
ahead of me in the Crawfordsville, Indiana GNCC race. The Alton, Illinois version of
Jeff Smith considers the Fraziers Bottom version of his namesake to be his alter ego
and surely took some enjoyment in beating Chicago Boy. The Unadilla race was the
first I’d attended with the Blazer and its Ultimate MX Hauler. If you don’t have a trailer
or a pickup truck, it’s the real deal.
Wedron, Illinois
2nd of 5 in Vet A
I will admit, I was skeptical when Gerhard “Wardy” Ward advertised a rideable hare
scramble course just two days in advance of Round 4 of the Fox Valley Offroad
series. He also advertised free T-shirts for all racers and even challenged motocross
riders to harden up and put some mud on their pristine rides for 90 minutes, all in
time to be home for Denim Hour on QVC. Something was fishy. Being the farm kid
that I am, I've seen what five inches of rain can do to the lowlands of Central Illinois
over a period of a week. And with a decent portion of those five inches coming only
three days in advance of the race, it had ugly potential.
Thursday’s storms leading up to the Sunday event were fierce – the kind that turn
trickling streams into raging rivers. As evidence, the creek through the center of the
property, always a highlight of any Fox Valley hare scramble, was rearranged a bit. A
three-foot diameter log in the center of the creek had laid waste to a pair of Wardy’s
tow straps, neither strong enough to do anything but shift the log so bikes could fit on
either side of it. Another spot had a pool of water deep enough to produce a
resounding “ker-PLUNK” when I tossed a 5-pound rock into its center.
The rains held off on Friday and Saturday, leaving the Fox Valley grounds mostly
devoid of the kind of standing water that cancels races. On hand to enjoy a slippery
course was #104 Jeff Snedcor, gracious enough to park beside my pickup truck and
share his pop-up awning. Tony Smith also made the trip from Warrenville and
stopped by to introduce himself to Jeff as his dirtrider.net handle, Dist1740b, to which
Jeff responded, “I’m jsned.” It’s the world we live in, folks.
As for the racing, the start was eventful for me for the sole reason that I actually got a
good one, following the surprising holeshot of #401 Will Heitman and #418 Paul
Mitzelfelt. Paul’s been riding pretty well since I took him out at Prophetstown back in
April. He passed Will shortly into the first lap, while I followed the pair in the third spot
through the flat trails on the northeast side of the riding area. The transition out of this
section was an open field, next to which was a water-filled trench that Wardy had
warned us to avoid. Naturally, the front end of my KX250 was pointed straight at it in
3rd gear as I rounded a sweeping corner. My rear wheel had a particularly strong
attraction to the water. As the wheel slid down the side of the trench, I could do
nothing but crack open the throttle as far as it would let me and hope for the best. As
luck would have it, my front wheel stayed dry and somehow the rear tire chewed its
way up the side of the trench. Disaster averted.
Later in the lap I missed a turn and stalled the engine while attempting to duck under
ribbon meant to keep me on the marked trail. Paul and Will were long gone, as were
most of the rest of the riders on my row. Shortly after, an odd sight appeared ahead of
me: lappers. On the first lap? Did I cut off part of the course where I’d ducked under
the ribbon? Granted, it wouldn't have been the first time (see Wedron, May 2007), but I
wasn't in the mood to start that kind of trend. I felt a little better when I caught up to
some of the same riders who’d passed me earlier, and felt lots better when the
second lap appeared to be exactly the same trail as the first.
The scoring system would show me as being ahead of Paul for nearly the entire race,
but inside the course was another story. After a miscue early in the race, he slowly
narrowed the gap until passing me like a AA rider with about 30 minutes to go. Jim
Wancket in the +40A class also passed me at about the same time, then got caught
up in some lappers inside the creek. I got back around him by taking the long way
around the 3-foot log. Later, I saw Paul again, held up behind several lappers trying to
climb a steep hill. I bullied my way through the single-file line of bikes, performed
what Elston Moore once coined as a “sucker pass”, and took off around Paul and
shot up the hill.
On the last lap, Paul was right behind me as I waited for a guy move out of the way
while stuck at the bottom of another steep hill. On my way past, ISDE-bound #27 Dan
Janus screamed around both of us and disappeared quickly from sight. A few
minutes later, I came to Wardy’s familiar log ahead of the finish line and saw Dan
Janus pulling off the track. The checkered flag was out. My race was over.
My performance was good enough for 2nd place behind Will Heitman, who pretty
much smoked the +30A class on his way to 7th overall. Jeff Snedcor followed #100
Mike Armstrong’s rear wheel for all but the second half of the last lap, then tried a
shorter route across a nasty gully and saw Mike ride away to the A class win and 2nd
overall behind Dan Janus. In the end, Wardy was not baiting anyone into riding. My
bike was only moderately muddy and I was home in time to buy some new denim
drawers on QVC.
September 16, 2007
New Berlin, New York
Grand National Cross Country
8th of 37 in Vet B
It’s a rare occasion that I make a New Years resolution. Until 2007 I’d made exactly
two: beat my brother at Donkey Kong (an impossibility) and consummate my non-
existent relationship with Debbie Kinsey in college (turns out I’d actually wanted to
date her roommate but got their names mixed up). I made another resolution this
year, a promise to do a better job of combining business with pleasure. The Unadilla
round of the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series, the NASCAR of my sport,
gave just such an opportunity. A business client in upstate New York was
conveniently located just 90 miles from the Unadilla Valley Sports Center, home to
the legendary Unadilla AMA Pro National Motocross race for more years running than
most folks can calculate without an algorithm. Turns out there's some woods
surrounding the mostly natural-terrain track, and with the ability to host many
thousands of spectators and off-road vehicles, Unadilla makes for a great GNCC
venue.
It's a long drive from Chicago to New Berlin (744 buttock-numbing miles, to be exact),
fresh off its 200th birthday in the rolling hills of central New York. The motocross track
rolls throughout those hills a few miles north of town. New Berlin sees more than its
fair share of off-road vehicles and spectators, for sure a contributor to its economy
when 20,000 show up for the national motocross race and another 5,000 or so attend
a weekend of GNCC racing. The official number of racers competing over the two day
GNCC event was 1,600. Think about that: ATV's on Saturday, bikes on Sunday; all ride
on more or less the same course, and 1,600 guys, gals, kids and adults show up to
race.
With those numbers, the course was predictably choppy. The talk over the huge PA
system was of last year's terrible mud, but this year the weather cooperated very well
and some of the Pro class interviews reflected appreciation for the excellent course
conditions. I had a slightly different opinion. Just before the morning race began for
the C classes and various others who would not be racing with the A and B classes
in the afternoon, I took a walk through the woods. Only the ATV's had ridden the
course the day before, along with the kid's bike classes first thing Sunday morning,
and already the course was similar to what a typical local hare scramble course
looks like after everyone is done racing. Beat up, rutted, whooped-out, alternate lines
everywhere, and nothing even remotely resembling singletrack. And 474 more riders
would be spending two hours on the course before my tires touched even a square
inch of it.
On my way down a gravel road leading to the back side of the motocross track, I
paused for a half-hour to watch the first groups of riders tackle a special obstacle
called The Wall. Conveniently situated next to the road, The Wall was the manmade
result of dirt removed for what was presumably the sculpting of the motocross track,
into the shape of a large half-bowl. A winding, slightly longer but easier route around
The Wall would get most riders to the top just fine, but the fast line was straight up its
20-foot face. I took a closer look at the top of the wall and saw its main line had a
slight lip at the top, which suggested that if a guy were give his bike a blip of throttle
just before sailing over (as many would surely do), the rear wheel would kick up and
force the front end down. Remarkably, this is exactly what happened - to the first few
riders in each class. The ensuing carnage would slow down the rest of the group, but
the first guy to hit the wall with a healthy twist of throttle at the top was always the most
entertaining.
For the afternoon race, I signed up in the Vet B class. Consistent with most other
average guys at GNCC races, I dropped down a class mostly to avoid being run over
by aggressive riders looking for national glory in the form of a 12x14-inch plaque. My
class was positioned in the very last row and would depart 14 minutes behind the
Pro's. As such, I had 13 opportunities to observe guys racing around the first turns of
a grass track. After the 375 riders ahead of me had their way with the grass, it was
mulch. I two-kicked the KX and took off near the back of our 37-bike class.
Passing at the beginning of a heavily attended race is as simple as keeping your bike
on two wheels. The first tightly rutted corner on the track was littered with bikes and
riders on the ground. I gained several spots before arriving at The Wall a mile later,
where the morning classes had shaved off the lip at the top and it was now a much
less entertaining obstacle for spectators. I bounced my way through the wide trails to
the first stretch of motocross track, then headed back into the woods. The 9-mile
course was set up in a cloverleaf shape, where we would spend some time in the
woods, loop back to the track, do a short section of it, and then head back into the
woods again. The track itself was the highlight of the course. For anyone who's
watched national motocross races at Unadilla, it's as cool to ride as it looks on TV.
The approach to the Gravity Cavity looks innocent enough, until you drop down into it
and realize if you'd taken it in 3rd gear instead of 2nd, you'd have been a mess of
broken bones 40 feet below.
With my late start and the fact that the Pro class was turning laps 10 minutes quicker
than me, overall winner David Knight passed me on his KTM about 2/3 of the way
through my first lap. The Pro's make it look easy, but not necessarily 10 minutes per
lap easier. Somehow, though, they churn through the choppy trails and the lappers
effortlessly. The faster guys of the A classes were close behind, and in GNCC racing,
these are the racers to clear a path for. In most local off-road circuits, the leaders of
Unadilla's 200, 250, and Open A classes would challenge for overall wins. Here,
however, they were riding their collective asses off to see how they ranked with the
top dogs of off-road racing in the United States. At one of the checkpoints inside the
woods, a bike emblazoned with Monster Energy graphics tried to shove his way
around me while I was in line to get my helmet-mounted bar code sticker scanned.
The scanner guy yelled at him to get back in line, but the message was clear: move
or you will get moved.
After the Pro and A classes began lapping me, I battled constantly to get out of the
way. Every so often I'd come up to slower B riders and work my around with a
complete understanding of why GNCC courses must be designed as they are. Guys
like David Knight will usually lap almost everyone at least once and some of the B
classes will get lapped twice. Odds are, Knight is passing close to 500 riders every
time he takes to a GNCC course. A tight course couldn't work - the best riders simply
wouldn't race.
About two hours into the race, I was finally figuring out some of the trouble spots and
rode a couple of laps without hang-ups. The woods were relatively free of large rocks,
but the small round ones made hill climbs challenging. At my first pause on the side
of a hill, waiting for traffic to clear out, I thought I'd just ease my way up a side route.
Slight problem: the clutch released, yet I went nowhere. The round stones wouldn't let
me spin my way up the hill. Abundant alternate routes eventually got me past all of
these obstacles, but not without some effort.
I stopped for fuel just after the two hour mark and tried to ride a decent pace for the
rest of my 6 laps. The sight of the checkered flag felt good, but half an hour later my
body felt bad. Three hours at a race pace is just plain hard. The guys who do this
regularly are fantastic athletes, and the athletes who win these races are freaks of
nature – glorious freaks.
Epilogue:
The overall results had an international flavor, with Isle of Man, Australia and New
Zealand represented in the top 5 (in the runner-up spot, Jimmy Jarrett was the lone
American to fill out the first five). Once again I was bested in the overall results by a
guy named Jeff Smith of Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, who two years ago finished
ahead of me in the Crawfordsville, Indiana GNCC race. The Alton, Illinois version of
Jeff Smith considers the Fraziers Bottom version of his namesake to be his alter ego
and surely took some enjoyment in beating Chicago Boy. The Unadilla race was the
first I’d attended with the Blazer and its Ultimate MX Hauler. If you don’t have a trailer
or a pickup truck, it’s the real deal.
Wedron, Illinois
New Berlin, New York
New Berlin, New York
| 8th Place, Baby!!!! (yeah, they had trophies all the way to 10th) |
 |  |  |