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Kahoka, Missouri
4th of 9 in Open B (trophy)
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 (trophy)
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.
