 |  |  |
Florence, Missouri
1st of 10 in Open B
Florence was the site of last year's rainout, and since I didn't attend the race on its make-up
date, this year was my first look at the full course. Sometimes you can tell how the race is
going to be just by driving into the staging area. The gravel road leading into the place was
rough, very rocky and dusty. As it turned out, so was the course.
But what a difference a year makes. Instead of raining the entire morning, we had drought
conditions and temperatures in the 90's. Matt and I took a quick look at the course as the
ATV's were racing, and around every corner they had scraped off the top surface and left a
small berm of fine powder. Dust was everywhere. The course passed by the pit area in a
quarter-mile straight, wide open. The ATV's were flying through there so fast that I could feel
them coming.
The first part of the course was laid out similar to last year, except where there had been
rushing streams of floodwater, only dry creeks and gullies remained. A mile or so into the
practice lap, the dusty trail left the staging area and we headed out to the main creek. The
dust subsided for a bit and the first creek crossing took us up a short, steep bank that was
slick and muddy. That 15 feet of mud was all we would see in the 8-9 mile course. After that
it was loose, gravelly terrain with some sections surprisingly tight, considering that ATV's had
been through there. I tried to go easy on the practice lap and not wear down the tire with
unnecessary wheel spin, but some of the hills were tough to climb without getting aggressive.
Near the end of the course was a fast section down a dry creek bed, then through some
standing water and back towards the staging area. As we finished the last mile of the course,
the trail led us through an old cattle chute, then meandered back to the far end of the staging
area, and finally down the long WFO straightaway past the pits, around the old farmhouse
and to the scoring trailer (note to promoters: next year, please run us THROUGH the old
farmhouse, maybe up and down the stairs...actually dreamed about that once, it was cool).
The course was incredibly rough, thanks in part to the ATV's that uncovered every rock on
the trail. Between the heat, dust, and rocks, I was expecting an average finish. A Newark-style
course is where I usually do best, but the Florence course wasn't anything close to that.
On the starting line, the Open B class was several rows behind the A and Double-A riders.
We watched the fast guys take off and kick up a huge cloud of dust, with the guys in the back
of the pack struggling to see much of anything. A stiff breeze cleared out the dust quickly, but
then another row would take off and bring back the dust cloud. When our row finally took off, I
got a decent start and came out of the first turn wide, back wheel sliding out dangerously. I
was in third place and Matt was just behind me as we ate the leaders' dust for a half-mile or
so. The lone Yamaha in our group of KTM's took the lead, followed by a KTM and then me.
When we came out into an open pasture near the staging area, the KTM guy ahead of me
went left and the trail went straight. So I took over second place and set my sights on the
Yamaha. I caught up to him when he got hung up on the muddy creek bank, then followed
him as he struggled up a rocky hill and had trouble with some nasty tree roots. He finally let
me by and I took over the lead.
In a Missouri race, I can't recall ever leading my class, at least not knowingly. And especially
not at a nasty race like Florence. Now the pressure was on to maintain the lead, which is a
big advantage in the dust. I had a few miles of clean air before catching up to riders in the
other classes ahead of me. Each time, passing was a struggle. In some of the open areas,
the dust was thick enough that I had to back off and let the dust clear before attempting a
pass. I kept the lead for the first lap and tried to maintain a decent pace over the second lap.
Despite a couple of near crashes, I kept it together but was starting to warm up from the heat.
The only chance to cool down was in the big creek that had some standing water, but even
that didn't help much. After lap two, I checked my watch and was less than an hour into the
race, so it was looking like I'd get five laps in total.
Lap three was more of the same. No major mistakes, but I had no idea how much of a lead I
still had. I kept pushing, banged my knuckles on a tree and splashed some spectators in the
creek. On lap four, I came up on a guy on a KTM who appeared to be slower, so I tried the
'ole block pass technique in the woods and came out of the corner literally bar-to-bar with the
guy. It was a race to the next turn, dead even until I braked late and forced my way by. Not
sure where this new aggression is coming from, but my apologies to what appeared to be the
#30 bike of Adam Ashcroft in the 250B class (he got back around me quickly and finished a
minute or two ahead of me overall--justice served).
I kept up the pace on my fifth and final lap and was a couple miles from the end when I came
up on some course marshals riding ATV's on the trail. They stayed clear of me, but their dust
obscured the main rut through an opening in a fence, and I dropped the bike in a gentle
slide-out. When you're in the lead and don't know where the second place guy is, strange
things start to happen when you drop the bike. I was in near-panic mode while picking up the
bike, even more so when the bike didn't fire up on the first kick. At that point my lead was
about 6 minutes, but for all I knew it could have been 6 seconds. I began to think of what a
sick feeling it was going to be to give up the lead in the last two miles of the race, after leading
every lap up to that point.
The engine came to life on the second kick.
Total time lost: about 10 highly stressful seconds. Still in second gear, I dumped the clutch
and rode like hell to the finish a few minutes later. The results confirmed that I had, indeed,
achieved my first MHSC class win, almost exactly four years after my initiation into the Missouri
hare scrambles scene (Flat River, '98 March of Dimes) and on a course that has traditionally
been unkind to me. Brandon Forrester and Steve Leivan continued their battle for the MHSC
series, with Brandon taking the overall win and Steve close behind. Last year's top Open B
racers, Tracy Bauman (MHSC #137) and David Taylor (MHSC #17), continued to rep-uh-zent
in the A class, as Bauman took the win at Florence and Taylor won the previous round at
Tebbetts (and they were each in the top 10 overall at both races). Nice job, guys.
August 11, 2002
Polo, Missouri
1st of 8 in Open B
The last part of the MHSC series takes me to the furthest reaches of the state, and Polo is
about the longest drive of the year. The highlight of the trip is crossing the Missouri River at
Lexington on a bridge so narrow that you could high-five oncoming drivers without even
extending your arm. From my house, it's just under 4 hours if you can hold your bowels that
long without stopping (Matt never can).
We pulled into the staging area and chose our customary spot next to the port-a-potties.
Wade Hall and the Shake's Pizza group were already there, minus PizzaMan who had a
different two-wheeled off-road activity to attend to that day. Polo is a bike-only race, and the
absence of ATV noise created a quiet, relaxed atmosphere as we signed up. The weather
was warm but not unbearably hot, and the course looked very dry. We got started on the
practice lap with Matt leading me around the course until we got to a bottleneck at a short hill
climb. The route to the top was rocky and loose, but the main problem was a two-foot rock
ledge at the top. I didn't have much patience for waiting my turn, so I cut off to the right and
took an alternate route around several guys parked on the side of the hill. After that, I had
clean air. The trail was really nice and it didn't take long to get into a fast groove. Matt was
somewhere behind me as I came to the spot where I had crashed so hard last year. This
year, a check was placed in just about the same spot as my wipeout, so that was one less
area of concern. After I finished my practice lap, maybe it was the confidence from my class
win at Florence, or the quick pace from the practice lap, but one thought burst into my mind: If
I can get a good start and ride smart, I will do well today. As it turned out, I was correct.
As we lined up for the start, our class size seemed a bit small, with only 8 guys racing Open B.
Some of the regulars, like PizzaMan, Ray Osia, and Matt Coffman were no-shows, but overall
attendance was about what you'd expect for the middle of August. Brandon Forrester, in the
hunt to end Steve Leivan's 8-year run as MHSC champ, caught a bad break with a fouled plug
just before the start. He was still sorting it out as our class started, 5 minutes behind the AA's.
I got off to a good start, albeit a slightly scary one as a 4-stroke KTM leaned into me as we
were heading for the woods. It was basically a straight shot to the woods and I kept the gas
on the longest to take the holeshot, something I've never done before. After many, many
races of eating other guys' dust and mud on the first lap, I was happy to have a clean path
ahead of me. A couple miles later, I couldn't hear anyone behind me and I started catching up
to the dust of the guys in the classes ahead of me. The trail was fairly tight, so passing was a
challenge, but near the end of the first lap I had caught up to most of the guys I was going to
catch, and the air was clean.
The course was filled with flat chunks of rock, the kind we used as stepping stones back home
on the farm. On some of the hills, all I could hear besides my screaming engine was the
clinking of rocks, like clay pots bumping together. I saw a guy in the Junior class launching his
bike up one of those hills, just letting it fly on its own, but all it did was flip backwards and fall
back down the hill. The trail also had some rock ledge drop-offs, which I was too tame to jump
over. I just let the front wheel fall down, carefully, figuring it was better to be safe than risk
relinquishing my lead. Even when the HammerDown video crew was filming at one of the
drop-offs and I was tempted to show off, I still played it safe.
On my second lap, I came out of the woods into the first open pasture section and saw Matt
standing beside his bike. I figured he broke something on his bike, shook my head as if to
say "What'd you do this time?" and kept on riding. When he was still there on my third lap, I
knew something must be wrong, but he was being helped by 200B rider Jeff Neathery, who
had suffered a flat tire on his Gas Gas. By this time I was gradually catching up to lapped
riders, who were easy to spot from the dust left behind.
Later in lap 3, my engine bogged a couple times on small jumps, which from past experience
suggested that I was running low on gas. On a tight course like Polo, I shouldn't have been
close to empty after only 90 minutes. On the fourth lap I backed off a bit, trying to conserve
fuel. I finally had to switch to reserve with about 10 minutes left, but I finished without incident
and took the victory.
The celebration was short-lived, as Matt was in pain back at the truck. In the open field, he
had drifted right and found some nasty ruts while braking before re-entering the woods. The
bike bucked him off and Matt took a nasty impact on his right side. The EMT's were attending
to him while I packed up our stuff and loaded the bikes. We drove straight back to the
emergency room at Lake Saint Louis, where X-rays showed three broken ribs and a broken
collarbone. Polo strikes again.
