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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.
