We had a wonderful weekend of riding at DP last weekend....Weather was the best being mid 70's and sunny everyday......
Those attending were myself,Mark,Luke,Jamie,Gary,Shelby (Gary's son),William (grouchy old fart from Illinois),Joe and Roger(fellow bike riders from west TN).....We all arrived on Thursday...I was the first to arrive,followed by Luke and Jamie,them Mark followed by the Illinois crew,and lastly the Joe and Roger....Not sure when the last 2 showed up as I crashed early.....
Friday was a great day of riding...Not many people there,and DP had been doing dozer work on the trails preparing for the Saturday race....The trails were FAST.....We made a couple of rounds getting the newbies aquainted with the trails.....
Gary brought his new Canned Ham Cow Mander,and spent part of the day getting used to riding it the way he would have to in the race,and giving passenger rides.....William was the first in the passenger seat,and I don't think it was very enjoyable to him considering the number of 4 letter words he used to describe it.....They later planned a bike ride,and he let Luke and Jamie take it out for a test drive.....Well,if you know Lukes track record for driving other peoples stuff (ask Jimmy),you can guess something bad would happen.....And it did....The driven clutch came apart......It got toed back in,and after a couple of hours,we had it back on the trails again.....Turned out the clutch bolt backed out due to lack of loc-tite,improper torque,or a combination of both....I then decided to to take it for a quick spin before something else happened....I am not a huge fan of sxs's,but I will admit that thing is really smooth and comfortable...Has good power too....Nice machine......
Saturday,we rode some,but mostly spent the preparing for the race....We had a drives meeting,had to get our pits set up,and be at the starting line,lined up by 4:30...
We started in pairs 30 seconds apart,running down the drag strip...Gary started 22nd,and I was 26th....I started beside the boss 500 china buggy,so getting the wholeshot was no problem at all..I spent the majority of the first lap getting around slower machines and trying to get some clean air from the dust...Shortly into the first lap I caught Gary,and started to do some bump drafting,but didn't want any yellow and black paint on my pilot,so I opted out and waited paitently till he decided to let me pass....
Our plan was to run 2 laps,then swap riders...I finished my second lap,came into the pits and swapped with Mark....He ripped his first lap right in sequence with what I was running as well as his second lap...At the end of his second lap,I sat in my pilot watching him blow right past our pit....WHAT THE HECK!!!!! Guess he decided to run an extra lap....He actually missed the entrance to pit road,so had to make another lap.....No big deal,in 20 minutes or so,he would be back around and I could use the extra rest...20 minutes went by,then 22,25,here he comes!!!!Nope not him.....I think this is him!!!!! Get ready!!!!! Nope,still not him....After about 30 minutes,we see this pilot limping back toward the pits....Unknown to me at this time,He had tried climbing a tree with his pilot,knocking the tire off of the rim and bending his upper a-arm....How he managed to run most of that lap on a flat tire with a bent a-arm and still do it in only 10 extra minutes,I'll never know,but he did....So,it was up to me.....
I ran 2 laps,came in to pit and swap riders,to see Mark standing there with no helmet on,and not strapped in..What the?
? That's when I learned of his crash,and realized why his last lap took 30 minutes...So much for the anticipatred drink of water,nutty buddy,and rest time....They swarmed my pilot like a nascar pit crew...Cleaned my lights,put in fuel,made a quick scan of tires and obvious parts that could be broken,and off I went again....
By this timeit was totally dark....The experience of running through the woods at night was one I have never experienced,but it was fun....The cheap hid's worked very well and I had no problem seeing...We had determined from Marks previous run that we could run 3 laps on a tank of fuel,so stopping after 2 laps was out of the equation this time around...The traffic had pretty much spread out by now due to crashes,breakdowns,and running time...There was carnage around every corner of that course.....First lap,great....Second lap,feeling a little tired,and really dreading the third one.....Half way through the third lap,I was really fatigued,but still pushing,and my fuel light came on....Couldn't take the time to stop and switch to reserve because I had just passed another rider,and the section of trail would require me to ride behind him for a while if I stopped and he got around me,so I pressed on and hoped for the best....Many things go through your mind.....Wonder what time it is.....Wonder if I will run out of fuel....Something feels funny,wonder if I got a tire going down,or is something fixin to break......Is that a different sound from the engine,or have I just not been paying attention.....A few more turns,and I will be back a the pitts...I am soo tired....I may just stop....Na,that"s not gonna happen....We are in it to win it,so I will run as hard as I can for as long as I have too....Got to the timing booth,fuel light glowing like an hid light,and the timer said you are done....Not enough time left to make another lap....What a relief!!!! I knew I was tired,but due to the adrenalin,didn't realise just how tired until I unstrapped and climbed out of that machine....My legs soon turned to jelly and fatigue increased with the drop of adrenalin.....
We walked around talking to different drivers while waiting on the times to be calculated and the awards to be handed out.....
We ended up placing 3rd in the unlimited class.....We ran 10 laps in 3hrs 41 min. 53 sec. with the second fastest lap time of the race at 20 min. 21 seconds...Only 15 seconds off of the fastest lap run that night.....Looking at the times ran,if Mark didn't have an accident,and we had stayed on our average lap speeds,which I have no doubt we would have,we would have won the class,and beat the winners 11 lap time by 3 minutes.....We ran 116 miles through the woods in less than 4 hrs,including 15 mph pit stops,getting around other riders,and limping in a broken machine.....This was still averageing over 30mph......Mark ran a great race,and I will be happy to have him as my partner next time we do this....Most people would have stopped that thing on the trail and called it quits,but he found it important to some how,some way get that thing back to the pits so I could continue....We will get them next time,and I hope it's not me that crashes next go around......
Hoodlum
