8
So, the team of Joshua Coombs, Paul Duval, Shawn Spear, Jake Vader, Jeff Vader and I reassembled to attempt to take back the Big Fish Small Pond championship that we lost last year for the first time since we started competing in this race back in 2012. The race, organized by the USCRA, is a 3 hour endurance race.
I was the first rider so I started the race. Grid positions were determined by what Johnny B calls "frontier style", in other words, the "winner" of the warmup lap gets the first grid position. Well, I made sure to "win" the warmup lap and as I slowed down, Johnny B pointed out 1A for me. I decided that for winning "warmup", I deserved a better grid position so I parked myself in 1D.
Now some teams were slow getting going from the pits, so I ended up sitting on the grid for a while on a hot sunny day while we waited for the stragglers. Keeping an eye on my temp gauge, I decided to shut down the motor when temps reach a critical level. The plan was to quickly bump start the bike just before Johnny B throws the green. Well, the plan didn't work. When the grid was ready, I tried to do a quick run and start, but the bike didn't start. Green flag waves, the field blasts by me and I'm left sitting on a quiet RS125.
I immediately start running again and finally get the bike started. I now need to make up for this huge mistake, so I go chasing after the whole field who left me behind. When I start getting close to T1, I keep on accelerating like I should be doing on a 125 while I watch the field bunch up and slow down as they enter T1. I setup for the outside, and manage to get by quite a few riders in T1. Flick over for 1A and pick off a few more. Get a few more exiting 2 and outbrake some into 3. As I climb 4, I'm relieved to have gotten back a few positions, and start looking for the leaders. Into the bowl, I'm not seeing anyone in front of me. "Wow, the leaders must have really taken off!" I think to myself. By the tree house, around 9, down into 10, still not seeing anyone in front of me, 11, 11a, 12, and I look down the front strait and still no one is sight. "Am I leading this thing?!?" Since the race consists of classes with varying speeds, I quickly catch up and start lapping riders. As I catch up and pass lappers, I'm still wondering if I have already passed everyone or if a few fast riders are ahead out of sight and lengthening the gap.
Getting close to 20 laps into this thing, I get the pit in signal. Time to come in, swap riders and find out what's actually going on. When I finally roll into our pit area and get off the bike, I ask if we are leading. I get an enthusiastic "Yes!" So, that means I started in last place and had passed everyone before reaching the bowl! That was both my worse and best start so far in my racing career!
Since we are racing on my bike, I make the executive decision that I'll be the one riding to take the checkered at the end, so I let the other riders cycle through for the middle 2 hours, mostly without incident.* At about 20 minutes from the end, I hop on the bike for my second and last session, with a healthy multi-lap lead. I take things easy and bring The Dark Side's #763 machine to victory lane.
Big thank you to the team: Paul, Shawn and Jake for riding; Josh for scoring; Jeff for crew chiefing and Neil Hoare for helping out in the pits.
* we did receive a 30 second penalty. Apparently, one of our riders *cough* PD *cough*, passed on a waving yellow...
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99 + 02 SV650 ex-race - 91 FJ1200 street - 03 KDX220R woods - 12 WR450F motard/ice
Originally Posted by JettaJayGLS
