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Another awesome weekend in the woods at Boxshop. The short short report form:
Practice was fun on Saturday, I worked on starting to push passes, I don't think I was 'riding aggressively' but I finally started making openings instead of waiting for them to happen on the pavement. In the dirt, well, still not jumping but I was much more comfortable, enjoying the berms and trying to slowly 'roll harder' through the whoops section.
Race day, in SuperMono (pavement only, big bikes) I'm at about my limit I think. It's possible I can can tune up a bit with tweaks to my line in some spots, and I need to fire out of the hairpin better, but I don't see any radical gains to be had. Unfortunately, at my limit does not mean I'm the fastest guy out there, young Trafton on his CRF150R still has the better of me. He took my advice last round on where I was making time on him to heart and stepped it up big time this round. Last event I was all over him but never could quite make the pass, this round all I could do was watch him slowly gap me, I could not answer his improvements. My earlier practice committing to passes helped as I'm not the best off the line and nearly got pushed back into third twice on starts but I was able to shut that door from the outside before getting in trouble. Normally I would have chickened out, rolled off the throttle and lost that ground.
In SMX Open (Full sumo, 'pro' 450 class) I'm still the slow guy out there. At least now in addition to making time on the pavement, I'm at least rolling well enough in the dirt that I can generally stay ahead of someone save for the entrance and exit jumps by getting the berms right. This should have been the day to finally 'man up' and try hitting a jump, instead when the main came I opted to play it safe and do what I know works. As a result, in the main Sam got me early via the opening double but I was able to keep him honest by catching back up enough on the pavement to cut the inside turn into the dirt on him, so he'd at least have to look at me, as he cleared the double and I rolled it... so, another dead last finish but at least it was a fight for a change, Sam out rode me and earned the win over me. JC wasted no time leaving us both and rode well as well.
As much as I want to figure out what I can do to beat Trafton in SuperMono so I'm not loosing to kids... (1st and 3rd went to kids on CRF150Rs, they seem to be the perfect balance of power and size for Boxshop. I remember when there was a minimum age to race...) I think I'm going to work on the dirt more, sooooo much more time to be found there for even small improvements. I'm thinking a Sumo day at MX207 is in order before the next Boxshop round in August?
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Originally Posted by sdog30
