Hey FTW,
I finally got around to
doing one race this past year. A hare scramble with some badasses on
new bikes. Here's some words on it.
On Sunday, the 30th of December, the North Alabama Trail Riders Assoc.
had a "buddy race" down at a place called Westpoint. This is a leased
land with about 17,000(?think that's what they said) acres of dirt bike
heaven. The scramble was a 5 mile loop, do a lap, tag your buddy, then
he does a lap...and so on. It's been raining like shit the last week or
so off and on in TN so it was muddy as all get out. Being used to
roadracing, but dirt biking whenever possible, I thought it would be
fun. So me and my buddy, Jonas, went down to scope it out. We rode my
'95 XR250 and we were the oldest bike there. Everyone else was on
either a new KTM, Honda, Yamaha, etc.
I really had no idea what to expect because I've never done
any dirt racing. Getting to the starting line in the C group, you had
to straddle the front wheel facing the bike, jump on and start it when
the flag dropped and away you go. I started, and got a decent one,
about half pack going into the woods. Got past a few people on a run
from one woods section near the pits into the main woods area. Some
people got stuck at the first hill climb and I was able to get around
them and up to the top of the first descent. Somehow stalled the bike
on the way down that first hill and it took forever to restart the
thing. Usually it's only like that if I drop it.
Got back in the groove and was keeping up with dudes on bikes that
probably weigh 50lbs less than mine and probably have years more
experience racing in this situation. Got to another tricky hill climb
2.5 miles in that wasn't real steep, but about 7-8 bikes were stuck
there so I had to wait for some to clear out. Then I got stuck. Spent
the next 20-30 minutes trying to get up the thing in various ways.
Helped a few up, then I said the hell with it and found an alternate
route because I'd already been lapped by the A and B groups.
Got going again and was making up some loss of time and having
a great ride through the woods although it was a constant struggle
keeping the thing upright due to the slick mud. Fell a few times in the
slick and bent the shifter and my left hand guard. At one point I
couldn't even get the thing out of 1st gear from bending it. Stopped
and pulled it out with my hand and was able to at least put it in 2nd
and continue.
Got to the finish of my first lap, embarrassingly about an hour
after the start. The fastest guys were doing the lap in 20 minutes.
Told Jonas to meet me at the van, we had some fixing to do. I tried
getting the hand guard back to normal as well as the shifter. Told him
about the awful hill I was stuck at forever. Told him my alternate
route in case he couldn't make it up it either, tagged him and sent him
on his way.
After we both had only completed one lap, we were done. Wore
the hell out. It's a lot different from when we just go ride together
and we can stop every now and then. We both didn't think we would make
it through another lap without hurting ourselves so we called it a
race. Still didn't come in last though!
