Carbondale Report, season ends

[Weissbeck]

Savings and Why?

Someone at work asked me why do you race? I could have droned on and on, but what I told him was that it makes me feel like I’m 18.

Felt good going into Carbondale, needed Stickney to not work so he wouldn’t get his 22 points, I also needed to finish in 10th place knew if Eflin was at the race today he would be at the top and I had 6 points to play with.

I didn’t start the year out with plans of any kind, just out enjoying the day. But as the season progressed I found myself in 10th place. I was also eying that number 1010 on Bills bike, would love to run the legendary 1010 next year on my bike.

So I saved myself 38 dollars in new graphics, and a trip to Lawrence for the banquet, yes 11th place.

Got tangled up in some brush on the first lap, some kind of thorny cable that could have been used to wrangle alligators. Flat tire on the second lap, first time all year that I had an equipment failure.

Congrats to Steve for winning the Vet 40 Class

Congrats to all who raced this year.

Thanks to all the folks that work so hard to make this series happen.

Troy Weissbeck (1014)

[Lurch1]

Sorry Troy for bumping you out of 10th but this was one race I didn't want to miss.
C'dale is where it all started for me last year. Actually it was Melvern. When I found FMHS online Iast fall, I went to the Melvern race to watch. Seeing all you guys line up at the start almost brought a tear to my eye and I knew I had to get out there. So I dusted off the DRZ, which I hadn't ridden in 5 years, and took it to the C'dale race. And I did ok, so then I had to buy a new bike.....and so it goes.

I think I finally figured out how to get a good start....use the kick start instead of the push button. I kick-started it first at Melvern and got 4th out of 20. Again, at C'dale, I was 4th out of 19. But before we got into the trees both Erics, 1046 and 1026, went rumbling by me. I was going to try to hang onto 1026's wheel, which I did long enough to follow them past Bill, 1010. (Bill is a lot easier to pass when you follow someone else thru.) Later in the first lap I passed someone else which put me back in 4th. I stayed there until the end of the 3rd lap. Some 8's were on me so I pulled over to let them by. I think 4 guys went by with Todd, 1063, sneaking thru in the middle of them. Todd and I had a battle to the finish line at Thurman, where he bested me, so I was anxious to have a rematch.

On the last lap, I was able to get back around Todd in an open section. I almost didn't want to pass him until closer to the finish line because I hate having someone on my tail which makes me more likely to make mistakes but the opportunity was there so I took it. I actually got a little distance on him but he later closed in and repassed me. Now we are getting close to the finish and I'm thinking that if I can hold his wheel in the trees that I might be able to pass him in the S curves before the finish line. For a while, I stuck right with him but then he started pulling away from me and I felt my chances slipping away. But then I was able to close back in so that when we exited the trees I was right on his back wheel.
I think he thought I was in another class because he hesitated and looked back as though he was going to let me by. I yelled, "Go" because I didn't want him to let me by. What is the fun in that? He sees who I am and now it's game on.
He holds tight in the corners and I know I have to take him on the outside. I go hard into a corner on the outside and Todd takes me wide not letting me by. The next corner our tires are rubbing. Then on the second to last corner he goes a little wide exiting the turn and I see my chance. I cut under him and get hard on the gas passing him on the outside of the last turn.

Wow! That was fun! That is what makes this stuff so addicting.
Later, Todd said that he thought that he lost 2nd place in the standings and that is why he was fighting so hard to keep me behind him but he actually held onto 2nd by 1 point. So it's all good!

Brent 1061

[tbarthree]

well the men of the g class made it through the 2015 series. mostly in one peace congrats to Steve Gibbs 1036 for winning the vet 40 class [g class]. Congrats to the top 10, running down the g class points. #2 Todd Sexton 1063 so smooth, #3 Eric Schneider 1046 just fast , #4 Jim Presley always in in it to win it, #5 flyen Ryan Salmans, #6 Jason Schupp no more flats, #7 Steve the man Houghton. And then ther is me # 8 ole pain in the a$$,wide bike bill, blocker bill and so on. #9 Joseph King thanks for the good words, #10 Brent Eflin 1061. the NEW GATE KEEP OF THE TOP TEN G CLASS. Troy Weissbeck #1014 a new friend, looking forward to 2016. My man Tim Haney your just fun to bang with, its all good fun. thank for pushing me. . It has been a good year for me my heath is coming back around .I will work on that and maybe I can give you g classers a lot more fight . my short game was about all I had this year. had a good start went 3rd in to the woods running good but made some little mistakes and 1046 went by and others running about 7 at that point win Gibbs showed me his finder. drop in to the wood were the track had three lines I go to the left and Gibbs go's to the right no fight from me, he needed that spot to win and I was not going to hold him up. I just yelled at him to go man go you can win this. lap 2 Tim makes a pass on me and yells BILL what are you doing. I get back on the gas and pass him back and yell at him I am kicking your butt .but that was not to be made it through scoring ahead of Tim but he got around me and pulled away. some more mistakes on I am in 11th and that was that. all in all a good day. BEST dirt at Carbondale ever . THANKS TO ALL THE FOLKS THAT WORK SO HARD TO MAKE THIS SERIES HAPPEN .

[shredder]

Wow....

Now that's some real race reporting. Shoot even Ol Wild Wide Corner Bill spins a pretty good yarn!

Felt like I was there guys.....thanks

[WireFryer]

My man Tim Haney your just fun to bang with, its all good fun. thank for pushing me. . .

Uhhh, Bill.... let's not let that get too Public, shall we? The Mrs. is starting to get suspicious... (what a difference a missing word makes).

MX Racing measures your Start Performance from the gate to the first turn. Woods Racing measures your Start Performance from the line to the initial entry into the woods, which, using Cdale as an example, can involve MANY chances to better your position before "hittin' the trees!"

A note to the youngsters on their way up, a great way to learn how to be aggressive and efficient on your Woods starts is to be on a bike that 'just hasn't decided' what it will do when the board drops.

After 4 rounds at the season of being the last Guy to fire up, I'm getting pretty dammed good at picking thru the fog... if you're on their back fender going into a turn before the woods entry, and they pause for any reason..., nail em'!

With the short race format, I can afford to turn up the wick just a tad... I do just that.

On the first lap after the normal 800's and 900's that Dan will SURELY move up next Season go blazing by, I let a scruffy looking kid on a smallish Kawi 4S, that can't even afford a proper helmet, go by.... and it's none other than Paul D himself .

I got myself a PHD in 'Racing Carbondale' following the Master... I latched on to him and Old School showed me legal lines that I had never even considered. Very much worth the price of entry .

Paul catches a bad bounce and hugs a tree, get by and bout' that time I roll up on Wild Bill... running his own Race, saving energy for someone like me to drift into the Arena, He shoots my plate a look on a tight 90dg turn...

And the fight was ON! and our lil' 1 lap Scrap was A, (insert word that can be used to describe rowdy, unprotected intercourse resulting in total satisfaction to both Parties here...) Blast!

The entire contest, 600s, 800s, and 900s where floating thru this whole 1 lap rodeo, we even adopted a kid atop an older CR 2s who couldn't afford riding gear and couldn't seem to get enough of our antics .

The pass Bill mentions in his post was attempted at the end of one of the long open bouncy runs on the Southern side of the property heading North into one of the 'cereal bowl' berms.... I get outside him on the approach and force him to run the bottom.

We where busy sassing each other at 60mph going into a 3rd gear turn... I slam on the binders to diamond the outside corner, I got him smoked like a Christmas Goose, Bill is forced to commit to the $hitty bottom line and has his head up looking at His next line...

Then, when I got Bill in the bag, because of too much rear brake, I do a classic 4 stroke 'flame out'... at the peak of the descent.

Bill is hooting at me while he motors away, I'm laughing my ass off, asking my bike, "what have I ever done to you to deserve this?"

Get her spun back up, get back on Bill, 5 crazy pass attempts later including a crowd pleaser on top of the chat pile, I zap him in the open MX Section just 'cuz I wanted it more than he did .

We probably had more fun letting the kids work thru us than anything else, I'd let em by, and Bill would take em to school.

Woods racing is just like Life... Never, ever, assume it will be an easy pass.

I still kept the adopted CR in my sphere for the rest of the show, after about his 18th brake slam into a tree while falling down, I ran outa' patience and kept him behind me .

As always at Seasons end... Thank You Very Much to ALL of our LAND OWNERS!!, WITHOUT YOU we would be reduced to levels of Racing I care not to think about .... like on pavement .

Thank You for another Season, Mr. Dan Johnson .

Dan, would you care to list and recognize 'The lovely Ladies O' Scoring' for this Post?

Whoop!

Tim
#1085

[shredder]

Tim I have missed your race reports. When it comes to writing race reports your the king.

I too have had the opportunity to get educated on some very interesting lines at Carbondale running over 3 laps with the guy you call "Paul", his name is actually Kazoo who is a martian that played on a show many many years ago but now these days he just putts around on that funny little dirt bike thing. I will admit ol Paul was a handful for me that day, I got heckled by Dan every time I came thru scoring because every time I came thru I would be stuck behind ol Paul......


I do agree with Wild Bill though, you are fun to bang with!

[tbarthree]

Mr. Weissbeck you may need to look at the season end down load on home page .it shows you in the 10 spot, MAKING YOU THE G CLASS GATE KEEPER. and you can have the LEGNDARY 1010 next year .Brent #1061 it shows you in 9th good job . 2016 season should be a good time and the g class men will have some good bang going on [BAR BANGING] its all for good fun . Shredder will you be back in 2016 .we have some racing to do my good friend . . Steve Houghton are you o.k . missed you at Carbondale and you pulled out early at Melvern . your a lot of fun to race with . see you at the banquet .

[Weissbeck]

Bill I can’t imagine you running anything but 1010. But if you decide to run 1008?
I would gladly take your number.

Troy Weissbeck (1010) Oh! That looks nice

[Gibber]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W18w7yvKow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASQm19BDJJ4

Forgive me guys but I have had about all of the sweet talking, feel good Vet 40 Stuff I can stand. Let's get down to it.

First off, I knew my day was going to come down to my start. I added a hole shot device to my bike at the advice of PK. Made a practice lap at 9:30 scoping out every alternative route I could catch. Then at 12:30 (along with some other riders) I started working on my starts. 12:45 we were informed by Mr. Congeniality Paul that practice had not officially started so we could not practice out starts. Dan had placed a sweeper at the end of the hole shot so we would not interfere with practice traffic but in light of what I went thru with Paul at Carbondale 1 this year I elected to just wait for the race.

I have to say I am completely done with Paul and Carbondale. These rules as you go and being less than pleasant to those of us just trying to have fun (and paying to do it) is enough for me. He is not too old to keep doing this, he is too old to keep doing it by himself because no one will work with him. I truly don't get it! I really think it is unfortunate since Carbondale can be such a cool place to race and nobody marks a course better than Paul. I hate to say it but I just don't need the grief so I really don't think I will be racing Carbondale again in the future. Okay, enough of that.

Got a lousy start. Bike didn't fire right away so best I can tell I started somewhere between 10th and 12th. Did a pretty good job getting passed guys in the S turns before the woods then ended up behind the infamous #1063 Todd Sexton. Damn! Here we go again.

Rode his tail pipe until we broke out in to one of the grass sections and tried to make a pass. I will give Todd the benefit of the doubt and assume he was holding his line for the inside of the turn but at about 5th gear, who knows how fast and right beside Todd to his left he drifts left and pinches me off in to the trees just before the last whoop before the big left turn! I lay on the brakes and get out of the gas which makes me nose dive the whoop! Holy Sh#&! I'm over the handlebars, feet off the pegs thinking "Oh Man, 1st lap and I'm gonna spend the afternoon in the emergency room!"

Well, I pulled it out, don't know how, and I'm back on Todd's fender. Shortly after that we come up on #1010 Bill Thomas. You all can say what you want but Bill has been a great sport thru all of this. Todd got around Bill much quicker than me but it had nothing to do with Bill. Just circumstances. I finally got around Bill and for Both me and Todd Bill did not give us anything but picked a line, held it and did not interfere with either of us. Both me and Todd made quick clean passes. Thanks Bill! Now back to Todd!

So we get around Bill but like I said, Todd passed much quicker than me so I had some ground to make up. I had gotten passed by the sweetheart on the Beta with the horn just to pass her back when she dumped it but it did not take long for her to pass me again. Way to go young lady, great passes and to be honest, I'm okay with the horn. I'm thinking of putting one on my bike. Do you think Todd would let me pass if I did??? FYI., I have audio of her thanking me when I let her go. See the video above. It really is cool.

So I finally get around Todd at a bobble opportunity but by this time the Carbondale foliage has reached out and ripped my helmet cam off my head. Fortunately Riley Scholler and his buddies stumbled on to it on their way back to the pits but by then it had been run over so many times (probably by Todd ) the Gorilla glass screen was broken. I hope I can get it fixed.

So now I'm in 5th??? This is where I think I need to be to win all the marbles. I'm pulling away from Todd and no signs of any other Vet 40's behind me. I'm gonna run smooth and clean from here on out. Or so I thought!

On the back side of the Chat pits I wash out on a rutted up hill and lay it down. I hit my head pretty hard which knocks me kind of senseless and when I go down I'm on the gas. So when I jump back up I don't completely have my wits about me and my back tire still has plenty of velocity. As soon as it hits the ground I'm chasing my bike up the trail trying to remember which dog gone race this is! Well, I get it together, jump on the bike and take off a gear lower than I had been to try and get my stuff together. In the mean time I get passed 1063, 1031 and ????. Sorry, I was a little dazed!

To be honest I really don't think I fully recovered from that one. The best I was able to muster from there was 6th. Ran a respectable race but just could not catch Todd after that.

At the end of my 3rd lap going thru the S turns before the scoring loop I noticed the familiar thump of #1019 Kip Niswanger's Yamaha. SHOOT! I'm in sixth and the way I have it figured with the points worst case is sixth gets me a tie for overall in the Vet 40. I'm not giving it up!

Well, all I can say is, not only is Kip a hell of a rider but he is also a very good friend. On the last left turn before the scoring loop he had me on the outside by at least 1/2 a fender. I got on the gas to hold him off and blew the turn in 3rd gear on the gas and slid right in to Kip running both of us in to the trees. Kip shouted some positive words of encouragement, held his line and kept us both on our respective 2 wheels while making a less than graceful pass on me. Immediately after that, I think it dawned on him the points situation, he slowed up, flagged me on and let me go thru scoring in 6th. Unfortunately the checkered did not drop until we both had just passed thru scoring. So here we go for one more lap. I really think Kip was going to follow me for the next 6 miles. I hope everyone knows he took 1st away from me at Milford on the 4th lap. Kip is a hell of rider but a total Vet 40 Gentleman at the same time.

So less than a mile or so in to it I hit a rock with my rear tire and the next thing I know I have a flat. Kip comes up behind me and shouts, "Gibber, you've gotta flat!". Well, I already knew that and figured there was no way I could hold Kip off for 5 miles with a flat so I pulled out to the pits.

#292 Everhart swapped my spare in less than 10 minutes and I jumped back in to the course only 12 minutes behind my original pace. turns out I would have placed the same regardless but even still I was hoping to find someone with "slightly" worse misfortune allowing me to make up at least one more spot. Wishful thinking, (like thinking Paul will somehow become a a nice guy and quit threatening to cut throttle cables). So 7th it is.

Turns out 7th was good enough. I'm able to hold on to 1st place over all in the Vet 40. Whoo Hoo!!! I would just like to say congrats to the following folks.

Jadan Johnson 1st Overall
Tucker Smith 1st AA
Brennen Ladd 1st A
Grayson Johnson 1st B
Alex Meyers 1st C ADV
Silva Beach 1st C VET ADV
Jason Chandler 1st C
Bret Kyle 1st C VET (Wellsville)
Jared Toman 1st Sportsman (Wellsville)
Jacob Sturdevant 1st Trailrider (Wellsville)
Steve Gibbs 1st Vet 40 (Wellsville)
Mason Martin 1st Junior
Michael Everhart 9th Overall (Wellsville)
Drake Williams 10th Overall (Wellsville)
Tyler Toman 3rd B (Wellsville)
Tony Toman 3rd C ADV (Wellsville)
Drake Williams 5th A (Wellsville)
Reece Williams 4th B (Wellsville)
Luke Thomasson 4th Sportsman (Wellsville)

Last but Not Least
Gary Richard (Web site won't let me type out DDIICCKK) Top 15 C Vet ADV with only 5 races. Must have been that Super Charged, Rocket Fueled PK and Jimmy Blessed LTKO KTM! I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just sayin'!!!

If I've missed anyone please forgive me. However, I'm not the sharpest tack in the box but I'm think'in Wellsville has got the JAZZ! But what do I know?


Thanks for all the support this year from the VET 40's, Friends, Competitors, Team Letko and the likes. It really has been fun. I can't wait to see everyone at the annual banquet.

P.S. My wife Colleen has recently gotten some Kick Ass photos including Melvern. I am working on posting/sharing them. Please stay tuned!

Thanks to Team Letko, My Wife for letting me do this crazy stuff, the Good Lord for giving me the physical ability at 51 years old, Tony Toman and Dan Johnson for talking me in to buying a KTM (I was on a Yamaha prior) and Micheal Everhart for forcing me to go with "Rider Preference" on everything I did to my bike while learning what my "Rider Preference" was! Took me a while to figure it out but it's all good now!

GO TEAM LETKO!

[quik406]

Come on Gibber just admit you just don't like the fact that Paul can smoke you on a PW 50 or KX100 whatever it is he rides...