Beer Ranch West Race report

[gcat7]

Man this track was fun, not super technical but fast & fun. Thank you to the land owner for hosting us and Dan's gang for the course set up. It flowed great with a few items that would bite you if you lost focus.

On to the report form the 700 club.

I don't know what it is about Beer Ranch Races but they're always on the hottest day of the year for whatever reason If the wind wasn't blowing, the heat would have much worse & the racing action was hot in more ways than one...

Board drops, bikes fires without issues. With a short blast into sticks, I think I went in 4th or 5th maybe, the race was on. The 700 train had about 10 guys+ going wheel-to-wheel throughout the first lap. There was Maybe a 10 second gap between us all with Ryan Walker out front rounding up the first lap. Lap2- the steep off camber, red-ribbon right turn bit both Ryan's I think, with Sexton and me in tow. Todd found a great line to get around them & the corner. We went wheel to wheel in the 1 & 2 spots. Lap3- still wheel to wheel with Todd we did 100mph around the grass horseshoe bar to bar. if one of us didn't back off we're both dead re-entering the trees. I choose life and backed off. Great racing between us the rest of the lap & right before scoring Todd took a wide line & I went inside for the pass taking #1 spot. Thru scoring, then throttle full on, went wide back into the trees. I'm sure many of you hit the same hidden 6" tall stump I did that sent me way offline at full throttle. I grabbed a shot of Jim Beam and whiskey'd right into a small tree which jacked the bars and sent me full superman into a huge tree. I tucked my head bracing for impact & hit that tree hard. I honestly don't think I've ever hit a tree that hard but the 6D & neckbrace along with the padded chest protector saved me without doubt. I heard the crowd all yelling..oooohhhhh... and saw some running towards me but I got up. I felt like the guy on Saving Private Ryan looking for his arm on the beach but all I remember is 700 numbers flying by ...thinking crap I was in First and my name is Jim which it's not. At that point I probably should have called it a day but finished the lap wondering what state I was in and how pretty the tulips were. Did a 5th lap at Sunday drive speed finishing a surprising 4th.

Nice race by Paul Klassen, welcome back to the series brother. I should have left you at home

Beer tastes good after the race. See you all on the east side in a few week.

G

[Spooner]

Dang Greg, glad you're ok!!

My race was pretty uneventful. Decent start, I think I was behind Greg but a few guys sneaked past in the early sections with multiple lines. Probably should have ridden that part more than once I was shocked there was an 800 rider flying and blew past me about half way through the first lap. I was 8th for the first three laps then the last two laps I picked up 3 spots from the crash fest I found out later was happening at the front . The last lap I was pretty damn tired-the last half of it I was just trying to keep some type of pace up but man it wasn't good. I was shocked when I had moved up to 5th at the end but I'll take it! Really fun course, not too tight, some fun technical stuff, and we even got to click a couple gears on the fast stuff. Looking forward to beer east coming up!

[Bridgebuilder]

Wow!! That was fun !!
Great everything! Perfect tract layout and distance , perfect dirt , perfect mix of fast and technical sections.
I liked the grass horseshoe even tho Don was faster every trip around it .
This track didn't have all the bells and whistles that some of the others do and no really rocky DEATH sections and I think that's why I enjoyed it so much . Just focus on the great dirt in front of you and not worry about a super hard section up ahead .
Anyways the 500 race was a battle for 1:58:00 for me .
I pulled another holeshot and lost 1 position in the 1st lap , then another in the 2nd , was able to hold 3rf for lap 3 and most of 4 , fell down coming out of slick creek crossing and lost 2 positions there, was able to get 1 back b4 scoring, then in 5th lap I lost another place down to 5th in the last few miles . It was still a epic battle as I rolled through the checkered flag still on the gas in 5th only 8 seconds off of the leader . And 6th and 7th were rt there too.
Congrats Don on your 1st 500 win ! You were on rails all day
2 days later I'm still wound up about how fun that was !

[motoracr199]

Well I finally got a good jump off the line and came thru the first turn in second. Almost got the holeshot but was pushed wide. A corner and a half later, I took the outside line that was a bit rougher and lost 3 positions and hung around in 5th for the next couple of laps.

Around the end of lap 2, I heard a few behind me and I figured I was leading a freight train. I pushed harder but no matter how fast i went, I could still hear the rumbling behind me. Somewhere near the halfway point, I took an inside line but a big vine caught me and dragged me to an abrupt halt, not even falling over. I cant count how many times I've been caught by a vine/tree in between the brake pedal and the clutch cover case but it happened again.

Took about a minute for me to bust free but lost 5 positions for my impromptu pit stop. I knew that D Camp was just a bit ahead of me so I pushed hard the next couple of laps to try and catch him. I was able to close the gap and got to his rear fender for a bit, then he turned on the afterburners and spread the gap again. I was excited to see that I was catching him again, but it turned out to be the good old yamaha with yellow background stallion of Matt. Together, we pushed each other and caught David again. Neither one of us could improve our position and we finished right as the checkered came out. This is the rare occasion where I really wanted another lap to work with.

I really love the Beer Ranch area, awesome course, dirt, and great layout led to competitive racing in all classes. I love having a good race with people and B class is where it's at! For all of you that care more about the plastic trophy than having a fun ride banging bars with someone else; I'm having way more fun racing for 10th place than I ever did winning in the earlier classes. Just some food for thought.

Thanks scoring ladies, dan, and everyone else that helps make this series possible. See y'all at Beer Ranch East.

[FlyinRyan]

All I kept thinking while out riding on Sunday was how much fun I was having in this race. I told Tim Wolf after the race how good I felt and that the temps were perfect and that I didn't cramp at all since I had eaten 5 bananas before the race and he looked at me like I was crazy. So I'm not sure if the bananas really worked but I rode well so I am going to be eating five more bananas before beer ranch east. I'm also going to be wearing the same socks I wore at West. The problem is I have two pair and they both look alike. I have a 50-50 shot of doing well at beer ranch east, hope I pick the right socks. Also before I get into my race report I'd like to thank Sierra and Kim Hightower for saving me a plaque, now my wall is complete.



The race started out great for me which was a welcome change. When we got to the turn and I was probably in fifth or sixth but with a quick sharp left hand turn and blazing my own trail I was able to pop onto the main trail in third. Sorry Nick, I was one of the guys that sneaked past you on one of the multiple lines. At this point I'm feeling pretty good because I can see Ryan walker in first and John Gordon in second right in front of me. Before the race I set myself down and told myself not to be impatient and just to wait and let the race happen. This was good advice to myself from myself for the first lap. The three of us are going through the woods and I'm feeling good and we come to a left-hand turn and John decides to hug a tree. While he's hugging the tree I go ahead and go around him and I find myself in a second. This is fantastic. Ryan Walker is in front of me and now I'm in second. I did come to a conclusion on Sunday, Ryan Walker is going to be a very fast rider if he ever quits crashing. He crashed three times in front of me on Sunday and I will explain more on that later. On the second lap when I was following Ryan he came to the off camber section with the red ribbon and he decided to lay his bike down on its side. At this point I was committed and could not make it around him so I stayed in one spot and waited for him not worried thinking that we were blocking the trail. Not the case. Todd Sexton, Nick Spooner, and I don't know who else went passed us on the ridge above. My second Place just turned into a fourth place. Things get foggy for a bit so I will fast forward to the fourth lap. I started the fourth lap in fifth place. Several tricky spots hung up a few riders and this was the lap that I got past Nick Spooner again. His tire washed out on a rocky uphill and when I passed him I was thinking it was Ryan walker on the ground because of the jersey color. That's why I was so surprised to find out that the rider that I thought was an 800 rider I was following was actually Ryan walker again. Can't remember what else happens again for a while so fast forward to the start of my fifth lap. I came to scoring at the end of my fourth lap in second place with Paul directly in front of me. We made the turn in scoring and Paul pulled over to the side and just handed me first place position. I had several 800 riders during the day catching me and had some following me into scoring so after I passed him when he pulled over I pulled over because I heard someone revving and thought that it was the 800-number behind me. After all of this BS talk about pulling over and getting passed and revving we all keep talking about I went ahead and pulled over thinking it was an 800 rider. Not the case. I handed first place position right back to Paul which on this track meant everything. If you were leading on this track and did not crash you were not getting passed. Oh well. That being said, Paul was obviously the fastest rider for our class because he went on to rail one hell of a lap. His last lap lap time was 24:05. The second fastest lap time for the entire C Vet Class was done by Ryan Walker on his 1st lap and it was 24:55. Paul's last lap beat the second fastest lap by 50 seconds, wow that is very impressive. Nice win Paul. Looking forward to Beer Ranch East, it is only supposed to be 95.

[Macdonnell]

Great report G.