Merwin Race report

[rj wohlberg]

Chuck, i cant thank you enough for the last minute help on Saturday and the use of the ranger. Saved this old, fat guy a lot of walking.

[WireFryer]

Whooo!

I've run Merwin-dry and dusty... to Merwin-bottomless mud and a thunderstorm rolling in with 45 minutes to go, and this round was kick-a$$!!

Hopped a ride with OnTheRocks, got there right on time, pitted next to Flipstick (who's gennie for some reason refuses to run on H2o ), and liked what I saw.

Suit up and do the early practice with Slim Fuji. Being the sporty rascal I is... I showed him how NOT to go down the greasy downhill at 1.5 miles in.

Did a Killer Stoppie for most of it, but just couldn't stick the landing and over da' bars I vent. ( Fun Fact...4 Strokes become 2 strokes when they are running upside down )

Get at mile 3 and a 200 classer has a busted leg (Compound). We stop, but the Sweeps have it covered . Get back to the pits and the KX riding newbie next to us broke some toe bones, they load up and roll to the hospital.

The Fast mover race proved a few things, the AA dogfight continues to be outstanding, beats the snot out of anything you'll see on TV, fast guys will take a gravy line in a heartbeat if you point it out to them, and Ted Foster is at his best..., when He's mad at his bike .

OK, Fast movers get done, we have the hour break and 2nd practice and then us also-rans hit the the gate. The 7's got a pile, 10s well represented, 8's and 9's stretch well into Drexels' Zip Code

My start sucks, 15th into the woods at best, so I float along and hope everybody in the 700 club else gets silly, OR abducted by Aliens at some point..

Other than noting the Fast Movers have tuned up the course to sick-traction-no-matter-what-tires-you-have-on!, I putted along till the beginning of Lap 3 after the MX track.

Miss Shafer caught a bad skip-bounce and went down hard, PumpkinPatch needs to thank the Vet that watched her go down and provided protection... with his bike flat on the trail and waving his arms until the Calvary got there, and He is Randy Lusk #1025 .

Got some bitching to do about the passing situation that has somehow become SOP... but I'll save it for Shredders thread on the same subject later this week, and YES Mr. Kawi riding 900, I'll be talking about you .

#944... this guy rips by me at the end of my last lap like his as$ is on fire, drops into one of the last creek sections, has 2 somewhat controlled crashes, and climbs out of the creekbed.

I comment on the audio of my GoPro " Nice Save!"

And then He plows headfirst into a Hedge tree! . (by now I'm kinda' scared of this loon)

Kept it upright, and finshed ahead of me, where I could keep a wary eye on him, Awsome!

RJ and Co. Great course, VERY well marked, best traction ever.

Tim
#713

[shredder]

Got a great hole shot and held 3rs all day. Wow! I've NEVER got to enjoy Merwin with good traction! (Crap I'm sure dog's and cat's are living together and hell has froze over cause I just said good traction AND Merwin in the same sentence!) That place rocked! Man if all we gotta do is have crappers like Carbondale to get an awesome day like that ...Well kids lets party!!!

I know how to ride it when it's sloppy cause you all know Merwin holds in the rain out in the woods, I know how to run her when it's dusty (I ate many Tclimber dusty burgers), but when it's perfct like that? WOW dudes we a RACE FO SHO!!!

By the way I just figured out (dumb a$$) that my run - on / kill button was just being touched by the throttle base. I loosened the throttle and BINGO! the bike works fine. I guess when I unleashed my Husky on Dave in that corner we both went down harder that I thought, causing the triple clamps to twist up and shift all the handle bar mounted stuff to move around a bit it just turned the bike "off". Couldn't get her to turn back on.

Dave (1010) - once again thank you for your insistence to stick around and help after I creamed you so hard that your boots were up in the trees, but I figured if you got going then all would be right again. I do truly appreciate all the guys who saw me on the side and offered their help.

That was hands down the best Merwin EVER (for me)! I also wanted to let RJ know that the flow was awesome with some of it running "clock wise" and bits of it running "counter clock wise" - that was a refreshing change. Thanks to all who put up, ran and tore down for a spectacular day!

By the way Tim...Good news! My teeth ripped out your camel back - loaner - mouth piece so NOW YOU GET A NEW ONE!
WHOOP!

[rj wohlberg]

Got a great hole shot and held 3rs all day. Wow! I've NEVER got to enjoy Merwin with good traction! (Crap I'm sure dog's and cat's are living together and hell has froze over cause I just said good traction AND Merwin in the same sentence!) That place rocked! Man if all we gotta do is have crappers like Carbondale to get an awesome day like that ...Well kids lets party!!!

I know how to ride it when it's sloppy cause you all know Merwin holds in the rain out in the woods, I know how to run her when it's dusty (I ate many Tclimber dusty burgers), but when it's perfct like that? WOW dudes we a RACE FO SHO!!!

By the way I just figured out (dumb a$$) that my run - on / kill button was just being touched by the throttle base. I loosened the throttle and BINGO! the bike works fine. I guess when I unleashed my Husky on Dave in that corner we both went down harder that I thought, causing the triple clamps to twist up and shift all the handle bar mounted stuff to move around a bit it just turned the bike "off". Couldn't get her to turn back on.

Dave (1010) - once again thank you for your insistence to stick around and help after I creamed you so hard that your boots were up in the trees, but I figured if you got going then all would be right again. I do truly appreciate all the guys who saw me on the side and offered their help.

That was hands down the best Merwin EVER (for me)! I also wanted to let RJ know that the flow was awesome with some of it running "clock wise" and bits of it running "counter clock wise" - that was a refreshing change. Thanks to all who put up, ran and tore down for a spectacular day!

By the way Tim...Good news! My teeth ripped out your camel back - loaner - mouth piece so NOW YOU GET A NEW ONE!
WHOOP!

I'm thinkin maybe we turn her around and run it backwards next year. hummm.

[shredder]

The jumps at Merwin makes this one of my wife Stacey's favorite. Great views of the bikes. Some of these are so cool I just gotta put em up! If you see yourself or someone you know- please post something!

[shredder]

I forgot the seniors and the 700's start. Check out Randy Lusk Yellow Suzuki - 1023) burning down the house!!!

[MGN]

I'm thinkin maybe we turn her around and run it backwards next year. hummm.

That could be cool! In all my years racing Merwin I can't recall racing it backwards.

[Superfast]

Merwin is always an awesome place to race!

Practice was pretty un-eventful, the course was a little slick in spots but not too bad. Being in the second race, I had a good idea the fast classes would tack this one up nicely for us. Thanks for that!!!

After the morning practice we sat around the trailer watching the Thomas Brothers change tires on their bikes, that was a pretty good show!

Race time: Lined up with the rest of the 700’s, I was positioned between Joe and Wirefryer on the far left end of the gate. Gate drops, got into the course pretty decent, I believe 6th. Ended up making a small bobble the first lap and lost one position, came through scoring in 7th. I kept pushing but lap after lap, the scoreboard kept showing me in 7th, so now I am thinking keep the pace up and some of the other will get tired and fall back…… After battling to get passed a few riders I finally started to feel like I was making time, keep seeing bikes and making passes, but all these riders were not in my class!

Finally on the last lap, I am still keeping my pace and came up on not 1 but 2 other 700’s, made the pass on the first one and started closing in on the second. In the tight woods section the other rider stalled his bike, I was able to get by and ended the race with a 5th place finish!!

Notice how I mentioned I kept my pace, I was amazed when I looked at the lap times at the end of the race, my 3rd, 4th and 5th laps times were identical to the second, and my last lap was a little faster!

I had a great day of racing, spent some good time with friends and had a blast!

Thanks RJ, Merwin is a great place to ride!

[WireFryer]

By the way Tim...Good news! My teeth ripped out your camel back - loaner - mouth piece so NOW YOU GET A NEW ONE!
WHOOP!

Works for me... Had a Very Official Notice in the mail today from the CDC in Atlanta telling me to avoid any contact with any of your bodily fluids whatsoever till' they can identify the strain.

[flipstick357]

Hopped a ride with OnTheRocks, got there right on time, pitted next to Flipstick (who's gennie for some reason refuses to run on H2o ), and liked what I saw.

Just in case anyone needed reassuance of how hard it rained on saturday night before the origional Chanute race date. The 1/2 gallon of water i drained out of the bottom of the gas tank of the generator should help. Still not sure how it got in there and how it stayed running at Chanute but it did.

Thanks for the Heet Tim