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That was an awesome story Dennis! Can't wait to race with ya again soon!!!

Well I don't have near the story that Shredder did but I had a great time none the less. I really enjoyed the course as I like tight and technical better than open and fast any day. And other than the heat I don't think we could have had better conditions.

Saturday was not so good for me. I thought I had done all the right things as far as hydration goes but even before I started I did not fell quite right. Got second in the hole shot (best start ever) and hung right with the leader up until the 1st easy / hard line just after the 2 mile marker. That's where I hit an tree root that took my front tire out from under me and I hit the ground so hard it knocked my helmet cam off. A couple of the guys stopped to see if I was okay as I was trying to re-attach my helmet cam and then off they went. Lost a couple of spots there. Got back on the bike and worked on regaining my senses. Got back in to a rhythm and started to race again until I got to another Easy / Hard around 3 or 4 miles. Found a rider that had gone down nose first in to the creek . Stopped to help and lost 2 more spots. Most of all spent about all the energy I had left. Made it back to the scoring loop in 6th.

2nd lap I stayed up but it had to be pretty ugly. By the last 2 miles I was so tired and loopy from the heat I could hardly keep my bike on the course. At the end of that lap I decided to pull of and take a break. I felt like some cold water and a break would be all I need to get in one more lap. Still in 6th and I still had a full hour. However, shortly after sitting down I began to cramp us as bad is I can ever remember and at that point I knew I was done. Fortunately I wasn't the only one struggling with the heat and I finished 6th. I'll take it.

Sunday however was a different story. I did all the hydration stuff right and it paid off. Met a 900 rider (sorry, can't remember name or #) who had a boy in the PWs and he convinced me to try an Electrolyte tablet which I did. I drank plenty of water, stayed cool, ate right and stretched before the race. Plus I found my cooling vest and with Tracy Toman and crew dumping water on us at the loop I was golden.

Started 2nd again and stayed there until I picked a bad line. Got it back at the easy / Hard line just after mile 5 when the 1000 in front of me got hung up on the easy and I took the hard line. spent most of the 5 laps between 2nd and 4th but lost a couple on the 3rd lap at the same hard line when I stood the bike up on end at the top and flipped it around, high centered it on a big log then tangled the handle bars up with a sapling pointing down the hill in the wrong direction. After getting the bike back up and back on course I was afraid I might be spent again but the recharge of cold water down my back at the loop and a little bit of easy riding got me back in gear and the race was on again.

Passed Dennis on one of the straight away's and knew he was not having one of his better days. Toward the end had some 900 riders that were pretty fast that I was using to pace myself and hung with them for quite a while but eventually the would get away from me. Never really had any epic battles just rode solid and steady and got my 1st top 3!

All in all I am totally thrilled. A lot of folks don't know how badly I was busted up last year at this time. I am lucky to be able to ride let alone be competitive in this crazy stuff. I really think I am racing with a great group of guys and our class is all pretty close competitively. I am thrilled I can be in the hunt.

Kudos to Dan for another great race. Too bad about the light turn out Saturday though. Extra Kudos to the sweepers. You guys did great. Seemed like there were more of you than normal but I know it was just because you were visible and in all the right places.

Well that's all I got. Thanks to Letko, Olathe Ford, Foust Fleet, Supreme, Adrian Steel, Knapheide, and Kranz of KC.

GO TEAM LETKO!

Btrigg840 wrote:...One of the guys had a good idea to have 6 guys ride the loop and leave a bike at each mile marker. Then all we had to do was have each guy walk a mile to clean and jump on the next bike and head for home. It only took about 1/2 an hour to clean the whole track. Pretty slick at the end of a long hot day.

Agreed, that is the best way to do it! I can't imagine the effort it takes to put all those markers up, I was about to give up and I only tore down a bit over a mile.

First race in a couple of months so I just wanted to "take it easy." That plan only lasted till the board dropped. Got fourth off the start, moved into third shortly after, then got passed back by a few others. I passed Dawson, as he got bucked off the trail right before the finish of the first lap. YES!

Stayed consistent and improved lap times throughout the day with my pb on the last lap, sweet. Had a good ride with a few of the other 4's and was wondering what happened to Martley when I caught him. I see he's working the gate this week so that's a good sign.

Swept on Sunday and saw a great battle for the overall in the first half of the race. Good to work with the other C-Adv classers outside of a racing situation. I loved the cleanup, a little teamwork goes a long way.

Thanks to the land owners and the promoter. Hope to see it on the schedule next year!

Did anyone notice the 900 row come back through scoring soon after the start? They threw down an impressive lap time!

Shredder you going to post a Sunday race report for Adrian?

Just got home from mor PT on the thumb - wrist, I'm doing strengthening now and they kicked my butt again! I'm going to try to finish up "ADRIAN - Day 2"

Adrian - Day 2

I woke up at the race site with my old friend's who spent the night with me since I went to bed from "race 1"...you know...right ankle, knee, neck and shoulder pain. Yep the Pain family. Oh yes I know em too and we are old friends. I put the coffee on and got out my oil can and oiled up all the squeaky joints, greased the steering linkage, rubbed the stiffness as best as I could. My headache from dehydration still lingering. I was still "grunting" instead of speaking. I figure I'm saving the 35 bucks for entry fee because I'm just not getting enough air speed to get a good decent lift off so I resigned myself to watching from the scoring tent - heck with it. Joe Leaderhouse pulls up and drops his bike on the ground. "I'm sore as Hell today Dennis but I figure I'm going to have to work out this stiffness somehow so I figure I might as well do it racing ya!" Immediately I said ...yeah, let's go get dressed out. I figured that were both beat up that it's still going to be a square race and you only get to do today one time so....hell with it...let's do this. (damn adrenaline junkies)

Line up and feel - well - ok. Not on fire but much better than this morning. Lost my i-pod yesterday so no go go or extra zippy gas from my ears anyway. sign drops and we go. I get the same start as yesterday - third and we cool! We get going and I'm really feeling the power rage against the machine coming on and I really begin to come alive. WoW this is great, I am pretty sure I'm going to get this job done. OK. I settle down and drink constantly and enjoy the cold water much more than usual. (no water yesterday). My bike locks up and throws me. No big deal, just a dump really. After a while I realize the fast straights are really bouncy and they are killing my bike. I stop and pull the seat and realize the battery strap has come loose yet again and the battery is sparking on the frame. When the battery shorts out the injection stops and rear wheel locks and we all fall down again! WEEEEE! So now it's a game of gathering sticks to shove in there and keeping the battery positive post to the side away from the frame rail. By the time I figured all this out and what size sticks to look for a fire starts under my seat. Crap. I just stop again (which goes against my every fiber of a being) and burn my palm by melting my glove to my hand. The wire ends up burning off the end of the metal tab.

Long story short (can't believe I just said that), Bill thomas saved me by lending me his trusted spark plug wrench with a phillips screw drive on one end and save my day! Thanks Bill! Got help from 2 sweepers - cool dudes - thanks man. Little did I know that ol Slomojo pulled in his clutch and in stealth mode slithered right by me with out me knowing. I was working on my bike but had my back to the track. Once I got the wire stripped and screwed back down I still figure I had a lap and a half now to rip it up so after the go - all go from mission control I blasted off!

Even after working on my bike and getting thru that heat build up residue that overcomes us when we stop with our helmet still on, I had a mission - I was taking over the Slomojo! I was almost 2 minutes faster than any lap from the previous day which I won my class the day before! Here I am running a 24 minute lap AT THE END OF THE DAY! WOW! I wanted retribution! I was going for some payback and Mr Ed - I thank you for letting me by 3 times after I messed up a simple turn selection choice because I was ON FIRE NOW BABY!. I came up on another rider 600 something and passed, and I'm starting to realize no one is just cruzing in my class, THEY ARE ALL STILL RACING! I come up on a rider, I thought it was 1040 but I later found out there is no 1040 and it wasn't 1049 as I approach Mr Stickney later and it wasn't him either.

Anyway I catch this guy I'm guessing he see's the scorched earth policy style riding I'm putting down and quickly decides to let this idiot by. I thank you for letting me by good sir. He quickly found a perfect spot to move over and I didn't even need to slow down. It was a slight down hill line mostly straight with a slight right - dog leg bend in the middle of two straights. The other rider give me a positive wave to pass on the left and moves right. No problem and well executed. However in my haste, just after he gave me the "go around" signal, I just gassed it, not paying close enough attention to our surroundings so just as our bikes got even we also passed a tree at the exact same moment which I hit and bounce over his way. We hit. My handle bars went off on him like piranhas to chicken meat and we collided.

Just after the collision, I looked up just in time to see a 3 tree cluster dead ahead - about 56" to impact and I'm guessing 30 miles per hour - at least. So I tried the whole Matrix slow mo thing and begin twisting immediately so just as I have separation from the bike it's not a direct blow but a glancing clip to my shoulder which helps my rotation even more. I cleared the handlebars cleanly and touch down on my helmet but my left foot still grabbing on to the handlebars won't let me turn this whole deal into my usual roll so I stay on my head and shoulder for the whole slide while I'm pulling my arms and hands to my chest.

Now it's real quiet.

Coulda heard a pin drop.

Wow man...this is peaceful.....the ground is kinda cool in the shade.....man look all this magic dust settling down on my chest.....how preeeeeeeetty.................who's hand is in my face...that's my glove so why is MY hand in my face...wonder what I'll do this afternoon? a movie might be nice....oh lookie lookie a dirt bike laying on the ground over there...looks like another husky....wait a second! I"M RACIN HERE!!! I realize I'm ok so I jump up. The other guy is already up with his bike up and looking like he's afraid he attending a whipping in the woods and he is going to play the part of the boy! He says SORRY!! I'm like NO DUDE, I'M SORRY! You ok? Man YOU SURE YOUR A. O. K? Guess so. I looked over my bike, got the red "on" light, both tires were touching the ground, chain on the sprocket and muffler is in the rear, busted front fender but hell that's just a fashion statement so I hit the "go" button, she lit and we gone like the wind blows. I still ran a 2 minute lap faster than my fastest previous days lap time and found...found...well...I found no one - got a big sack of jack squat from Danno!!! Dans like no...I dont think so but thanks for playing!!!!!!. I guess gaining 2 minutes won't fix a 15 minute deficit. I got the burned end of the stick today. Pulled out 11th. I will say it was great getting all the help from all you guys out there, thanks dudes.

As far as that other guy, He did everything right and sometimes getting clipped can happen. I waited at the finish line but I'm guessing I may have hit my head harder than I thought because I got the number wrong and didn't see anyone. I wanted to reassure the guy that they did me no wrong. I love meeting people - even at races but wow, not like that!

I just had to edit this...while I was putting this up Ol SloMojo gets his post up FIRST! Dang it JOE! AGAIN? You found a way to beat me twice in the same race, your killing me. I'm gonna get you JOE!!!!!!I'm not letting you get away with this!!!!!!! I'lll be headed to Colorado as soon as I can Brah!!!!!! Better be sleepin wit one eye open!


In all seriousness boys and gals even with the plastic still embedded in my left palm, shredded and torn off calluses, blistered hands and it seriously still hurts to sit down and a clipped right shoulder and sore neck, today was an awesome day that I won't ever forget. On a 1 to 10 scale it's a 12. OOOOOH YEAH

No I didn't say Joe was a pain in the ass, I said I have a pain in my ass!

Man I miss that guy already. Stand up dude.


Boy I'm glad I wrote up the short version cause the dang wrist is cramping up again. Gotta go! - sheesh

Thanks to the landowners for letting us come out to play, they have a really fantastic piece of property with elevation change, some rocks, small creeks, and now a great trail to tie it all together. I hope they continue to allow us out there even if we didn't put a full display of riders out there. Kudos to Dan and crew for putting this one together, the trail was well laid out, especially considering there was not much to go off of. Most of the stuff looked fresh.

On to the races-

Saturday :

Got a good start in 3rd place behind some class veterans Terry G and Zack B. Those guys know a thing or two about racing! Terry ended up taking a dive after the front end of his bike got pulled into a tree. While I was trying to get around that Isaac got around me and was hounding Zack. I ended up getting around Isaac and Zack at the last easy/hard by going the easy line. Zack must have ended up getting hung up and I was able to pull away. Joray was able to keep on my rear wheel for a while, I could hear his 350f barking at me between straights. I hung on the rest of the race for the W.
Side note - Sorry to Kasey O, I kind-of spiked his camelback with some electrolyte tablets which didn't agree with his stomach. It did however allow me to grab 3rd O/A.

Sunday:

Was able to get another great start on the 300XC and was 2nd going into the woods behind Isaac. We hadn't even made it a mile in and I noticed that quite a line had developed cutting off a short "U" section. Grun happened to noticed this and blasted by nearly everyone in the A class and taking over 2nd. We are able to freight train for the first bit of the lap before I started smacking trees allowing Isaac and Ryan to gap me a little. By lap 2 I had pulled back in on Grun and was looking to make a pass at the 2nd easy/hard section. We both took the middle line but my right hand-guard caught a tree and threw me to the ground. It took the next two laps to make up the ground on Grun and by lap 4 I caught him as he was re-fueling after the finish. We went all of lap 4 glued to each other, great ride Ryan! I ended up getting by him at the end of the lap at the creek/ravine section. Ryan took the hard right coming out of the creek and must have lost the rear end. I’m pretty sure he stood up and shrugged his shoulders as I went by. I tried to push and catch Isaac but couldn’t close the gap he made himself in lap 5, ended up coming through scoring with 40 seconds left to race. I knew Ryan would be closer than that so I decided to go back out for another, riding very gingerly at that point. I was able to limp around lap 6 and came within 50’ of the finish before my bike ran out of gas. By the time I crossed the finish line I was pretty gassed as well, but happy with 2nd in A.

Great races everyone, see you all this weekend!

Very nice report! Now THATwas a race report party goers, almost felt like I was there on the bike with ya!
Thanks, its fun to read a good post...ya know??

"THEY ARE ALL STILL RACING! I come up on a rider, I thought it was 1040 but I later found out there is no 1040 and it wasn't 1049 as I approach Mr Stickney later and it wasn't him either. Anyway I catch this guy and he see's the scorched earth policy style riding I'm putting down and quickly decides to let me by. I thank you for letting me by good sir. He quickly found a perfect spot to move over and I didn't even need to slow down," Said Shredder.

1040 Was at Adrian on Saturday. It was my second race with FMHSC. Looks like scoring has me down as 1014. Will work on getting that straight at the July 4th race.

teeroy wrote:"THEY ARE ALL STILL RACING! I come up on a rider, I thought it was 1040 but I later found out there is no 1040 and it wasn't 1049 as I approach Mr Stickney later and it wasn't him either. Anyway I catch this guy and he see's the scorched earth policy style riding I'm putting down and quickly decides to let me by. I thank you for letting me by good sir. He quickly found a perfect spot to move over and I didn't even need to slow down," Said Shredder.

1040 Was at Adrian on Saturday. It was my second race with FMHSC. Looks like scoring has me down as 1014. Will work on getting that straight at the July 4th race.

First of all welcome to Forward Motion!
It's too bad you had to endure a collision on only your second race. You will find we maintain family atmosphere and we try keep all things as safe as they can be. Foolheartedness, ignoring the rules, ripping thru the pits, etc. is not tolerated and you will also find the best folks around to help you if you just ask with anything...for real.

This is my first time where I was involved in a collision where I was the passing racer. I feel that had I passed earlier or later it would have been no problem. I should have been watching more closely and timed it so I passed you (or anyone for that matter) in a clear area instead of adding in other factors or obstacles. What I have not said is this - In my haste, a collision happened that could have been avoided, simple as that. It wasn't the tree roots fault it was mine and I take responsibility for it. I'm glad that we both brushed off and on our way we went. I left the 700's because those guys were younger and taking a bit more chances than I wanted to expose myself too. (I was getting run over.) The Gentleman's 1000's row you will find we don't race that way.

Thank you for being gracious. I know by the tone of "I'm sorry" you gave me back in the woods as I got up was truly genuine. When you wave a guy by because your over taken and give them the signal to pass, move over then you expect them to do their part and not force it in. I'm used to passing in technical areas, tight turns, creeks or rocky sections which I am usually very patient. At faster speeds when your making a pass (passing at faster speeds in tight sections is sorta a new thing for me) it should happen in an area so that the margin for error is as good as it can be. I passed in the exact moment as we passed a tree which was a mistake and it wont happen again. This is one important rule I've learned from Ed and Randy which run our row...Haste makes waste.

Lesson learned.

My sincerest apologies my good man, and thank you for posting,
Dennis