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Took a practice lap and was surprised to see how different the course was from last year. Had to make some adjustments between practice and the start and it seemed to work well for me. That running start definitely mixed things up a little, however it didn't work in my favor this time.

Started first kick and got into what felt like the mid-pack. Made a few passes in the first field sections and funneled into a nice pace. Was following a little too closely and almost ran into a thorn tree, thus killing it and losing all I had worked for (about the usual...) Was good to see DMart back in action and rode w/ him till about mile 5.5 when I came out of a creek into a flat but rocky section and gave her a little too much. I got squirrely and ended up high siding it, bending my bars pretty goood in the process.

Course was set up well, too bad I only did 3/4 of a lap. Thanks to the people of Drexel for hosting us. This has become a tradition that I look forward to every year!

shredder wrote:As I was gaining altitude I saw someone coming in on their re-entry and I heard Houston Controll Giving Chad 1040 the emergency procedures check list for re-entry without a bike over the headset in my helmet. (I so glad your ok Chad, I heard about you in the pits afterwords).

Dennis, thanks...any word on who helped me out? One, I sure owe them a big thanks and two, if anyone saw what happened to maybe give me a clue as to what went wrong. I don't remember hitting anything really that caused me to separate from the bike like that. Seemed pretty fast, but smooth right there. I sure don't want to, rather, I can't afford to make mistakes like this again if there is something to be learned.

I'm guessing some of you are the praying to JC type like me. I do believe the good Lord was looking out for me Friday. Forgot to mention in my earlier post that the best part of the day was that my wife and kids joined me for the fun day. We had a family prayer before I raced which, of course, included safety. This could have been so much worse. I have a big bruise rather than a broken back and, like I said earlier, there were two guys there immediately helping me. I took that thing tree squarely or maybe I should say the tree took me. I included a picture of my "tree"-matoma.

Last thing, this was the second race my 11 year old got to watch. He is very interested so I need to look into how he could get started. Looks like maybe as a junior and I would chaperone him or something?

I have a few repairs to make on the bike. Bring on Chanute, I'll be ready.
Chad

Wow, not our best weekend racing. Most of his excitement happened before the third lap. We brought friends and family so we weren't early. Collin doesn't like the heat so we tried something new with icepacks. We didn't have our vest yet, so we just duct taped frozen gel packs to his chest and back just for a trial run. He said they lasted about two laps, which was several hours short of their advertised performance. So while he is suiting up, he discovers he forgot gloves. Thanks Mark Johnson. Collin starts his bike to warm it up. He walks over to get on and sees fuel spraying out from under the tank. Yes the dreaded fuel line split we have heard rumor of. He shuts it off and I tell him we are done for the day. He recommends tape. Yeah right. So I wrapped the fuel line like a really ornery wrap job on a Christmas present and IT WORKED. So he races to the start line and takes a very short practice lap, which was to the first jump. He landed into a hay bale and came back to the start vowing to avoid the jump all day. He likes the running start as he is young, skinny and athletic. It didn't work as well as it had in the past as he caught the rear fender with his pants had to climb over it. Mid pack start.

I believe he now owes an apology to the owner of the cornfield. Apparently during the second lap, he attempted a pass at the turn and ended up playing "combine". He had to pull corn stalks out of both wheels and out of the rear shock. By lap three he had found his way back to fifth and decided that with all the adversity up to that point, that he could settle for that.

Thanks to Chuck and the City of Drexel for the opportunity to race.

Holy Moley Chad, Ouch man. No seriously I just threw out the whole re-entry thing to poke ya in hopes you would post all the juicy details. I didn't dream you had such a hard impact. After our race I was so blown away by Randy's solid and aggressive pass that I stuck with him across the finish to high five him and then Todd "slid in" and stopped to fill us in (he was still on his "race high") and gave Randy and I his most excellent story and details about neither Gibber or him would give up till literally the last inch. They both felt kinda bad about pushing it so close to scoring - but hey...we get caught up sometimes - ya know?

Anyway I went back to scoring and because I was gone jabbering with Todd and Randy (still on my racer's - high also) so long, Stacey headed back to camp, by then the pain was building in my back again so I moved slowly back to camp too and heard something about a 1000 rider going full tilt with a nasty come off but no other details. I didn't realize it was you till you posted. I have no idea who scraped you up off the skillet to flip you over or any other details.

I do remember seeing you around lap 4 or 5 - can't remember. Someone will post and help you fill in the blanks I'm sure. Be sure to keep hydrated and if it's ok might want to take a couple of aspirin a day to help break up the contusions. dang it man, I'd piss on a spark plug if it would do ya any good!

By the way ol Jorray is slicker than a greased pig aint he?

..:: My proudest race report of the year ::..

I didn't know if I was going to make it to this race because of two reasons.

#1) My first child was "on deck" to be born any moment starting on the 4th....but mamma said "go race, iI'll call ya if she comes early"

#2) My Honda was still broke from Sunday, and with baby on the way I had no chance to even check the damage.


BUT TWO AMAZING THINGS HAPPENED!!!!!


1) An amazing friend (P.K. will know who I am talking about #106 Wylie) told me there was no reason to miss this race, and that I could use his 2014 KTM 250sx that's fully Letko prepped. I WAS SO BLOWN AWAY I WAS SPEECHLESS...... even with his full MX set up suspension, lowering links, and no rekluse... I managed to A) never drop the bike once.... B) finish 6th in "c". It was an awesome feeling.... wow what a fast bike. I don't know what you guys did at letko but woah!

2) MY DAUGHTER DECIDED to wait till after the race to let mamma know she wanted to be part of the world. So the FMHSC family just gained a member!!!! She's just a "few" years off from riding. But she came at the perfect time , while daddy had a break from racing.


So if you see me at the next race you will know why I am smiling... its the proud daddy grin, that I can't get off my face.

My first race report. Spelling don't count.
Well Mr Shredder I don't think I can be as colorful writer as you but I will give it a shot to be interesting enough.

As always sitting there on the starting line my nerves are and heart are racing already. That gun blows off and my bike fires rite up click into second, because first gear is worthless on my bike unless you are in a pulling contest, I am not quite first but thanks to the long straight away a 450 comes in handy. Holy crap I just pulled into the lead and now I have a big decision. Do I take the jump or go around. It hurt a little bit I didn't quite get that good of a run at it but made it and I was all alone. I wish my contour camera could see the smile on my face.

It was going good because I love a fast open track and Drexel don't get much better then that. Thank you lord for drying up the wet slippery grass also. So here comes my first mess up. We go through a creek area and I'm sorry but the ribbons were torn down and I was up on the road for a bit and fallowed an 800 rider back on the trail. Still a little dew left right there and he slides out and I do the same thing. I get passed by a couple of my competitors. That smile is not on my face anymore.

I think I passed one 1000 guy and I was in second place for two laps. During the second lap I had some pressure from Brady Lafon 1068 but the slippery rocks coming up before the dam had blocked up and I got held up and when I looked back I think he was off his bike on the hill. I never saw him again.

I caught up to 1040 the blister and passed him just after the starting line creek jump, that i never took again, he was running good though and passed me back on a straight away nice and clean. We soon did battle at the end of the supercross section and like he said he blew past it just a bit I cut inside and first place was mine again. I am sorry to hear that you went down so hard Chad and I will be looking forward to racing you again.

The rest of the race went pretty good no real mistakes. There was one incident with a 700 rider were I had passed him right before the logs but was coming in pretty hot and diverted around them. I hit the rest of the obstacles but he decided to bypass them and tried to run me off the track but cut back inside made the jump next him and the used all 450cc's passed him and a couple more in the straight away.

I love the Drexel race and want to thank all that helped make it happen.

1027 Dad of 227 JoRay

E.A. wrote: ..:: My proudest race report of the year ::..

I didn't know if I was going to make it to this race because of two reasons.

#1) My first child was "on deck" to be born any moment starting on the 4th....but mamma said "go race, iI'll call ya if she comes early"

#2) My Honda was still broke from Sunday, and with baby on the way I had no chance to even check the damage.


BUT TWO AMAZING THINGS HAPPENED!!!!!


1) An amazing friend (P.K. will know who I am talking about #106 Wylie) told me there was no reason to miss this race, and that I could use his 2014 KTM 250sx that's fully Letko prepped. I WAS SO BLOWN AWAY I WAS SPEECHLESS...... even with his full MX set up suspension, lowering links, and no rekluse... I managed to A) never drop the bike once.... B) finish 6th in "c". It was an awesome feeling.... wow what a fast bike. I don't know what you guys did at letko but woah!

2) MY DAUGHTER DECIDED to wait till after the race to let mamma know she wanted to be part of the world. So the FMHSC family just gained a member!!!! She's just a "few" years off from riding. But she came at the perfect time , while daddy had a break from racing.


So if you see me at the next race you will know why I am smiling... its the proud daddy grin, that I can't get off my face.

That is so cool - you must be doing something right! Congradulations!!!

Wow! What a race. I am still on an adrenaline buzz! Got tangled up with the 740 at the start and we locked rear wheels together. Neither of us went down but it took a minute to get untangled. At that point we were pretty well dead last. The 740 took off and I was hot on his tail. He made some good passes on the field and quickly put himself back in the race. I decided to settle in and enjoy the ride. Made some good passes on the straights and came across the line in 6th to my surprise. Found some open ground and was able to chase down the top 5 after a couple of laps. Crossed the line on lap 4 and saw I was in third but knew it was the 740 and the 729 I had to run down so I had my work cut out for me. Banged on the rear fender of the 740 for quite a while but finally got by him on the long muddy rut section. Put a little space between him and me and took a little breather. I knew there was gong to be one more lap and I was going to have to get up on the bars to chase down the 729. Got to the line and there he was. Caught up to him at the split past the jumps and we started duking it out like Ali and Frazier. I stuck on his tail thinking I was going to make my move the same place I passed the 740. We got to the stretch and we hammered down. 5th gear pinned handle bar to handle bar we came up on a lapped rider, I went left the 729 went right, we passed the lapper so fast we blew his bark busters off! Thanks for holding your line. Hard on the brakes I tucked into the hard right at the end of the stretch and take a look back to see the 729 down on the ground. Take a second look and he picking up his bike so I knew he was alright. Figured I had a little breathing room so I settled back down and tried to bring her home. About a mile later I take a look back and see the 729 chasing me down. I picked up the pace a little threw the woods then came to the staight away coming out of the woods and put the hammer down. All of the sudden my rear wheel locks up and my motor dies. Game Over!

Thanks to the City of Drexel! This truely is a one of a kind 4th of July event. Thanks to all those involved who help put this on. Thanks to all the riders who asked if I was alright as I sat on the side of the course and thanks to those who helped me get my bike out of the woods.

keko wrote: I picked up the pace a little threw the woods then came to the staight away coming out of the woods and put the hammer down. All of the sudden my rear wheel locks up and my motor dies. Game Over!

Thanks to the City of Drexel! This truely is a one of a kind 4th of July event. Thanks to all those involved who help put this on. Thanks to all the riders who asked if I was alright as I sat on the side of the course and thanks to those who helped me get my bike out of the woods.

Nice race report!
That does sting a little I know, but WOW what a race you had! Shoot you even have full color photos! I'll have to step up my game if I expect to hang with this!

Awesome day at drexel for the fourth! Great track not as dusty as usuall which was nice. Started out pretty good, got 3rd in the holeshot and made the creek jump! Was able to pass #18 by holding on the gas a little more in a straight away. Then had to chase down Jaden. We battled for a lap and a half and he made a mistake and me and tucker got around him but tucker got me in the process too. I stuck with Tucker for a while but he started to pull away faster and faster. Last few laps started getting cramps and wore out. Slowed down quite a bit and tucker pulled a couple minute lead. About a mile from the finish and here comes Nick Plesa. It freaked me out and i pumped it up for a while but he got me in corner, so i stayed on his back wheel and then he caught a rock and went down. Luckily i was able to place second behind tucker and had a day without a crash!
Thanks to all the people who helped set up the track and to dan and his sons and my sponsors letko cycles and Mom and Dad

121, Zack Brawner