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Ok, since no one has started a thread yet, I'll get the ball rolling.

The weekend started on saturday, met up with Dennis and his wife Stacey at the race site. Had some great steaks for dinner!

Sunday morning head out for practice, I had never been on this side of the road before so the whole course was new to me. The course really had a great flow to it, with the exception of the tight sappling section, that part kinda sucked!

On the line for the race, board drops, I come off the line in about 7th or 8th, make a pass or 2 before passing scoring, figured I must be running about 6th. I was in the middle of an 800 train going through the woods! About 1 1/2 miles into the course I tried to cut inside on the rider in front of me and clip a tree pretty good with my handguard, that tosses my bike in a full circle and now I am laying on the ground watching the rest of the train go by.

Bike back up and time to re-group, get back into the flow and a little pissed off at my stupid mistake. Up ahead is the tight sappling section, and look, the 800 train is caught in it! Once the course opened up a little started making passes, I had to get to the front and was going to let it hang out a little to get there.

I must have made a bunch of passes, came through scoring on the first lap in 3rd and was right on the rear tire of the second place rider! Waited for the right time and made the pass for second. The pass stuck, now it was time to get a little distance and ride smart (like keeping the bike on 2 wheels).

Maintained 2nd for the rest of the race. Did see Lauren on the last lap, she came out of nowhere and made a pass on me at the last creek crossing, but ended up going down in the last g-out going into the woods so I was able to get the position back pretty quick. Gonna have to watch my back a little more from now on, she is getting pretty fast!

I was hoping to battle some with Grayson, but the kid is so fast, I never even saw him after the start! Dan took time to tell me his birthday is this week ............ and emphasised the fact that he will be "twelve". Well, hope you have a great birthday Grayson and Dan .......... Well, thanks for making me feel all sorts of old !!

All in all a great weekend, 2nd place finish, big trophy and took my trophy girl home with me.

Wow what a race! The East side is no longer "legend" folks! I've been there, seen it, lived it, know it and it is awesome! The east side has creeks that only flow at night (and backwards). The east side is a kingdom with a fast flowing graceful trail with evil sapling dwellers that live in a section who try to slow you down and make you dizzy so they can steal bike plastic, helmet visors and bike paint from you. Be careful in this area as the sapling dwellers are invisible to dirtbike riders. very cool.

I was waiting to get my morning business done but got stuck waiting at the Johnny on the spot. I get back to camp and our fabulous "second shooter" Pam says - Dennis you gotta go - you got two minutes! I get on my bike and run up to the start and see no one. I'm thinking cool! I'm early! Someone yells out GO! GO! Your line has left! I pin it and use the anger to fuel my already strong passion to not be last! Did pretty good. Pick up 7th in first lap and pretty much held it.

Some where during "my great run" when I'm running really hot I get whooped. That's cool anyone coming up THAT FAST needs to be in front of me anyway. I wave them to the right and snuggle over to the left a bit. I hear him pin it and hit the after burners and WHAMMOOOO! He is gone. Long gone. A space shuttle launch or a top fuel dragster tearing past the light tree would have been slow compared to this padre. Gone like a twenty dollar bill on the floor in a train station... Like it never happened...Damn... and I thought I was really taken care of business - ya know? I could tell by all the burned trees, chard earth and distorted plastic parts and un-torched decals that it was #800. WOW...He was ridding hot, clean, calling out, passing good, and a perfect sportsmen.

On lap four I caught up with ol Joe Leaderhouse and tried to cut him at the drop in behind the trailers. I was selling but he wasn't buying! I saw Steve Mckinsey at scoring - he was probably watching his son and he helped get my adrenaline going again - Thanks man! Also thanks to the water girl! Man that was sweet. either the cold water would stop your heart OR you got an incredible BOOST of HOLY COW to get ya rockin again. sweet

Last lap - all is well and I'm still looking for more pay back (pay back? I was the one late for the party...right?) I went down hard on that steep uphill - failing to clear 2 downed bikes correctly. I finally get it up and about to get on when I get hit again by someone else (you were in the middle of the track Einstein) I'm getting lethargic now but still have a little fight left.

As I'm getting closer to someone's dust trail a fast guy again come up so I wave him by to my right and I nudge over to the left and put my tires right in the middle of a hidden 6 inch log running parallel to the trail. Just at the exact moment he gets next to me my bike tires fell off the log and me and the bike go to the right. He takes my head clean off, rips off the front brake line (which left a bad taste in my mouth - pun intended) and my front plate is hanging by the wires and a chunk of front fender missing. I saw the flash of lightning and thought maybe it was God talking to me (it was sunday). He crams it and slams it to a stop and looks back and yells "man - are you OK? it must have been horrific because of the WAY he said it - it sorta even scared me too! So all the damage report alarms are ringing into my head but they are all yellow light signals - no reds. I realize when the stars stop spinning that I'm on all fours once again in the middle of the track. (our forward motion family are the best folks around!) I get my wind back and yell (hoarsely) Go ahead - Go ahead. He pauses for a second like - you got to be $hitting me but I wave him on and crawl off the track. Who ever that was THANK YOU for seeing if I need help but it was totally my bad - not yours. We cool bro! I found both boots, my socks in two different trees with my underwear ...well..."full". I finished the lap as best as I could - I kept forgetting about no front brake - it was kinda sketchy a few times and I've got that front brake hydraulic hose slapping me in the face...I was thinking YOU HIT ME IN THE FACE...ONE...MORE...TIME! and SLAP, SLAP, SLAP! (saying it was pi$$ing me off is really putting it mildly)

Lastly Dan did - in fact straighten out the whole new Husky bike deal with the wife! Very nice indeed! He made her feel great that I got a new Husky for her birthday (her birthday is the 12th). Trouble is I think she is getting a new Jeep for my birthday in October.....NOW WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE!!!!!!.....what is the deal here? I did tell dan to smooth the waters a bit - at any cost but what did I do?

hee hee
sorry that the story is so short and lacks detail but I see wirefryer is still typing as he has not posted yet so I wanted to make it a good one.

Also thanks to Pam and Scott as my Mom and sister had a great time hanging out at the camp today! you guys are great!

Figured that since I'd signed a card at the banquet, I might as well use it. Shocked Lisa when she saw me with my gear on. Listened to the riders' meeting and got my gear on, only to hustle to the line and watch the 600 class leaving. Pulled in behind all of the 700s and just sat there with the engine running because I had no plans to pass any of those guys. Matt Looney runs up and yells, "you'd better get up there!!", but I just grinned and sat where I was. Most of the class took off and I gave it a second or two before leaving to wait for the guys who needed an extra kick or twelve to get their bikes going.

Finally off into the billowing dust cloud before heading over into the Spud-cut. That was a hoot! I let the guys behind me pass a couple of times before the AARP Lites came smoking through. Made it a lap before the 800/900 classes came through and managed to negotiate the creek stuff a couple of times. I decided on a third lap and was having fun out there by myself. I played follow the blue bike with 775 and 914 for a bit before they took off and then the 600s came through to lap me.

I was ready to be done and was headed to the scoring trailer on the last creek crossing when I dove off into the water with a little more excitement than the terrain, the bike, and my level of (un)fitness could stand and the bike ended up swallowing some water after I went to step off and my foot went right down into a rut. Many thanks to the fellow who helped me out after I caught my breath and to Matt Looney who saw me pushing and was the only one to dive out of the crowd of lookeyloos and help me get the bike to the top.

A lovely day for dust, mud, and a dnf. Many thanks to everyone who set up and worked the course. It was good stuff. Also, thanks to DD for letting everyone come out and play.

I would like to thank the Summer of 2011s' 52 straight days of 100 degree plus temps for getting all of us in the mindset that not being able to see the ground or anything else is 'just another day at the races' .

On the trip up to Kmarshall9s' folks place an hour from Wburg Saturday afternoon via I-35, we got to see the results of a boat trailer loosing a hub/wheel assembly due to loss of lubrication. The red hot wheel assembly promptly set the ditch on fire.

On the same subject, Kevin pointed out the spot just outside California, Mo. where a turkey truck delivering a load of live birds to Cargill last week was head-on wrecked by a pickup crossing the center line, and caught fire.

Picture in your head the sounds and smells of 800 plus live turkeys getting roasted in a diesel fire.... reminds me of a few dance halls I frequented in Eastern Montana back in the late 80s' .

Get pitted and head to sign-up. Since I decided to go back to the 700 club and needed temp #s, Lisa took the time to educate me on what a PITA that involves.

Boys and Girls, if you have settled on a number for the year DO Scoring a favor and get proper graphics.... BikeGraphix sponsors the Series and will hook you up on-the-cheap... with tough, easy to apply, season long numbers.

Run the practice loop and prepare for a 'vision challenged' adventure, getting a good start will be critical for most.

Line up after the riders meeting, the 600s launch, and aparrently one 600 showed up late but thought he was the first one there... we finally yelled at him enough that he got going, these things happen .

Got a great start even though there wasn't near enough heat in my engine, hit the woods in 4th and promptly lost slot after slot until mile two was done with.

Speaking of which... what sick, depraved, chainsaw wielding individual whacked out that section of broomsticks that you went lock-to-lock a dozen times to get thru at mile 1.5 or so.

Has to be TerryG, only He... could be that twisted .

The dry creek section was a hoot! But you had best been on your game to get thru it mistake free... overshoot just a little, get hung up in a gully, and the rest of your Class went by in a flash.

Laps 2 and 3 things settled out and I had mostly clean air till Shredder roared by somewhere on the north end. Spotted him again crashed out on the uphill at mile 3 with 2 other guys.

Lap 4 I hit Scoring in 9th place with 6 minutes to go, I'm tired and thirsty and pretty much not wanting to do another lap if I don't have to. So, being the crafty Vet that I is.... I pull over, grab a drink, and wait and see if anyone comes thru.

Sure as hell , here comes Lederhouse thru Scoring, and the one thing I do know about Joe is the fact that he don't quit till the checkered is out.

I hit the button and almost match my 1st lap time, the fun part is that Joe came in at 15 seconds behind me at the finish.

Hot Tip to GoPro owners; Do Not, at dusty races with a river involved, attempt to do a 'quickie lens cleaning' with wet gloves. When you view the footage after said cleaning you will undestand what it's like to have cateracts .

Got to enjoy some very tasty Birthday Cake during the Intermission courtesy of Shredder. If I recall correctly his Wife Stacy turned 34 last week .

Hung out for the start of the fast movers... Barger showed up late for the start of the AA and was 20-30 seconds behind the last guy in the class. Aparrently it didn't bother him a bit.

Eric Smith and I helped #37 fish out his drowned bike out of the river exit on lap one. I recalled on the way home that the #37 bike at Kingman did a sick Hydro-lock in the creek there.... maybe that # don't like water, hmmm.

Since Kmarshall spent most of his day trying to get out of a ravine, he graciously volunteered to drive home. We watched Semi after Semi going East with IRL graphics... Andretti, Gnassi, Sara Fischer, the Target fleet was most impressive as they have almost as many haulers as UPS!

DD, I don't know who raped the corn... but I believe you had the same issue with soybeans a few years back.

Course Workers... given what you had to deal with trim-wise, Outstanding Job!! Well marked and an excellent flow throughout ( other than that sapling maze TerryG hacked in )

Whoop!

Tim
#713

Really want to thank the land owner & Dan for a great course. sorry about your corn, I come from the farm myself. I not sure but I think the only place joe passed me was on the way to the race on 18hwy. I had a great time starting to get in the groove again. look forward to the next one.

Steve
#1095

A little late on the report...
A big thank you to the land owners, the workers, and Forward Motion for putting out a great race.
We are just a bunch of two-wheelers looking for a day in the dirt without all your hard work and generosity.
The East side stories lived up to the hype, for sure. I did miss the big hill climb/descent though.
Arrived with 4 fellow riders and started setting up for the day. I have to admit it looked pretty cool having 5 bikes lined up like a bike shop in back of the truck and trailer.
Practice lap proved that a good start is a must. A lot of single line areas, but nothing too technical.
We line up and the 600’s take off, then the maverick 600 came up with a look of confusion. I yelled “Go.” But he did not hear me. Finally a spectator said it loud enough, and off he went. Now it is go time! The board drops and darn if my bike will not start again! Cannot wait to get the new top end done! I thought I was last off the line, but later was told that there were 2 or three after me still kicking after mine finally fired up. I missed the first left-short line and was almost going to get mad when I see the pile up with at least 7 riders and a whole lot of dust. I had to make a good run through the first lap to make some distance and start looking for fenders to pass. I made the creek crossing with no issues, other than soaking my body, gloves and goggles. Not cool trying race looking through a fish tank. I was able to keep a cool head and ride steady and allow the lenses to dry off. I came though first lap in 9th place. I made up a couple spots, and made it up to 7th on the second lap, only to be told that I had company on my tail. I made it to the creek crossing before I look back to see who it was. Yep, Jason Smith comes out of retirement and is on my tail. I was at the top of the hill on the West side when I looked back and Jason was going sideways with a leg out trying to keep his 300 hunny from bucking him off. I was doing all I could to keep him at bay when we came up to a Jr. rider with an escort. Just before the dry creek bed, I get between the two of them and played it cool not to push the Jr. rider. They are, after all the next generation of writers, I mean riders. We exit the creek bed and give a hoot out and made the pass while giving out a thank you and good luck to the young lad – Who I hope remembers me in a year or two while passing me with a “thanks old man”. I made it to the small hill climb with Jason right there to witness me stall my bike about 10 feet up. That is all he needed and off he went with only a trail of dust to try to keep up with. Nice to have you back in the 700 club! I was able to catch a couple riders only to be disappointed not to see a 7 as their first digit. I maintained 8th for the rest of the day. I was pretty happy to have that spot after a miserable start.
Hoping that a new top end will cure the lack of starting at the line and looking forward to July 4th!
And if you forgot – Thanks again to all involved in Forward motion and the land owners.