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Got a good start fighting bar to bar with 1044 to get 3rd going into the woods thank goodness he was smarter then me and gave way. About a ¼ mile in I some how hit a tree head on and lost 3rd but I was able to recover quickly and get back in the race only losing 1 spot. I was able to get by 1044 on the grass track not sure how I got by 2nd and about 5 miles in 1045 missed a corner and I was able to take over 1st so I just settled down and tried to run my own race and lap 2 was uneventful.

On the 3rd lap out of nowhere 1045 blew by me on the long grass track and I realized I was riding too cautious and was slowing down. He sure got my attention so I figured I better pick it up or I would be loosing more positions. I got my second wind and got right on his tail. A little while later he made a mistake and went down and I was able to take over first again and didn’t look back from there. Thanks for the extra motivation Weimer.

Once again it was another great day at Beer Ranch. Thanks to the owners and the rest of the crew that made this race happen.

Ok, I will chime in from the 500 class. It’s been a while since I threw a leg over my dirt bike let alone show up to a FMHSC. I decide I was going to give a go this weekend at the new course come hell or high water, well we got hell. I talked our neighbor kid, Hunter into joining in on the fun. It was nice to showed up at the gate to see some familiar faces, Wirefryer and FlyinRyan greeted me with a big smile and handshake. We picked our spot to setup, grabbed our helmets and headed to signup. On the way to sign up we seen many more familiar faces, David Campbell, Scott Henion, Jason & Karry Schupp, Darren Reeves, Silva Beach, The Hightower clan, the Slawson clan, the Shafer boys, and Dan the man. It felt a lot like coming home. Signup was fast and smooth, thanks to Kim. We all appreciate the hard work put in by our signup and scoring folks, thank you all. Time to get ready to check out the new course on the practice lap. My good buddy Sandy Jackson aka DirtyOldMan decided to join in on the fun and parked next to us. Sandy picked up a Beta xtrainer and revived his dirt bike carrier, always good to have him out on the trails. The place looked awesome but it was thick, like amazon jungle thick. The course flowed nicely, and arrowed well. It had some fun technical sections with off cambers, rocky creek beds, roots, elevation changes and plenty of logs to hop over. Most of those sections were broken up nicely with more flowing trails with plenty of places to get around folks. I couldn’t stop sweating, even when just setting in the shade so hydrating was going to be important for the long day ahead.

Race time:
Lined up with a few more familiar faces, Colby Christy and the infamous RiverRat. I get my usual crummy start and swift reminder that lap 1 is all about running mach 1 with your hair on fire. I slide past a few folks that got together and try to keep the front of the pack in sight. I make a few mistakes of my own and Silva gets by, I try to recover in time to latch on and let him pull me through the first lap but that was a no go and came through back half of the class. Lap 2 was a little cleaner but I still made my share of mistakes, I just made fewer mistakes than some of the guys in front of me and I was able to move to the front half of the class. I found myself between the Garrett brothers and enjoyed freight training with them for a few miles. Things started to change real fast after that, my cardio conditioning was fine by racing is also about muscle memory and calluses. My gloves were soaked and my freaking girlie hands didn’t stand a chance. They were a bloody mess by the end of lap 3 and it was all I could do to hang on for the last two laps. Combine that will my timing and muscle memory not in tune and I was making plenty of mistakes and never able to turn in a clean lap. Ended up mid pack and was ok with that, the front half of the class is really moving. Plenty of work to do as I clearly need to clean some things up.

Thanks to the land owners, Dan and everyone that helped put this thing together.

Another great FMHSC RACE !
Started out sitting on the line waiting for the board drop when who I used to think was my friend John Gordon offers up $10 to anyone who can beat 1045 off the line and then Dan doubles the offer. Well s#!t the pressure is on now. But board dropped and bike fired rt up and off we go . Not sure why or how but another hole shot position into the woods we go .
I could hear someone rt behind me the entire 1st lap but didn't dare look back . Any way about mile 5 point something where the single orange ribbon was I took the rt line wich leads you back to the campers . While I was detouring around a brush pile Jim went rt on around. Kept him in sight until mile 2 then I got tangled up in some trees ( little ones ) then 1074 Gregg passed me . So I kinda got back in a groove chasing him down and passed him in the long grass track .
Lap 3 I finally found 1004 and passed him in the same spot ( maybe I should be a grass track racer lol) back into the woods we went . It was a race just thought I was starting to get a little daylight between us on a what seemed to be long open run in the trees I topped out 2nd hit 3rd and started to rip again and next thing Im heading over the bars . Dang little stump stuck out just enough to get my pipe and flip me off . ( mangled pipe and ripped the bracket off the frame ) Jim ask if I was was OK and I seemed to be so off we go again .
Lap 4 was uneventful just exhausted. Rode through scoring see 1:59 on the clock thinking we only ride 1:55 I just roll out take my helmet off look around wondering where everyone else is then a guy comes up says clock is wrong and 3 minutes left . I panic when I see 1044 ride though scoring and kept Going . Threw on my helmet and took off after him . Caught up to him and we both stopped to let 500 riders by I took off 1st . Not sure that was cool looking back but didn't matter anyway I got tangled up in a Tarzan vine on one of the rocky up hills and he passed me and never saw him again . I pushed lap 5 as hard as I could wich was just little fast than turtle pace . And ended up 3rd .
Lessons learned 1 - stay on coarse
2 - don't run into tree stumps
3 ride to checkered flag lol

Nice report Ted. Good to see you and Jace enjoying a day at the races. Also hope your neighbor had a good day of racing, good of you to bring him.

Got to the race site in about 3 1/2 hrs, 1 hour more then expected thanks to GPS thinking that I was on 2 wheels instead of a motor home. The detour wasn't as bad as what Hunzikers went through last year on their way to Thurman when they thought they were reliving a scene from Deliverance but frustrating non the less.

Saturday night was fairly quiet until about 11:00 when Remy and Owen started lighting fireworks. Just kidding, I think it was Amy Yuille lighting them and just blaming the boys. Poor boys.

As for the race. I felt like I had a great start for me anyway by being in 4th at the rt. hand turn at the tree and then was able to make a pass for 3rd before getting into the 700 single file freight train into the woods. My race was very uneventful. I heard Walker behind me on my first lap and I know better then to try and block him for 1 hr and 35 minutes so I pulled over and let him pass. Next to catch me was Greg. I heard him and was successful in pulling away from him but not long into the 2nd lap he was right on me again so I pulled over to let him pass and even gave him a thumbs up when he did. I was in 3rd for 4 laps not ever really seeing anyone else from my class until Phillip passed me on an uphill at about mile 2 on lap 5 and then I rode what I felt like was the most intense ride of my life literally for the last 4.5 miles. I followed him until we got to the open grass section where we swapped positions 3 times. I had a better line getting back into the woods and was back in 3rd. Feeling good at this point because I was really hoping to take 3rd back in the fast grass. Well this happiness was short lived because as I said earlier, I was riding harder and faster then I ever do and I started to overheat, meaning I couldn't see anything out of my fogged over goggles. Some of you that have spent a little time with me may think I have a screw loose and you are close but not totally correct. I had a screw totally gone. As I was making a left turn and reaching up to take my goggles off, the strap got stuck on my visor that was hanging on by one screw. I was perplexed and handed 3rd right back to Phillip. Very nice ride Phillip, I gave it all I had plus some and just couldn't get the job done.

That's Hilarious Shane, I was down taking video of your Hole Shot and never heard anything about John and Dan betting against your Skills.... Funny, I guess Beth really knows you after 20 years of marriage. She is always saying how fast you are.

Nice to see a few guys out of the 700 club posting reports!

My race was not so hot. I got a good start and was 3rd I think until Flyin' blew my doors off as usual. I wanted to just keep a fairly easy pace because I knew the heat would be an issue for most of us. Got stuck on the one hard hill behind a 600 guy that got stuck so pretty much went straight to last..awesome. Stayed in 8th through the first lap but we were all pretty close at that point. Just tried to make no mistakes and make good line choices and picked up one spot on the 2nd and 3rd lap. As I started the 4th lap I was stuck behind some guys and noticed the bike started to run like crap. I had noticed it a little in the earlier laps but it would clear up. Almost to the 2 mile mark and I"m trying to hit the eject button as the bike is sputtering and spitting but I'm not sure how to get out of the woods. Luckily I come across Tim Wolfe and he shows me the way out of the woods and tells me how to get back to the pits. Unfortunately I didn't make it but I did make it to one of the short clearings and I parked it there. I left the bike there to make an 'exploratory' mission on foot instead of pushing it blindly across the field and I didn't see the pits, but I did happen across one of the workers starting to pick up arrows. He called in the calvary and Tim drew the short straw to pick me up with a truck. Huge thanks to the guys that helped me out, and also to several riders who stopped to make sure I was ok. Bummed I DNF'd but I'd rather it be this way than getting hurt or stuck deep in the woods. I'll come back stronger for Hanks!

Got off to a great start for once. Bar to bar with the 1045 as we entered the woods but I backed off just a bit to let him lead; I ride faster when I follow someone. The entire first lap on was on his rear tire but could never get a good spot to try and make a pass. Every once in a while he'd creep away just a little bit but I'd catch back up to play a little cat and mouse for almost the whole lap. About mile 5, going down a culvert, somehow I lost the front end and face planted straight into a tree. Within about 3 seconds the 1004 went buzzing past me. Luckily I was able to get right back up and give chase. Came in through the checkpoint at 3rd. Went down a few times on lap 2 and saw the 1004 and 1044 go past me when I laid it over on a rocky uphill. Took me a minute to get the bike up but eventually got back on and gave chase. Ended up 5th as I came through the checkpoint on lap 2.

Lap 3 gave me a few fits and I ended up giving away another spot and came across in 6th after lap 3. By then I was absolutely beat. Sucking all the water I could out of my Camel Bak trying desperately just to hold on to the bars. The 4th lap was absolutely brutal. I wanted to quit but I just forced myself to keep going. I had nothing left in me. I was merely riding the bike, letting it take me wherever it wanted to go. I realized I was about 1 whisky throttle away from wrapping myself around a tree so I just stopped for a bit to gather some energy. I mustered up enough energy to get going again, but I just left it in 2nd and putted the last 4 miles. I didn't care who passed me at that point. The finish line couldn't come fast enough.

I finished in 8th place....which was ok by me. After all the last time I rode my bike was Big Springs, and the 1 lap I put in a Beer Ranch East last weekend. I'm just not in riding shape, as I lost the only place close by me to ride when Big Springs sold. Only riding on race weekend is not ideal if I want to be competitive. Overall it was a great race. I absolutely loved the course!

Once again I am here to clarify the story!! Shane the offer was only for $1 not $10...no way I have THAT much faith in you, but I was pretty sure my money was safe!
On to the second race and the infamous 700's!!! I had a fairly good jump, in fact I almost lost my trusty blue stead!! As my butt barely caught the rear fender and I was holding on for dear life I made it around the first tree and aimed right for the locust tree and the wild rose bush that I had strategically broken a couple branches off of so I could fit through. I was amazed and down right glad that everything was out of the way, unfortunately I didn't get the drive I wanted and almost t-boned the 790. Second into the woods was good enough. I tried to calm down and hold a good pace until the freight train uncoupled and stretched out a bit. A mile and a half in I let the front end wash and layed it down in a corner. Any other lap than the first it would have been no big deal but we were still bunched up and even though guys were bouncing off of trees and going all over I still got hit three times before I could remount. The leader went down somewhere and I went through scoring in 7th. Got past Gibbs and Spooner on the next lap then just kind of rode along until the storm hit. While the wind and dropping temps felt good, the down pour made things treacherous!!
The track had some really neat features. For me I couldn't get a rhythm in the first four miles but the last two and a half seemed to go way to fast! The course was marked VERY good and it didn't ride like a track that was put together in a few days!! Next year I have a feeling it will be even better!! Hope all the dad's have a great fathers day weekend, see everyone in a couple weeks!!!

Lol John I kind of thought it was a dollar but I didn't really hear the exact amount. Someone said these reports just had to be roughly based on true story lol .
I got a kick out of it . That's sort of stuff that keeps race days lite and fun !!

I think I heard $100!

On that time thing it wasn't a wrong clock...
The race is 2 hours AA time. Since the 1000 class starts on the 6th row that means you leave at :05 and checkers come out at 2:00 so you race 1:55 if you happen to come in at that exact moment. Just be looking for 2 hours and a checkered flag. Technically this change to the first race has all of you guys racing about 2 minutes longer than you used to. I considered running the 1000 class 90 minutes AA time but heard a lot of opposition so I just let it be. If you guys decide that sounds better, let me know. It will be a bit tricky pulling you off individually since the race is not over but we can do it. My reasoning there is that it would keep you from being lapped twice in a race and some of that group are more recreational riders.

Not really related to this but a point I want to make while I am already typing:
If ever you don't understand anything, dislike something, or have a new idea, just email me or call and I will gladly talk things over. Race day conversations are fine but it might not be my most thorough conversation! I occasionally get that "people are saying" crap and I don't like it. I am far too open and approachable for anyone to ever be dissatisfied with anything. Then again, some people would complain if you hung them with a new rope!!

Keep these reports coming, I really like reading them. Makes it all feel worthwhile.

This might be one of the shortest reports, keep your expectations low. Lined up next to jason g. on the very inside, thought it might work out ok. Got the usual start maybe 3rd until I got a little tangled with some low hanging branches at the first right. I'm learning I need to do a better job of checking out the starts and alternate lines. I was able to make up one spot before hitting the woods and found myself behind Adam g., he stalled on a corner and I wasn't able to get around. The rest of the first lap was pretty uneventful, made it past Adam and tucked in behind Mark b. Tried hard to get past Mark using alternate lines but wasn't successful, followed him through scoring in 6th place.
Shortly after starting the second lap Mark had a nasty encounter with several trees, glad you weren't hurt it looked wicked. This put me into 5th and soon found Jason not looking so hot. Finished the lap in 3rd and stayed there the rest of the race.
A big thanks to Dan and the crew for putting on another great race! looking forward to seeing everybody at the next one.