****THIS IS THE VIEW AFTER 1 HOUR OF WASHING!!!!****
Well with bang the 2007 racing season has began........well, it was not so much of bang as it was a sloth like
movement for me! For the first event of 2007 I teamed up with Team P&G’s satellite member Brian “Dean”
Breci. We began our trip to South America..er I mean southern IL (The distance is about the same to both) at
10:20 am sharp, for the first time Dean suggested that we leave early! This departure time landed us at the
Super 8 in Marion at about 6:00pm….just in time to check in and meet up with our good friends Ryan, Alex
and Greg “POPS” Moss, Mr Tony Robinson in addition to Red Skirt Scott Hoffman and Shawn “Submarine”
Lee. We cracked a quick beer in the parking lot of the hotel and enjoyed the green, freshly mowed grass
and the 82 deg weather before heading out to grab a bite to eat. We headed over to Bennies Italian
Restaurant for some carb loading…and for once this was the true blue carb loading and not the canned type
(read beer). As is turned out the county there has a law banning the sale of alcohol within 100yds of a
church…….low and behold someone put a darn church right across the street…….thus we were barred from
any good beverage choices! The meal was awesome and we capped it off by having a few beers in the hotel
room and listening to the supercross in Indy on Dean’s computer via a live webcast…way cool and way to go
JS#7..he kicked everyone’s arse!
Up early in the AM and out the door to the Cracker Barrel…I wonder if the name of that chain is a dig on us
Caucasian folks and the style food we like? Probably not but it made me chuckle to think about it! Either way
good eats and off to the races from there. Upon arriving at the race location we were greeted with an
absolutely wonderful facility. They had indoor plumbing, nice green mowed grass and plenty of room to
spread out and pit! After sign up we buzzed back to our pits to ready ourselves for war against the elements:
the elements being the heat (80+ deg) and the terrain which we had been briefed on!
With a closed course format we were granted what is essentially a full lap for checking out the trail. This
format allowed us a varying amount of time to complete a lap, I believe they allowed 1 hour for lap one, 50
for the second, 30 and 20 minutes plus the A/AA group got to do a “special test” section as well after the
fourth lap bringing our total mileage to around 45 miles for the day. To say this event was a test would put it
mildly, there were maybe 4 or 5 times on the 10 mile loop where I got the lil’ 200 out of first. It was true
enduro trail laid out by true Trials riders (that is what makes up the larges member group, trials riders). The
course took us thru super tight woods and up and over ravines that were straight up and then straight back
down. All in the trail was fun and very technical, never was there a time when you could rest or get a flow
going (at least I could not). If you would have asked me right when I finished the race “what I thought of it” I
may have given a less than political answer with some discontent in it (my answer that is)…however a couple
of days removed and a few sore muscles later I find myself smiling and glad I went! My hat is off to the club
and to Dan Janus for taking the proverbial bull by the horns to bring this race to fruition. It is always easy to
criticize an event but hard to step to the plate to put a race on. After a nice cool beer I was forced to crack a
smile and tip my hat to the club. Given the difficulty of the terrain they have to work with I am sure an insane
amount of work went in the trail cutting and the heavy rains leading up to the event caused the club to
reroute the course before and during the event. All of this rework went off without a hitch and there were no
major problems on the trail.
In the special test I stopped to check out the btm of a gnarly up hill (actually I hit a tree and fell over) and my
good buddy Ryan came blasting up to show me the fast way up the hill, only to find the “neutral” gear at the
btm of the hill. He stopped abruptly and fell over into me, lucky for me and him I am fat and somewhat like a
weebel wobble, I lean over a bit but then tip right back up to vert. I managed to keep both his and my bike
upright allowing us to continue on down the trail. At that point I was too tired to harass him but we had a
laugh about it back at the pits. You owe me one there little buddy!
Regarding my actual race: Given I have never been good right out of the box at the spring events I chose to
shift into survival mode and just “get thru it” for a decent finish and salvage some points. Having forgotten my
Moose Racing Sahara gear at home I overheated early further concreting the worthiness of the vented
Moose Racing’s Sahara gear. If you have not tried the proven benefits of this vented Moose Racing Sahara
gear I highly recommend it, in fact I almost guarantee that you will find yourself wearing it all but a couple of
months out of the year!
The internal race between Dean and I came down to one (1) minute at the end with me just squeaking out
the win over him I was sure to bring it up on the ride home. This gave me first in 200A and Dean hammered
out the win in Open A . Finishes by other friends included:
Jeff “check out my proto kickstand” Fredette with the OVERALL win
Ryan Moss 4th overall
Scott “Red Skirt” Hoffman I believe 6th or 7th overall
P.S. After a small miscalculation I found myself at the btm of a steep ravine and not on the trail. I looked up
the ravine and saw Dean safely on the top, he looked at me and took off…not offering any help in getting
out! This is a favor I afforded him at an event last year…I will make sure not to let him forget his lapse of
judgment. Even though I did get out of the ravine I will get a lot of mileage out of harassing him about this
incident
for years to come….they call that Karma there buddy………..I hope you do some good deeds between now
and the next race to redeem yourself! Just kidding and having some fun along the way…Dean is a great
friend and did not mean to leave me shanked at the btm!
****Was it muddy? You be the judge!****
Thank god for new MICHELINE S12’s!!!!!!
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