Marquette

Sometimes in life patience pays off. For instance, years ago, after competing….err laboring thru the enduro in Marquette I vowed that I would never ever go back to that god for saken place. It just was not fun. Well fast forward to August 9th ,2009 and yearly running of the event. Well as the years have passed my mindset for this event has changed. This event, while still quite challenging, has became one of my favorite events on the schedule. If you have not competed in this event, do so. The varying terrain keeps riders of all skill sets on their toes as the trail ranges from fast flowing packed sand (not whooped out trails either) to trials like rock up hills, down hills and side hills. In a word….”fun”!
This year’s event was round 9 on the NEPG national circuit and the UP Sandstormers prepared for the influx of riders ready to tackle the course. While I doubt that I will never fully convert to the “new” format of the nationals, there is no denying that this group has made huge strides in helping to turn around the nationals enduro’s with regards to riders attendance. Some say, this new start/restart format has “dumbed” the series down, others (Dick Burleson) contest that the fastest riders still wins. The events are still very fun (shoot we are going to run the Geneseo event with this format this year). Either way, good numbers are helping to keep enduro racing on the map, for that thank you NEPG. Certainly if you have not competed in the event you have not been blessed with getting to know the members of the UP Sandstormers. This group puts in countless hours to pull this event off, with many of the group taking off time from work to ensure it all goes down as planned, plus as an added bonus almost off them are super good people.
So for this year’s venture to the nort’ woods the Team P&G rig would be sans the “g” as the Big Gus had to spend the weekend camping with his in-laws.

Given that it began raining on Thursday and rained until Saturday, I am guessing that Gus would rather have been loading up to go racing. Anywho……the rig would be filled with OG Dean “Turner Dairy” Breci, Smooth C and the flying canuk, HVAC slinging, Slip Lip Rayfield (thats a band) loving Andrew Jensen. This group would prove to be a factor in the overall scores….no not really….not even close but I thought it sounded good. Pre-registration found us riding together on minute 38. This would ensure that the trail would be good and broke in and eliminate any reading of the arrows. Andy’s red rocket (geez get your mind out of the gutter I am talking about his truck) was slated to pull the rig up and did the job perfectly and comfortably to boot! Thanks for driving Andy! We depart from casa Del Speedy and immediately the laughs start. With seven or so hours under our belt we find ourselves pulling into the pits at 6:30, just in time to go thru tech and signup. We would have been there earlier but I firmly told Smooth C where we needed to turn to get to the start, as fate would have it, I was wrong and cost us at least 10 extra minutes on the trip. This would prove to be a pattern for the weekend as you will read later. The streamlined program we have in place allowed us to get set up quickly and have a beer with our fellow southerners SSK Schuck, John “The Hulk” Buechner and Duey before heading into town for supper. John did not have a beer as he still takes this racing stuff “seriously”, but he is too big to pick on and I am afraid he will kick my ass if I do. With full bellies we return to the camp and hunker down for a good nites rest in prep for the following day’s battle.
At about 2 in the AM the skies decided to release any and all moisture they had been holding onto for the past 6 years. It rained and rained and then it rained some more. I lay in bed and just listened to it and kept telling myself that the rain was really going to make the trail perfect. After all you know positive reinforcement is half the battle when racing off-road. Just keep telling yourself that is will all be ok! We wake to overcast skies but cool temps, the problem is that it was like a humidor and you got just plain wet standing around. This would make goggle prep very important, I however, omit any prep and worry go thru my normal routine of pre race prep. With the start drawing near we buzz over to the start area and say hi to friendly faces before our minute comes up. The gun goes off, err the guy says “go” and our mighty foursome eases off into the great unknown. We find the trail absolutely perfect. Tacked up sand and flowing trail. Everyone that claimed the first sections of the day were tight and that we would not like them needs to come ride at my place. Those trails were not tight, they were awesome! My utter lack of goggle prep proved a mistake and they began to fog almost immediately forcing me to pull over and remove them. As it would turn out, they would be more of an ornament on the back of my helmet then on the front due to this fogging issue. Once I got slapped for the 500th time I yelled out “seriously!”, but no one came to my rescue and I romped off slowly with fuzzy vision. The entire morning course consisted of this great flowing trail that ranged from 2nd gear stuff all the way to full gas on GP course style trail. Each member of the group negotiated the trail and was on time enough to catch a breath at the pauses (in place of resets that is what they call them on this new format).
So with 4 sections under our belts we find ourselves back at gas and the camp. I am haggard at this point. Andy is in good spirits as is Dean as he sits there and drinks his Red Bull he laments about the good trail. I on the other hand fill my bike with gas, eat a Powerbar and lay in the entrance to the camper feeling bad for myself. After an eternity, I stand up and walk over to my bike realizing that we are now late to the check in, a nugget of info I keep to myself as I did not want to upset my riding bros. As we arrive at the check in we are now 5 minutes late and the crew there is yelling at us to go go go go. I at this point am much more sedate, and choose to instead slowly put my goggles on and prepare for the afternoons ride. At this point I think the day is just for fun, not that it is not always fun, but any chance of scoring well was now past us. I was not worried about myself, but I was bummed that I drug my riding buddies down with me. This would be the last section of trail for the B riders and it would prove to be the most challenging of the day. This is what is called the mountain and for good reason. Lots of elevation changes and rocks to traverse. As I barely made the wheels go around, I could feel this bike right on my tail. Finally I turn around and it is Andy Jensen. Apparently, HE did have energy and HE did want to go racy race. I politely pull over and let the little racer that could go buy. He was on the gas! As I tried to stay with him all I could think about is, man this is the Andy of old, where has he been and why don’t he write? Lucky for me I was able to pace him and stay with him, at which point I somehow got my second wind and decided to use the right hand and not the left to make the bike go. I snuck around him and never saw him again. Checking out of the section I wait for Dean, Smooth C and Andy but they never show. As it would turn out they decided to check out of the section and take their time to get to the next check in and call it a day. Man did I have fun with that, harassing them both for quitting, there is no quitting in dirtbiking!
Checking into the last section, I decide that it is important to just finish. I put the bike in 1st gear and remove the shifter. No not really but I might as well have, that is how slow I felt I was going. As we moved thru the technical trail Carsten Cagle, a national AA guy caught me and passed me. As it would turn out he seemed to have a hell of a time riding the technical trail, that or he enjoyed looking at the btm of his motorcycle a lot. He would pass me and then fall down and I would pass him back. After about the fifth time, my good buddy Jeff Fredette caught us. For most of the section the three of us would trade back and forth who would NOT want to lead. Jeff and I were both in “just get thru it” mode. That is how technical the trail is, you really can’t race it, you just have to try to ride it clean. As we moved thru the section, more and more riders were strewn along the trail. Bikes overheating, riders overheating and just plain attrition. I just could not believe how many riders there where, now keep in mind at this point these are all A or AA riders. That made me feel good that I was still moving along, albeit at an alarming slow pace. Once a turtle with a slug on its back passed me but I had to keep focus and not fall down, so I could not shout obscenities at him. About half way thru I caught my big buddy Red Skirt Hoffman, on his first ride back in like 2 months he was now in survival mode too. I was happy to catch him too but the victory was shallow and I was just happy to see him. Finally at the end of the day we finish the event and make our way back to the pits. I actually felt better than I did at gas.
It was an odd day, Ryan Moss quit as he decided he too had enough fun, Dean and Andrew retired early also. Apparently they both ran into some wall out there, I don’t know I did not see any walls so I am not sure what they are talking about. However they did comment that they felt they had gotten their $45.00 worth of riding. JD Friebel, who is running for 250A points had a bike failure and failed to finish as well.
So on this day, being a bullheaded, uber slow guy paid off. I managed to finish 7th in class even with my extra 10 points and 29th overall. Not too bad..not too good either but I was in one piece. It was a great day of riding and a great event, one that I am sure the UP Sandstormers are proud off!

Before I sign off I must give a huge shoot out to our good friends up in the UP whom allowed Team P&G Offroad to hang out at both their wonderful restaurant and then at their house. As it turns out Andrew “Haloboy” Jensens cousins (Paul and Debbi Pucci). live just across the border. They provided us with much need drink and food after a hard day out on the trail. So for the weekend Paul was an official Team P&G rider, though he had some suspension tuning issues on the FXDWG pictured below. That held his overall finish back just a bit. So as it turns out chasing the dog around in the yard on that bike does necessarily translate into riding fast in the woods!

Next stop, Roselawn IN for the Summer Bummer two day this weekend. I can’t wait and hope that I do not run over any bares out in the woods.

Till then, heres dirt in your eye!

Speedy Pete