My Results: Wish I had a picture of this epic track we raced on. Instead all I got was a shot of our bikes in the room. WHAT! Whats wrong with putting our bikes in the room. They were clean and dont leak any fluid. Besides I was not about to leave my war horse tied down in the back of my truck and risk it catching cold or even worse, getting stolen.
Can you say Sand? Every thing I thought knew about riding/racing in sand went right out the door. Who the hell was I fooling, I know nothing, zero, zilch, about riding in the sand.. They call it the Reno National but the track actually resides 30 miles outside of Reno in the desert next to the Town of Fernly. I arrived Friday night about 7pm. Just enough time to walk the track and view the lay out before the sun went down. I/we were blown away. This track was huge! It was the longest track I had ever seen. There were 4th or 5th gear pinned straightways if you had the sack and the need. All the jumps were perfectly formed, well almost! There were these huge Daytona style berms(corners) high banked and super wide. This track had it all. I't just looked perfect. I't took us something like 30 minutes to walk the entire track. Not sure about the lap times, but the rumors had it over 3 minutes a lap.
The drive to and from Reno was interesting aside from the fact that I had been up since 3:30 am and had already worked a 10 hour day. My wife and kids stayed home on this one so I shared a room with a riding buddy, Dan. Dan lives in the bay area and we drove up in separate vehicles and shared other expenses once we got up there. Mild traffic, snow, rain..... Yes it was snowing in Truckee at 7000 feet and above all weekend. I left my house at 3:30 pm on Friday. The only traffic I saw was in Downtown Sacramento. Fortunately the traffic got going again about halfway through Roseville. Even then it was not all that bad. The rain started outside of Auburn and as I climbed 80 it turned to snow and again back to rain as I made my way to Reno and into Fernly. The rain along with cold temps as low as 45 deg. during the day stuck with us pretty much the whole weekend. We did get to see some sun by the closing set of moto's Sunday afternoon.
I had a very good weekend in terms of racing. Gained more experience and learned a few things. I raced 2 moto's each day for a total of 4. I placed 6th overall for both days! Nice! My moto finishes went something like this......
DAY (1) Moto One.. 6th, Moto Two.. 5th.. DAY (2) Moto Three.. 9th, and Moto Four.. 8th.
Day One:
The track was Long, Sandy (Remember,.. Desert) Fast(pending how much sack you had)HAHAHA!, and very wet. The rain was coming down for most of the day. I could not see very well from my muddy goggles. Yeah, I know, I forgot to buy tear offs. lessen learned. People were crashing everywhere, falling down stalling their bikes etc... With all the rain, it was slick as snot and very loose if you got into the deep sand. The idea is to stand up on the foot pegs keeps the throttle open and lean back a bit to keep your weight off the front end. At least that was my plan. Easier said than done. HAHAHA! I had the standing up part down, but hanging it out with the throttle wide open... um.........No! I learned to balance myself pretty quick cause if I leaned too far back the back the bike didn't want to go anywhere, and if I was too far forward, well I will tell about that when we get to moto #3.. He He! So anyway, i played it safe and rode smart. Well smart enough to stay upright.... for both moto's. I didn't crash or fall down. I held my lines, well at least what I could see.. Really though, I was all over the place. That sand is nasty. The inside of my knees were bruised by the end of it all because I was squeezing the bike as tight as I could with them to keep it and me from getting too out of control. It was insane but I survived. I almost did a nasty indo over a triple jump. I was feeling too confident, hit this section fast and before I knew it, I wasn't going fast enough came up short, with the throttle pinned, waiting to take my dirt nap. Whoa, I just made it... I hit the 3rd hump of the triple with the front wheel, and to my surprise the suspension took it and I survived. After that I decided to settle in and ride my own race. Fortunately that moto and the second the reasoning paid off. There were still a couple of table top jumps that could put a hurting too ya.. If I hit them at just the right angle I was going for a full on scrub. And I don't mean a bubba scrub. I'm talking about the rear end coming out from under me and well the doctors pulling up there sleeves to prep for more surgery on me. I dont know what the hell was up with those damn table top jumps, but man they would bite ya if you got out of line. There were two in a row that were just wicked. They looked easy, but somehow jumping them was a different ball game....? As for the starts....Well..... I got a good gate pick and blew by going wide to the outside. I wussed out. Plain and Simple. I stayed out of the action and missed the boat. Too bad, because by the first turn I was with everyone and just too far outside to get a get into the mix. so I ended up falling to the back and now having to work my way up. But it's too late to do much cause the leaders will have checked out. I'm strong and in good shape. By the last few laps I'm starting to catch people, but.......
The 2nd moto I was late getting to, so I had to take what was left. Screwed myself there. Oh, I forgot to mention that the starting pad behind the gate was on concrete and wet at that! A rubber motocross tire and concrete, well you get the picture. Yet another lesson learned!
At the end of day one, I was feeling good. I had 2 decent finishes(mid pack), and I didn't crash! Sweet!
Well, after we finished our moto's, Dan and I got stuck in a pretty good down poor so we had to wait under our easy up for the rain to stop so we could load up and head back to the hotel. We later went and got a bite to eat at a Casino diner. Fernley is a small town with very little in terms of eateries....Unless we wanted to drive 30 min back to Reno, (NOT) to eat an over priced steak! Forget it! We were looking for a good steak house and there were none to be found. After our meal we took the bikes to a car wash and gave them a steam bath to get ready for the next day! With clean bikes chains lubed and new air filters we were ready for day #2
Day Two:
Damn, it's still raining! Good news is that they changed the track layout. How sweet is that. They also decided to cut the laps from 7 to 4 because of the wet conditions. I was excited to get out for practice even with the constant rain. They run the practice based on rider level and separate classes as such, beginner, novice, intermediate, expert etc. This way you don't get run over by an expert or slow one down. I also got my buddy Dan in trouble. HeHe! I looked out on the track from afar and I noticed they had started practice. I't looked as though they were letting everyone out. I told Dan what I thought I saw and got out there. I was wrong...When I got to the track. I noted it was only the masters/expert practice. So I sat tight and waited till my practice was up. Well, I see Dan come out and jump on the track. A lap later he's getting flagged off the track and being threatened that they will dock him a couple of laps for this. Ouch. Sorry bro. Fortunately they let him off the hook. This track layout was quite a bit shorter and with more jumps. It was much more technical. It had a double section that you had to double jump, double jump and double jump again. Or you could roll them, but that was not easy and you could get squirley and lose your balance pretty easy. The best option was to stay on the throttle and jump through the entire section. Of course I did not jump them, at least not in practice. The turns(corners) were a lot more narrow this time. Which made it tough, cause if you slowed down too much the front end would sink, and you would risk falling over and or stalling the bike. It was a tight track and tough to pass on. Getting a good start was and as always is the Key!
Moto One:
This time, I't was time to Man Up. I chose a gate on the inside that would put me right in the mix if I got a good start. It's a bit risky cause you can get in tight with everyone and who knows what will happen!? Well I came out of the first turn in 3rd. I was pumped. I held that position for the first lap. Then there was this long strait section going into the double, double, double section. I was feeling good so I manned up and jumped the first two. then rolled the third one and that's where I made my first mistake. I got past by a guy who jumped the 3rd double. It slowed me down not jumping that double not to mention I got out of shape and nearly crashed.????? The next lap I only jumped one of the double and the same thing again, I lost ground and got out of shape. Then I went into this one corner took a different line than I had been, and it proved fatal to my moto. It was too tight, I was too far off on the throttle and the bike stalled and I fell over. I got up quick and tried to get the bike running, but by the time I did I was in last place. Damn it Jim!!! Ah hell if I could have maintained I would have, could have, should have................... I gotta start jumping that double to double to double section.
Moto 2:
The sun is out. It warmed up. The track conditions went from super wet to dry. Just like that. I guess thats how it is in the desert! This time I was on time for my second moto. Cool. Again, I chose an inside gate. Having good luck, I figured that was the best bet. So the gate drops and were off. Into the first turn I go about 4th place and the guy right in front of me nearly stops!!! Uhgggggg! I tried to avoid him and ended up stalling the bike. Damn it Jim...... So now I'm in last place. Well, I tried and finally did catch the guy in front of me. Just so happens it was the same dude who stopped in front of me at the start. Oh yeah and with 2 laps to go I finally hit the double to double to double. Yeap, I jumped all three of them bad boys... Wasn't nearly as hard as I made it out to be.
Well I know what I need to do now. WORK ON STARTS! and START JUMPING EVERYTHING!
