Well this was my first ever Grand Prix and the first time I have been on a track with my quad. We went out Saturday morning and met up with Mike Hastings. I had changed classes since my pre-registration since I wouldn't get desert points if I ran the quad vet class. I get to run with the young whipper snappers.
Heather had my new numbers and Lori Bateman had everything updated in the computer. Sign up's were supper easy and well organized.
After getting parked and getting my numbers put on, I ran through sound check. Again supper easy with no problems, I blew a 90 with my stock exhaust. We walked over to the track and looked at the enduro cross section. My first thought was, They aren't going to run the quads over this are they?
I spoke with a fellow quad racer and he said we do go over this stuff so now I was trying to decide what to do. More on this later.
The races were running on time all day from what I saw.They announced they wanted all quads to the start about 45 minutes before the start time. I wasn't in a big hurry since I saw how the previous races lined up. I got to the start about 30 minutes before. Once we got all lined up I was noticing that almost all the quads had full aftermarket a-arms and shocks. Most looked like track quads. There were close to 30 quads total and I guess there were 8 on my line.
It was a live engine left hand on fender start. The green flag was getting ready to drop and as soon as it did, I was off. I am not sure if I waited to pull in the clutch before I put it in gear or not because running up the start straight, I was leading! Holy crap, I got the hole shot! I lined up on the far left for a right hand first turn thinking I would try to stay out of any first turn pileups on the inside. Just before the first turn someone passed me but I was fine with that. I am not a jumper and there were two table tops coming up. The 2nd one was a launcher but I rolled it so a couple more passed me.
There wasn't anything hard about the track but it was pretty heavily watered and muddy. Note for next time, need to use tear offs! The coarse left the track and headed out to the open area. This also was pretty heavily watered for the most part so dust was very minimal. The coarse layout was great and was a lot of fun. It was a mixture of everything from small little gully switch backs to wide open trails and a kind of paved road for a short bit. There were some good uphills and a couple of downhills. The one big down hill was labeled as gnarly but really wasn't, it was just a little steep. I was still on the gas at the top dropping into it and ran down it in either 2nd or 3rd. There weren't any obstacles on it, it was just a little steep.
There were a lot of really fun sections to there coarse. I heard there was a lot of silt out there in past years but they did a great job of staying away from it this year. The only place I remember hitting any was at the top of an uphill the curved around to the right. It did bog you down but nothing bad at all. The only problem or complaint I would have with the desert section of the coarse was it was very choppy and square edged. I actually fully bottomed my left front suspension on one hole I didn't miss and it sounded like my tire came in far enough to hit the rim on another. I need to get my suspension worked on, this stock setup is beating the crap out of me.
So towards the end of the loop I was thinking about the enduro cross section. Should I try and go for the hard way, tires and logs, or take the tight twisty alternate. Just before the split I decided to do the alternate. As a passed the alternate turnoff and was heading down towards they tires, I asked myself why I didn't take the alternate and thought I was going to be sorry. I came around to the first set of tires. They were large tractor tires lined up vertically. A guy with Invaders was seating there but I dropped down off a little ledge, made the right turn and hit the tires. I didn't quit make it so I rolled back and and hit it a little harder. The front end came up then the back tires hit and brought the front end back down and I was over them.
Next were a few telephone pole laying on there sides. I made it over these with no problems and then came the 2nd set of tires. These were the same tractor tires but they were laying on there sides. A lot of the bikes keep getting stuck in the V where they would meet. I hit one tire as evenly as I could and made it over with no problems.
The scoring shoot was a little twisty for quads and as I was going through, a guy was yelling at me to spin around. I thought I missed something but as I made my turn, the hay bale stopped me. Oh that is what he meant. When I quickly hit my reverse they all started cheering and said that is how you do it.
Back out on the motocross coarse for lap two.
Everyone was pretty spread out during the race so I was just running my own race as I had planned on. I passed a couple of guys through out the coarse but they must have been in a different class based on my results. I figured we would only do 2 laps since I was pretty sure the the beginner/novice race only went two. They were waving the checkered flag at about the 30 minute mark for them.
As I came around to the end of lap two, my arms had taken such a beating that I didn't want to get stuck on the tires so this time I did do the alternate. I was expecting to see the checkered flag but instead saw the white flag. Lap three here I come. At this point it was just after 3:00pm so it was a little fun heading up some of the uphills. It looked like you were riding into the sun so it was pretty hard to see. Otherwise it was just another fun loop.
The Dirt Digger had a lot of coarse workers out on the coarse at various points along with a couple of Jenkins boys helping out.
Every single time I went by these coarse workers they all cheered and clapped. They made me feel like I was leading the race even though I knew I wasn't. After taking the alternate for the last time I got the checkered flag.
I ended up getting 4th out of 8 in my class. I was running 4th since about mile one of the race. I am not to sure about how the results work since I passed at least 3 guys on the coarse but that would put 7 people behind me in the overall but the posted results didn't look like it had that many overall behind me.
This was my second race since my comeback and I had a lot of fun. I will have much more fun once I get my suspension worked on and don't get beat up so bad. The Dirt Diggers did a great job and I will definitely be going back next year. Everyone should really come out and run some GP's. I am not a jumper so I was nervous about the whole track thing was it was great fun.
Until next time...
Viewfinders MC
