Aonia - Final Round of the Summer Dirt Series 2004
Saturday was the final round of the Summer Dirt Series. It was basically a series within a series. JMX runs a Spring Fever Series and some of the same tracks were dual series races for the Spring Fever and Summer Dirt.
Gomer won the +30c/d class in the Spring Fever and had a commanding lead in the Summer Dirt. I finished 2nd in points in the Spring Fever for +30c/d and needed to race Saturday to get 2nd in the Summer Dirt (I was sitting in 3rd but the 2nd place guy did not race enough to qualify for year end points).
On the line was the opportunity to win a trip to the Bahamas. We just had to finish the race.
I woke up late (as usual). I love to sleep in. Unless I have something that has to be done (like work) I like to catch some extra zz's. I guess it is all my years working 3rd shift and not getting any sleep. Sleeping in is sorta what I paid my due's for :)
I still signed up in plenty of time. I decided to race +30c/d to get my points and qualify for the Bahamas and race Unlimited Rookie.
Unlimited Rookie was first and the 250D riders were a few classes ahead. I watched the first heat of the 250D riders and the top 7 guys were jumping EVERYTHING on the track, including the 85 foot single to table top. Also, the leader was on a 94 YZ250. He was flying and jumping all sorts of things. I was impressed. Later in the pits I saw he had a 2nd 94 YZ250 decked out for the woods.
Who said it was all about the bike?
Oh, I might of when I was trying to convince Jenni I *NEEDED* the CRF.
On the start of the Unlimited Rookie I was hoping for a holeshot. However, that hope was quickly dashed away when 10 feet out of the gate I stalled. I looked to my right and Vince had stalled (he was on Ricky's YZ250F) and to my left Linus had stalled... all about the same distance out of the gate.
Paul got it on film and I'll post a link as soon as he sends it. Team Turtle represented :)
Linus got going before me and I took off after him. He and I had a great battle and I was lucky to pull it off in the end.
The one thing that was quickly noticed was the heat was rising. It got up to at least 97 according to weather.com but it felt much, much higher.
In the +30c/d Gomer and I laid back at the back of the pack. The heat and dust just didn't lead us to really want to hammer it. Gomer also was nice enough to lead me over some jumps that I was not doing. All in all I ended up getting all 3 step downs that used to intimidate me. They are so easy now. They have really smooth landings and are awesome.
Later as the day progressed they changed the main event races to only 4 laps. They did this b/c the heat was so bad. I doubt this would be a problem but the scorers were bad to begin with and this only made things worse. Plus the flaggers were the worst I have ever seen. They didn't keep up with the laps and gave out false white flags, duplicate white flags and false checkers.
The caution flaggers were even worse. I'm not even going to get into that b/c I'll get mad!
When the mains came around I was worried about the heat. I was baking in my gear (I'm too fat to be considered cooked... I have to rise like flour first, hence the baking <g>).
At the beginning of the Unl Rkie I stayed in the tunnel that we go through to get to the starting line. There was shade there. I didn't get out of there until the board man came to give us the countdown. There was also a few kids spraying people with water. Some were getting upset by it but I really like it and let the kids squirt me all over the head and stuff.
I finally get up to the gate and it drops. Nobody stalled. Linus and Vince had really good starts. I was mid to back of the pack and passed Vince when he stalled (I could see the steam coming out of his helmet... he does not like to stall).
I caught up to Linus and we battled the entire race. It was classic. I'd pass him on a jump he was not doing and he would pass me in the whoops or corners where he was much faster than I was. Finally, I pulled it out simply b/c I was jumping stuff he wasn't. That and he had already raced one main so I had a bit of a stamina left on my side.
Whew! It was fun but the heat had drained me a bit.
Luckily there was a bit of rest before my next race.
In the +30c/d Gomer decided to wheelie down the straight after the start. I knew that Paul was filming so I fell in behind so he could roost me and have it looked good on film. That didn't last as the roost was too much for me to take.
Again, Gomer helped me over the jumps. This time we did a lot of them side by side. That was AWESOME! I really enjoyed that.
We were having fun but got lapped. The scorers had us as 2nd and 3rd overall but we were last and second to last. We made scoring hard too by going over the finish line jump side by side!
The drive back was long b/c of the rain (lots of hard rain) but it was nice to have the weather cool off.
Overall, I was happy to have ran and felt good I recovered well after each race even though the heat made riding hard and aggressive difficult. I felt good yesterday and was not sore at all. That is a good thing too b/c for the past 5 years I was always miserable after a hot day of riding.