Thanksgiving 1999

Thanksgiving November 1999 will be remembered by me as having been the greatest Thanksgiving holiday in my 27 years of life. It started with a long time friend, Brantley, coming to visit on the Friday after the actual holiday. His wife and youngest son came as well.

We started the day changing the rear tube on an old Suzuki TS250 and the front tire on my 1993 WR250. We were using a lamp without a shade to put light on the areas that needed it. I asked Brantley to move the light and he ended up burning my inner bicep on my left arm!! I asked my wife for some ointment but she couldn't find any so she used some diaper rash ointment (which I use to prevent "monkey butt") on my arm. It cooled the burn and the pain stopped. I had no problems out of it all weekend. However, I should have known that from that moment till Sunday evening that it would be a great weekend.

Once we made the necessary repairs to the bikes we did a little play riding in the field behind my house. This field has weeds and briar bushes 6ft tall! I put my friend on my WR because it is easier to ride and he hasn't ridden in 12 years. I took the TS and we were chasing each other and tearing through the weeds. We made a nice one line trail through there. Brantley dumped my WR quite a few times and once we were done it took us over an hour to get the mud off both bikes with a pressure washer!!!

Saturday started out a little better. Mike Nyland (aka Gomer) let me ride one of his bikes while Brantley rode mine again. This time we met out a TNT in Chester, SC. This place has tons of trails and a large MX track as well as a mini track for the kids. I started Gomer's RM250 which he affectionately refers to as the "Yellow Turd From Hell" or YTFH. I quickly learned why it was called that. The bike has the bottom end of a 125 that is poorly jetted and the top end like no other 250 you will ever ride!! What's even worse is that there is no transition between low and top, it just hits and you are either on the ground or off like a rocket. I never dropped it but I came close. I went from 3rd to 4th and the bike came up and I almost looped out. It really surprised me because I was practically sitting on the gas tank when it happened (I weigh 200lbs). We took it in the woods and on the muddy track. I was fighting the bike like crazy. However, Brantley was riding my bike with no problems at all. He hadn't ridden in 12 years and he was almost fast enough to keep up with me (that shows you how slow I really am).

Gomer also let me ride his '97 CR250. That bike is really nice. The power on that thing is electric. Just a touch of the clutch and it is in the exact range of power you want. The bike loves to jump. I have never got on a bike and jumped anything the first time out until I rode the CR. The only thing I did not like is the suspension. It is too stiff for me but I am sure that can be fixed easy enough.

Saturday night we went out to dinner and reminisced about old times. We were laughing so hard that we were crying. Other patrons at the restaurant weren't sure if we were happy or sad because of all the tears. My wife and I then drove 2 ½ hours to Pelion to stay the night at a friends house so I wouldn't have a long drive the next morning for the Burnt Gin Hare Scramble. We got to sleep around 11pm and got up Sunday at 6am to drive to Sumter. We get to the Manchester State Forest and look for the sign up area. Nobody was in line or waiting around for registration. I thought that was odd until I was told that the race doesn't start until 11am not 9am like I thought.

My wife was a little upset because that meant she could have rested a little more. I decide to warm up my 1993 WR250 (YZ tank and graphics) and make sure things are working on it properly. I do some high speed runs and play around in the soft sand. I am feeling pretty good. Then my rear brake doesn't seem to work right. It turns out the pin that holds the brake pedal to the hydraulic push rod and the return spring had somehow come off. I quickly go to Robert Neeley of Neeley's Racing in Spartanburg, SC and ask him if he could help. He gives me a bolt and some nuts and it fits like a charm. I am really thankful to him because I was starting to think my first HS was over before it started. The course is 5 ½ miles long with a start that is supposed to be around 1 mile long before you enter the "loop." My race is 1 ½ hours or 5 laps, whichever comes first. Finally it gets time for my race. Two rows are starting before me and the rest of the 250C class. I am really nervous.

The signal goes and I kick over my bike, it starts on the first kick (which it usually does when it is warm). I let some of the other riders take off and then I go with only 2 or 3 guys still on the line trying to get their bikes going. I am feeling good because I am on the tail end of a few of the riders. We enter some tight woods and still I am there. The woods get tighter then opens up and I am losing ground. Suddenly I realize that although I rode dirt bikes when I was a kid I am just a beginner with it now. I rode a DT100 and an RM125 when I was a kid but it was all dirt roads and 10-15ft wide trails. The tight stuff I rode as a kid was like a highway compared to the stuff I rode Sunday. As we enter the "loop" I hear bikes behind me so I pull over and let them pass. As they go by I hear the shouts of "Thank you" in appreciation of me not slowing them up. I am sure glad they didn't yell "get the hell out of my way slow ass" like Gomer does! I start back again and hit some killer whoops. If they were on a MX track I would have doubled one or two of them. They were large enough for it but there was too many for someone like me to do it without killing myself.

Then I hear a loud 4-stroke so I pull off and look back. This YZ400 (or maybe it was a WR) comes barreling through the whoops and doubles a few of them while bouncing of the tree's in mid-air!! I was in awe! Then I thought about the A and AA riders that would be in the second race. I was in awe again! I come to a hill and see my wife. I yell "I love you honey" as I pass. I obviously said it way too loud because Ron Romer, who was taking pictures, comes over to her and tells her not to be mad when he tells everyone about it and they make fun of me. I continue on and some more riders pass me on the 1st lap and I get to the barrels with no one really behind me.

I am having some trouble because I don't have the return spring on my brake so I accidentally keep riding the brake. Every time I touch the pedal the brake engages. This throws off my riding style because when I sit I have the brake pedal set just right and I can keep my toes on the pedal. Without the spring, in this position the brake is slightly engaged by even the slightest pressure. On the second lap I am doing pretty well and notice that I am catching some people. I look down at the stop watch and according to my time by the time I get to the barrels I had cut 10 minutes off my first lap. On the 3rd lap I was standing more and feeling really good. The course seemed easier, even through the killer whoops. I had a lot of confidence at that point because, even though I was being passed I was able to keep people in my sights better.

I get to the mud section near Hwy 261 and see a guy spinning through. I decide not to turn into the mud but instead ride over the ruts up an embankment and turn to the trees. I criss crossed the mud and made it through fairly easily. I hit the barrels feeling really good but realizing that I was on my last lap because the 1 ½ hour limit was only 15 minutes away and there was no way I would finish 1 laps in 15 minute might as well 2. I hear a bike coming through behind me but before I can move over it flies right by me. It was someone on a KTM with a Neeley's Racing sticker on the rear fender. He is cutting through the trees like a hot knife through warm butter. I believe, but am not sure, that it was Robert Neeley.

Whoever, it was I realized that I was just lapped. I figure, well my position is pretty well locked up so I decide to take it easy and not take any chances. I am going slower and my timing gets thrown off and I dump it. Then I get up, go around a corner hit a tree and dump it again. Once I start to pick the bike up I notice a 4 stroke honda pass me and a kid on an XR100. I think to myself, "oh great. I am being passed by the light trail class now. What's next, the women?!?!"

Then I pass the 2 ladies who raced the women's class. It appears that I had lapped them. They both had big smiles on their face. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I look this happy to the guys who have been passing me." I decide I am going to catch the kid. He is out of sight as I get the bike started but I am off. I ride through some tight stuff and as I enter a clearing I see him hitting the mud section. I do my criss cross technique and I am gone. Then I see 4 other riders ahead of me as we enter into the tight woods again. "I am going to catch them," I tell myself.

Then I round a tree and there are two kids walking on the trail in shorts and t-shirts. I stop so I don't hit them and they ask me if I saw anyone back there. They were looking for a buddy of theirs that rides a KTM. I said no and was about to go when they jumped in front of my bike as another guy and the kid on the XR100 pass me. I am little upset but I said that I caught the kid once so I can catch him again.

Off I go and I am making time on him. He has the advantage in the tight stuff and the advantage of not having any fear because I never met a scared kid on a motorcycle. Suddenly I see him bobble so I think I got him. I go left to pass him and avoid the trees that made him bobble. Next thing I know he is gone and all I see are leaves and the dirt, leaves, blue sky, the dirt and finally just leaves and the blue sky. Apparently, I didn't notice that to my left there was a large tree and when I was going to go around the kid I hit it and flew off the bike.

I get up and just take it easy back to the barrels. As I go in they hit my helmet and all seem happy. I ask if it was over. They yell yes and I say "well someone has to come in last, this time I guess it is me." They ask if I had fun and I said it was the best time in my life. Of course that is what it is all about. In the end I found out I finished the 250C class 15th out of 17 riders. Of course the other 2 I finished ahead of both DNF'd. I will be petitioning this week to SETRA to see if I can move down to a more appropriate class.

I believe I am fast enough for heavy trail but I want to see what the times are first. I hated being in the faster riders way. I also believe if I didn't have to stop so much on the first lap I would have had a better rhythm and would have kept up with people easier. I enjoyed the HS much more than I did the Enduro I rode. I like the format better and I like that there is not the extra burden of time keeping. I will still ride a few enduro's but next year I believe I will split some time between the SETRA HS and the NCHSA HS series.

I have to admit one thing. I had more fun in part because I am in a lot better shape than I was a few months ago. I work out 3 times a week and have not lost any weight but my stamina has really improved. Over the holiday weekend I rode 2 days and raced 1. Today I am not sore but ready to do it again. Soon I will.