 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Place:
3rd
Site: Jean, TX
Current Standing: 5th,
258 points
Jean usually means lots of flat, stop-and-go short bursts between mesquite
trees. The dirt ranges from hard-pack with a silty covering to areas of sand in the more wooded sections.
We arrived at the gate on Saturday and the man who took our money thanked us and told us to "have a good time and enjoy the dust".
Ominous. After receiving my new "Patman
Racing" swingarm stickers from Team Manager Pat
Hall, I set out for a practice lap. The first few miles was terrain on which I don't ever feel really confident, flat and hard-pack with a very slick silt covering.
Then we were dumped into a sandy field where we went back-and-forth around some hay bales, I guess the aim being mile-making.
I liked the terrain there but once you got going you had to stop. Oh well.
Toward the middle of this section the course exited the field by jumping over a small ditch.
Unbeknownst to me, Nathan Price (J98) had been following me and was pretty close.
Immediately after the little hop over the ditch was a hard right-hand turn. There was a group of riders stopped there so I scraped off any speed I had been carrying.
Bad news for Nathan. Our bikes clipped one another and down he went.
Luckily, he appeared unhurt. Drat, my evil plot to eliminate the competition by causing them to crash had been foiled.
Just to be safe, I had Nathan lead the rest of the way around the loop, so as not to cause him any further misfortune.
The course was really dusty, and patience in the first few miles on Sunday would be key.
Do you ever wake up with an annoying song playing in your head? Well, early Sunday morning I woke up with "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" by Gerry and the Pacemakers driving me crazy.
What in the hell was that all about?!? First, I'm not a really big fan of that song, and second, I don't think I've heard it in years.
Not exactly what you're looking for to get you fired up for a race.
Eventually I got that nonsense out of my head and made my way to the starting area.
The weather was cool and…windy(!), about the best conditions that I could've hoped for to go along with the dust.
I had gotten some serious arm pump on my second practice lap Saturday due to all the stopping, starting, and front brake usage that was necessary, so I immediately began to loosen up my arms once I got to the line.
I did this until the class in front of me took off. Then the green flag flew, and for the first time since the first race of the season, I did not do my Doug Domokos impersonation.
Unfortunately for me, my motor evidently didn't really feel like starting the race quite yet and bogged.
Pilot error I'm sure. I asked the flagman for a mulligan, but he wasn't buying, so I got back into the powerband and headed into the dust.
I don't know who it was, but one rider had an even more wheels-off start and was behind me.
Oh well, patience. The first several miles would be really dusty and held lots of potential for riders to make mistakes.
About a half-mile into the course the first was visible: Brian Mullen (J95) had crashed in the dust.
He was up and walking toward his fallen bike and looked OK, so I motored on. More on Mr. Mullen later.
Around the next hairpin right turn, Chris Horton (J31) had slid out.
This is getting to be a habit for me: get off the line near last, then pick off riders as they make mistakes.
It's working out OK so far, but I really think it'd be easier on me to get a decent start now and again.
You know, just mixed in once or twice for the sake of variety. Plus, all the spectators are watching the start, and boy, do I ever look like a weenie to them.
It's downright embarrassing. But I digress.
I fell in behind Dwayne Gensler (J36) and Russell Horn (J35) and could see that Nathan Price was just ahead of them.
I tailed them for a couple miles until we entered the hay bale field.
I got past Gensler after the first u-turn, got by Horn shortly thereafter and set out after Price.
I was able to gain ground in this high-speed section, and was right on his tail as we leapt into the final section of the field.
I gave the motor everything it had into and out of the first right-hand turn there, and was able to slip past.
How long would this last? At this point I was going all-out, which would be necessary if I had any hope of staying in front of Price.
I knew that the dust would be a factor, so I concentrated on not making any mistakes that would let him back past me.
Several miles later I dumped it in a sandy corner, and Horton got back past.
I completed lap one in 5th place, trailing James Willingham (J63), Craig Pundt (J17), Horton, and Curtis Pace (J8).
I wasn't able to gain any positions on lap two, though I did catch a glimpse of Pace a fair distance ahead.
I kept charging, knowing that I couldn't let up if I hoped to catch anyone, and knowing that both Price and Mullen were still behind me and could be counted on at some point to present a challenge.
I continued to press on lap three, knowing that Pace was still ahead.
Internal race dialogue from midway through lap three: "keep pushing, you're probably not going to see the leaders like Horton, but you saw Pace not very far ahead and you've got to catch him".
Not a quarter-mile later, there was…Horton. When I caught up, I could see that he was just cruising.
I asked if he was OK, and he disgustedly pointed to his front tire, which was flat.
After blitzing the pack at Bonita, that's two races in a row he's had ruined by a flat tire.
This moved me into 4th approximately halfway through the race. My energy was holding up pretty good, I still had the juice left to attack.
Right before the end of lap three, there was Pace restarting his bike, having slid out in a turn right at the starting area.
Turns out he had a front flat as well. Luck was with me on this day.
I started lap four trailing only Willingham and Pundt, with about 20 miles left.
The first two-thirds of the lap were uneventful, no mistakes of any kind, but I was never able to catch sight of the leaders.
Then things changed. For the third race in a row, it looked like I was about to undertake a lengthy duel with Brian Mullen.
I caught sight of him gaining on me toward the end of the fourth lap.
What had been a seemingly vain charge in search of the front-runners was now going to be a 13-mile dash to the checkered flag in order to hold third place.
I kept him at a fair distance behind me as we finished lap four and set out on our final 10-mile circuit.
As I pulled out of the barrels starting my final lap, there was Pundt just pulling out from a pit stop.
We dropped into a ditch, then leapt out and both hit the gas down a fairly long straightaway.
He took a circuitous route through some mesquite trees, I hit the sweeping path to the left and pulled even with him.
His line allowed me to gain ground on him, but it also set him up better for the right-hand hairpin turn at the end of the straight.
We hit the brakes, changed direction and took off again. The section before the next turn, a left-hander, was tricky.
It was the kind where you need to back off if it's dusty, for there were square-edged holes and ruts aplenty, obstacles you want to be able to see in order to navigate them safely.
I was in Pundt's dust so I backed off a bit and held a defensive stance, hoping to avoid danger.
It was not to be. I hit a rut wrong, got a little out of shape and was pitched off the bike. Not a major crash, but enough.
Damn it! I instantly leapt up, hurried to my bike and grabbed the clutch lever so the motor wouldn't stall.
Mullen's got to be right behind! I jumped back on the bike and took off without being passed.
The next time I stood up revealed that I had gotten a nasty charley horse on my right thigh.
Ow! However, there was no time to back off if I was going to hold 3rd.
Mullen was now closer than ever. I held him off until the sandy field, where I hoped I could put some distance between us.
At each turn I glanced back, and was indeed able to gain a little ground.
By the time we exited the field for the final time, I had put a fair distance between us.
I found out after the finish that he was having some trouble with his hand guards that was holding him back in this section.
However, I didn't back off one iota. My experience from the previous two races told me that he wasn't done yet, as he'd been able to catch back up with me extremely quickly any time I had some distance on him in the previous two races.
I was now riding as hard as I could, putting all my concentration into not making a mistake that could
prove to be my undoing. I knew the dust was my ally, and made a point to really gas it out of every corner, hoping to put up as much dust as I could.
I made the rest of the course mistake-free, and hit the checkered flag with Mullen uncomfortably close behind again.
Whew! He's making me work entirely too hard.
Third was a good finish, and I was happy to make it. My stamina had been pretty good, as it usually is in morning races.
I've got to figure out a way to have some stamina in afternoon races.
I know that a lot of these kids in this class are faster than I am, but hopefully I can continue to be consistent and stay
close to them in the overall standings. I just can't afford to have any more wheels-off races like
Pittsburg.
