 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Place:
7th
Site: South
Bryson, TX
Current Standing: 6th,
428 points
Well, that was a lot of fun...on Saturday! However, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here. Once again, it was a TCCRA race week and I was on that weather report like flies on...bad fruit. At first it was possibility of rain Sunday evening. That would be great. Then it was rain on Friday. Providing it wasn't too much, that would be even better. Then it was rain Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night. That would be...disastrous. Anyway, it turned out that it rained on Friday night and Saturday morning, with more in the forecast for Saturday night. I had never really leaned one way or the other on the course at South Bryson, site of TCCRA race 2808. It was OK; not terrible, not great.
Saturday started....mmm...not so great. Of course we had to plastic bag everything but the bikes for the trip to Jack County because of the precipitation. That's always a beating of the highest order. Then as we rolled into Jacksboro on Highway 199, we were pulled over by one of Jacksboro's finest for doing 75 in a 70 MPH zone. That's kind of picky. Then he decides to give us just a warning. Why would he go to all the trouble of pulling us over just to give us a warning? Not that I'm complaining, of course. Maybe he was lonely and just wanted someone to talk to.
We re-grouped and arrived at the race site. Lots of mud and puddles around...not good. I allowed the Official King's Food Taster....er.....Cindy, to take a lap and check out the conditions while I mustered up the want-to to ride in mud. Well, she returned and proclaimed the conditions to be "pretty good". After some minor scooter tinkering, I headed out with Patman Racing compatriots Patman and Mr. Monkeybutt. The ground conditions were outstanding! A wet spot here and there and a bit slick on the heretofore hard-pack areas, but these were easily avoidable/navigable, and the remainder was traction, traction, traction! And the promoters had done an excellent job of laying out a new race course, it was almost completely different from past courses at South Bryson, and it actually had a bit of flow to it. Not too shabby, I think I can do pretty well come Sunday. Now, if we can just avoid that additional Saturday night rain.
Saturday evening went well, no rain and only mostly-cloudy skies to the west and southwest. Once the sun went down, there were even stars visible in the sky. Then we went to bed and the clock struck midnight. You guessed it, I received a Saturday night gift in the form of Race Ruination, also known as rain. Lots of it. Peachy. Not only did it rain, but it kept me up half the night stewing about it.
I awoke Sunday rather calm for a race morning. I consulted with my Racing Advisory Staff (me) and concocted a surefire, foolproof race strategy: The race would be five laps? OK, I'd putt around for three laps and not fall down. Seeing as though my class usually numbers around ten, I might even get lucky and get a few points.
We lined up in the quagmire known as the starting area, all nine of us. Woo hoo! If I could complete three laps, I'd be guaranteed at least 45 points. I assumed an outside line, and this race I was going to be the last off the line on purpose; no sense in getting caught up in a first turn snafu when I was only going to putt around anyway. For the first time ever, I think, I wasn't nervous sitting on the line. Well, the flag flew and I moseyed off the line and watched the rest of the class blast through the muck into the first turn. No one went down, so I was in...ninth! About the same as my usual start. (Maybe I should try this approach more often, it would be easier on my nerves).
As we charged off into the slime (well, everyone except me), the ground conditions were surprisingly...well, I had ridden in worse. Not that it was good or anything. Just ahead of me was Darren Fleming (J30) and right in front of him was Ultra-fast Friend-of-the-Amish Nathan Price (J98). I actually managed to stay right with them for a couple of miles. Then it started to drizzle, and my goggles became useless, the water causing the roll-off film to stick to the lens. I pulled off and tried to get them working again, but the drizzle wasn't having any part of it. So I put them around my neck and charged off again like a herd of turtles. Look out front of the pack, here I come! My biggest worry at this point was the motor loading up and fouling a plug. Roughly halfway into lap one, I actually passed someone. Sort of. But the rider wasn't in my class. I came upon Danny Burford (H11) who was doing some impressive putting of his own. As I pulled up to him I said, "I'm going awfully slow, you sure you want me in front of you?" He motioned me forward and I...mmm...sped(?) off, no doubt stupefying him with my sterling display of superior mud-riding skills.
At the end of lap one I stood in...well duh! Ninth, of course. The barrel workers all cheered and encouraged me as I went by. Thanks! They also expressed their astonishment at how clean I had remained compared to everyone else. When you're going that slow and you don't fall down, you're not going to get that dirty, I guess.
About halfway through lap two I, with glacial speed, approached a couple of stalled riders. One of them turned out to be Michael Willard (J54). Guess he'd been tearing it up like myself. Shortly thereafter, I was sucked completely off the bike by the vacuum created when the overall leaders (Eric Hillhouse {P6}, dogged by Clay Hoenshell {1}) blew by me. Well, almost. I then tried to emulate their technique and promptly dumped it. Just kidding. I...held my steady forward pace.
At the midpoint of my third and final lap, I stopped for a goggle change, and who did I see cruising around the camping area with no helmet (apparently out of the race), but Curtis Pace (J8). Seems he was having about as much fun as me, maybe less. Well, seeing as though he stood behind me in 7th entering this race, that was all the incentive I needed to really...putt around and finish that third lap.
Finally, mercifully, I completed my three laps and slunk off for camp. I've now raced at South Bryson four times (three in the mud), and in every even-numbered year it's been a slop-fest. Think I'll skip this race in 2002. Actually, I wasn't terribly unhappy with the race. I finished seventh to keep me solidly in 6th overall, and I managed to ride around in the mud for close to thirty miles without even falling once! Of course, I think the laws of physics require one to be carrying a bit more forward momentum before it's possible to fall, but still! It's points, and I didn't fall, get hurt, or break anything on the bike. Though it did take a bazillion dollars at the car wash to get the bike clean. And, as is normal following a mud race, I'm sure I'll be finding little clods of mud in previously unknown crevices of the bike for weeks. Ah, the joy of riding in the mud.
