{"id":344,"date":"2007-08-06T09:40:07","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T13:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/wordpress\/?p=344"},"modified":"2011-12-17T12:23:38","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T16:23:38","slug":"motorcycle-racing-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/2007\/08\/motorcycle-racing-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorcycle Racing Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend was all about motorcycling – Friday and Saturday were up at Leota MI with Brent, and my brother Scott and his son John. We had a great time sharing three vehicles with four people. This allowed for plenty of time relaxing around a campfire between rides.
\nOn Friday evening the three went out without me and went farther than told them to go and got sort of lost – they had left without the maps and GPS and my instructions as to what to do and not to do. I spend a nervous hour sitting at the campfire, thinking I would have to call the sherrif to haul them in – the trails at Leota are great and easy and fun – but a wrong turn can send you on a 50 mile trip. But as the sun set they came back – they had gotten a little lost but found their way back. Whew – I immediately gave Scott a map and the trail riding lesson :)
\nWe stayed the night in Harrison, MI – had dinner at a bar with a live band – pretty cool. I did not like the place we stayed (won’t mention any names) – AC was not working and the shower ran out of water. But the next morning we did visit a really nice place that we will stay for our next trip the Lakeside Motel and Cottages<\/a>. Fishing, swimming, boats to rent, all right on on Budd Lake and in downtown Harrison.
\nThis is the first time I have ever been to Harrison, MI – going up to Makinaw all these years – I have driven *by* Harrison 100+ times – it is a very lively town – with local restaraunts, flea markets, nice little shopping center – it is not a”cute” town – just a very functional town and nicely close to mid-Michigan and to motorcycling and snowmobiling.
\nOn Saturday John and Brent spent time in the scramble areas and really short trail rides on their own. Scott and I took a longer trail ride and explored some new areas – we found way points four and five finally and found the way back to waiypoint 3 from the hill climb that has eluded me for all these years. Scott increasingly became more skilled on the ATV and I had more trouble keeping up with him. By the time we got back from our 10 miles my bike had been ridden harder than in a few years – a few bolts loosened up.
\nSunday morning was another Vintage Motocross event – this time at the Battle Creek Motorcycle Club<\/a>. I wanted a video of it so I asked Scott and John to come along as cameramen.
\nThe day dawned with the first rain in 5 weeks – great for lawns – bad for me on a morotcycle – but I pressed on. I met Ben Wanke – the Vintage MX Chairperson and he introduced me around. The Vintage MX group is like a family. They even helped pull start my bike when it flooded and would not start.
\nThe track was VERY sliick and muddy. I fell down for the first time – I was coming out of a curve and gunned it before I had enough traction and the bike just slipped out from under me – thankfully that was during practice. During the first moto – my goggles got wet and muddy and I had to take them off – it just meant blinking your eyes when a faster bike flies by throwing mud everywhere – not so bad. Later I noticed that lots of riders rip off their goggles after they get gunked up.
\nI used my strategy to start last and be behind the riders – but that kind of failed because they ran two classes at the same time – I was in the first class – about a minute later they dropped the flag on the second group of about 10 riders – many of these guys caught and passed me – so plenty of mud in the face.
\nWhile there are about 25 riders on the track at the same time – there are multiple classes running at the same time. I am in a class called Evolution for bikes that are 1981 and older. (Vintage <= 1974, Evolution <= 1981, Innovation <= 1989) - for this race there were only two entrants in my Evolution class.\nAfter the race I went up and found out that I had come in first in my class. And that if I raced a second time I and came in first again - I would win a trophy. So while Scott and John had to go home - I convinced Brent to hang out for another hour so I could race my second race. This time I knew who was in my class - racer 641 from Clio MI (I forget his name). At the start this time - I actually wanted to compete - not just survive. When we started out - I stalled my bike in the excitement - and watched 641 absolutely fly away from me - by the time my bike was restarted - he was long-gone - and I could tell he was a good rider - much better than me - so instead of competing with him - I just wanted to survive and go fast enough not to be lapped (and get mud in my face).\nAgain the pre-1974 bikes started a minute behind me (they are supposed to be slower bikes :) ). Soon they began to catch and pass me - and for a few seconds I was actually racing two abreast and keeping up - but then I would slow down for something and they would fly away. I actually passed a guy who was having some kind of trouble with his bike and going slowly (my first motocross pass) - then three turns later - his malfunction was apparently fixed and he flew by me - throwing dirt in my face. So again I came in last (second place) and got no trophy because if there is a tie the person placing higher in the second race gets the trophy - I was 1-2 and the other guy was 2-1 as he won the trophy.\nAfter the race 641 came over and introduced himself and his two children - they also had a Polaris Predator ATV they were using as a pit bike. He explained that he had run out of gas in the first race - that explained a lot - because I had won first place starting out last and never passing anyone. That also explained why in the second race he kicked my arse so handily.\nAh well. Back to low expectations. I know I will never be competitive in motocross - when I was 16 I was not competitive - I am not crazy enough to be competitive - even old racers are pretty competitive. But racing is fun - even without winning - I may continue to do it for the exercise and comraderie.\nHere are the pictures - things are pretty muddy as you can see. I am feeling pretty tired, muddy and waterlogged.\nhttp:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/images\/2007\/08\/index.php?img=05-08-07_105716_01.jpg<\/a>
\nSorry Georgia Tech – the T-Square t-shirt was at the top of the pile because I wear it a lot – I did not know how muddy it would get – I am sure it will clean up with a good washing – it is just sand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend was all about motorcycling – Friday and Saturday were up at Leota MI with Brent, and my brother Scott and his son John. We had a great time sharing three vehicles with four people. This allowed for plenty of time relaxing around a campfire between rides. On Friday evening the three went out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/2443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}