So while I still don’t have any news about what’s going on this year, my good friend Christy at KTM set me up with a bike for a WORCS race over the weekend. While WMA is still my main priority, my brother has gotten me more and more interested in off-road racing and the truth is, I’m so competitive that any kind of racing excites me. It was just a one race deal where I picked up the bike on Thursday and rode it for the first time Friday.
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2nd!
I was a little nervous about being a “spoiled primadonna” as Pingree puts it – I don’t remember the last time I raced a bone-stock bike. More than anything it’s being so much lighter than the average 250cc rider that makes stock suspension stiffer than ideal. I was surprised however with how much softer we could make it with by just adjusting the clickers. By the end of practice on Friday I felt very comfortable on it. Cut down the bars and threw some grip donuts on it and I was ready to go.
Now I have never done a WORCS race before, so I don’t know any of the rules let alone any of the little tricks. I figured I would find everything out during the riders meeting, only to be surprised when there wasn’t one! So I started asking around about how to know which way the course goes (of course I missed practice) and how I do that whole check point thing.
I felt pretty confident getting ready, but as Christy was cutting the Suzuki logos from my gear, my friend ran up to tell me that I was on the line even though my race wasn’t scheduled to start for another half an hour. I very casually put my helmet on and my mechanic Cody and I rode up to the line right before my row took off! Needless to say I wasn’t ready for the green flag to wave, considering I was too late to watch the rows ahead of me take off and I didn’t even know what the signal was! I got a dead last start, which made the first lap interesting trying to pass people on a course I had never been around. I immediately went into attack mode, not thinking it was an hour long race. I felt the urgency to make as many passes as fast as I could just like it was a WMA moto and I was in the back of the pack. It’s not easy trying to out brake people going into a turn when you have no idea what’s on the other side. I worked my way up to 3rd place by the time we got to the motocross part and I think that was the first time I actually took a breath. Finally something easy like jumps and rutted corners you can actually sit down in.
I felt good and was looking ahead trying to see where Patterson was because I knew she would be in the lead. But then we got to the tires and logs. Even though my brother has a mini Endurocross section set up at our house, it’s still tricky trying to get over those things for the first time. I should have been in first gear but for some reason went through in second and stalled it. At first I thought oh darn, but wasn’t panicking too bad because I knew I had electric start. When I pushed the start button and heard the same noise my truck makes when my battery is dead, I got nervous and tried finding neutral and kick starting it, fumbling the whole time. I wanted to cry as I watched every single one of the girls I just worked so hard to get around blow right by me. My pit crew told me by the time I got going again I was something like a minute and a half behind the leader. After the adrenaline of the first lap wore off I was kicking myself for holding my breath and riding out of control that entire first lap because now I had to pass them all back while out of breath and with a long time to go.
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By the end of the race I had finally figured out the lines on the trail part and actually had some of the most fun I have ever had on a bike. The sand reminded me a lot of my track at home, and though my legs were on fire from standing up the whole time I enjoyed every second of it. Of course I was bummed that I only made it up to second place (with luck from Patterson breaking down). It doesn’t matter what kind of race it is, I always want to win. But considering I have never done an off-road event and I had only one day on that bike, I can’t complain too much.
I want to thank Christy and KTM for giving me the chance to race, and of course my mechanic Cody. Like I said, I still don’t know what the future holds for me, but none of the WORCS races interfere with the WMA series races, so if it all works out maybe I’ll be at some more.
