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What’s up everyone? It’s Daniel Corbin...

As I’m writing this, I’ve just gotten back from the best motocross vacation of the year, Loretta Lynn’s. It was, as always, a tough week that had it’s up’s and downs. That’s just the way it is. But overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot. I’ll take you through the week as you read on through this blog.

The vacation began August 1st as we finished packing and headed out on the road. My family and I were lucky enough to have secured a camper for the stay on the Dude ranch, and the trip down. It’s much more comfortable driving in a camper than cramming our big family into an SUV (eight people in our family, plus we brought two friends). They don’t make any SUV’s that I know of that accommodate that many people. (Comfortably)!

Our trip down was nice and smooth, we watched movies and could grab something to eat when we were hungry, it was great. Partway through we did have a little incident though. We had to stop for gas, and I was buying. Now, we had a camper before, but it was a fifth wheel, so of course we never had to put gas in it. But this was a driving camper, and I knew that it would take a little more gas than an ordinary vehicle to fill up. I went inside the gas station, pre-paid, and started to fill up the camper. As it was filling I started wondering just how many gallons this tank holds. I looked under the camper, but I couldn’t see any gas tank. I started to follow the fuel line but it just went to this huge box...

Suddenly my eyes opened wide as I realized that that huge box was the gas tank. I couldn’t believe it!  My heart sank as I realized that the one-hundred dollars I had put on the pump just wasn’t going to cut it. That sucker took about seventy gallons, and it wasn’t even empty when we stopped. That dampened my spirits a bit, but I recovered soon enough.

We got to the ranch a little after 10 p.m., but we had to wait until the next day to be parked because it had rained and it was too muddy for the campers. No surprise there, Loretta’s and rain are like two peas in a pod, it happens every year. Rain wasn’t too much of a problem the rest of the week, fortunately. We only got rain one evening, but when we did, boy did we ever! It poured, and we even were narrowly missed by a tornado! Only at Loretta’s, baby!

Practice on Monday was terrible for me. In my first practice I took the handlebars to the gut really hard, and then I proceeded to crash in the ten commandments and tear a hole through my riding pants and my boxers. I would go further than that, but I’m not comfortable with posting anything other than that on the internet! In my second practice, my stomach was still upset and made it hard for me to breathe, so I had a hard time pushing really hard. By Tuesday though, my stomach was back to normal.

Tuesday I had my first moto of 250A Pro-Sport, which was at 4:30 p.m., so we were getting right into the tough motos right away. I started out in the top ten, and proceeded to crash my way back to 19th. I wasn’t a happy camper when I got back to our pit. I put the moto behind me and focused on staying off of the ground for my next moto on Wednesday. That moto was 250A Pro-Sport, and I was determined to do much better. I got off to a mediocre start and had to fight my way up to my final standing of 10th. Much better. Still not what I was looking for, but much better.

Thursday I had two motos, one at 11:30, and the second at 4:30. The first was the second moto of 250A Pro-Sport, and I did much better than my first moto and finished 9th. I was still improving, and I was happy with that. I expected even more out of myself for my second moto of 250A, and I went into the moto with high hopes. I got a good start, but then I just seemed to get shuffled back, and I finished 11th. Those highs and lows I was talking about, this was one of the lows. I was so disappointed with myself that I almost cried. I just couldn’t understand why my riding was so bad after the way I rode at the regional. Worse still was that I didn’t know what to do to fix the problem.

After racking my brain for hours I finally decided that I was just over-thinking things. Worrying about crashing, or if I would last till the end of the moto, or who was behind me and could I keep ahead. None of these are things that should ever cross your mind while you are riding. I absolved to quit thinking all together while I was racing. Thinking is for practicing, reflexes are for racing. Friday was a new day with a new moto, and I had nothing to lose.

I started off somewhere in the mid-teens in my last moto of 250A Pro-Sport, and just didn’t think at all. In four laps I was up to 8th and was riding really strong. Then, as I was exiting the woods section after the mechanics area, my chain came off of the rear sprocket. Quickly I hopped off my bike and got it back on to try to finish the race, but it fell off again shortly after. Not wanting to trash my only bike, I pushed it off of the track and put the chain back on so I could putt over to the finish line and wait for the checkers. Once the leader got the checkered flag, I rode across the finish line to avoid getting a DNF.

When I got back to my campground, I realized what it took to make my family happy with my riding. I didn’t have to win, I just had to ride to my potential and do my best. They were all congratulating my on my ride, and telling me I rode well. This was definitely one of the high points of the week. The 250A moto on Saturday was going to be fun...

Or was it? I got off to a sixth place start, and started a backwards slide. The ruts were killing me, and there were lots of them. On the last lap I was in tenth, but in the corner after the ten commandments I went down. I finished the moto in 12th, and went 10, 11, 12 for 10th overall. Thinking back I know that the ruts were killing me because my posture was way too defensive. You just can’t ride those deep bumpy ruts without a much more aggressive posture. This is one of the biggest things I learned at Loretta’s. Another is that you have to shut your mind up and ride. No scenarios, no analysis, no position guarding. Just ride as fast as you can.

So the award ceremony was bitter-sweet for me. On one hand I finally had a reason to attend it, but on the other I know that it wasn’t the finish that either me or my sponsors were looking for. I always try to keep everything I say and write positive, lest it make any of my sponsors look bad, but this was a tough one. I do want to say though, that Tim and Seiji’s training is phenomenal, and there wasn’t one moto that I didn’t have more than enough strength and stamina to ride strong the whole way through. In fact, I feel that I didn’t ride nearly to the potential of my training, and less than a year ago it was always the other way around. These guys are the best. Period.

Chris and Jeff from PR2 also deserve more credit that I can possibly give them. Chris went the extra mile making sure that my suspension worked like a works bike, and Jeff has made that thing so fast that I was pulling factory bikes left and right. No lie. I also want to thank everyone at Twigg’s Cycle and NineoneNine Designs. Thanks to Fly for hooking me up with sweet gear, and Scott USA for my favorite goggles. Thanks to the SPFC (SportsPlex Fitness Center), and Jordan’s Flooring. Oh yeah, and my newest sponsor, FMF, thanks for all of your help Kyle.

I want to thank Kevin Klink and his friend for flying down to watch me, and most of all my family for their hard work and sacrifice. And thanks for reading this blog. I hope to write another one soon that is thoroughly positive...