I'll try to write a somewhat decent race report but no promises! 
My buddy (who's in my video below) actually talked me in to racing again. I'm not much of a racer as I'm just not that much of a competitive type of guy. However, I do enjoy the various courses they put together all over the state so I said "why not?" since my bro said he would pay all my fees.
This would also be my first serious attempt at racing since breaking my neck.The race was the Prison Break Hare Scramble held in Globe, AZ at the Gila County Fairgrounds. Kids and an "unclassified" race were held Saturday and the main big bike race on Sunday. I raced this same race last year and it was a total mudder. Loved it! This year we've had no rain so I knew it was going to be a dust fest. Yea.
We arrived Saturday afternoon and set up camp with our fellow club members, the Trail Riders of Southern AZ. After getting registered and through tech inspection, I headed back to camp to concoct some ghetto-rific graphics for my bike and modify my buddy's graphics (his letter designation changed) as well. I had retired the KDX from racing a while ago, when I bought the GasGas, so I had stripped my homemade numbers off. Luckily, yellow duct tape and electrical tape always gets the job done.
After finishing both sets of numbers/mods, I ate dinner, hung out with a couple of our club members, and talked some smack.Race morning I woke up at 7am and started hitting the Mt Dew to get my caffeine up to it's proper race level.
Yeah, it's hard for me to wake up without it. I slowly started moving and taking care of the few things left to do... check my air pressure in my tires/Tubliss, top off the fuel tank, and get in to my gear.About 10 minutes before our 9am race time we headed to the starting line. We had 5 AA's (pro racers), 33 A's, and 74 B's on my line. That's 112 racers, on what turned out to be, just under an 11 mile course!
After watching the AA and A racers take off I knew the dust was going to be extremely bad off the start and would stay that way until everybody got spread out a bit. I thought about going for it on the start but didn't want to get crashed into, or crash in to someone else, due to lack of visibility so I chose to take it easy off the start. 3...2...1... we're off! Man, I was right, a total dust fest. My GoPro makes it look a lot better than it actually was as I could barely see my buddy who was maybe a bike length or two in front of me! It was like riding by braille in some spots, lol! I was feeling pretty good as the KDX was running and handling great. Then the unthinkable happened, a traffic jam. (You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? Ha!) I've never encountered such a thing in the B class before. We were backed up due to an off camber hill climb, that for some reason B racers were struggling on, and waited three and a half minutes before I got my chance at it. For the record, last year when it was muddy and slippery as hell, I cleared this same hill four times without incident. Well, today I screwed up. I started up in 2nd gear, upshifted to 3rd, and then proceeded to stall it. UGH!
I think due to not rejetting the bike (jetted for 2000ft) for this race (3500ft so a little rich) it flamed out on what the KDX could easily pull at my normal elevation. So, kick it and start to go again... stalled again! I forgot to downshift! 
Now I'm mad at myself, jam the gear shift down, kick it, and get myself up the hill and stop being part of the log jam. From there on the race was fairly uneventful. I only dropped my bike once in the endurocross section (not in video) because I was being lazy. I stopped in the pits after lap 2 so I could get some of the dirt out of my throat. I was gagging so hard because of it I almost threw up. While in the pits I see my best friend (in my video) pass me and get out on me by a good 25-30 seconds before I got back to racing. I pushed really hard and somehow I managed to catch him at the same big off camber hill I screwed up on during lap 1 and was on his rear tire going up it. I don't think he knew it was me because when we got to the top of the hill he pulled over to let me pass, lol! As I went by I just said "Really?" to him and took off like a bat out of hell! 
I managed to beat him by a 1:40. 
I ended up 6th in my class and my bro was 7th. One other funny thing was one racer caught me early on the last lap, I let him pass, and within half a mile he would crash. I would ask if he was alright and then motor on. After the 5th time he passed me and crashed, I told him it might be smart to just slow down a bit and got moving again. I didn't see him again during the race!
In my final race analysis, I thought I rode pretty good, the KDX never fails to deliver, and, even though I feel abused and probably need psychotherapy to heal properly, I truly enjoyed the race.
Ok, here is my race vlog. Yes, I said vlog. I actually tried to do something a little different this time for my race vid. You will actually get to see my ugly mug! However, be forewarned, there is some definite foul language in the vid so, if you don't like that sort of thing, then please don't watch it. Since this is a new type of video for me, I'm very open to suggestions and constructive criticism on the video. Also, I didn't get even one full lap recorded as my GoPro died for some inexplicable reason. Still trying to figure that out. Let me know what you guys think, good or bad!
