2021 VCHSS Series - KDX in the Orange Sea
Posted: 08:25 am Apr 10 2021
Last year I wrote about the VCHHS races (a long-established hare scramble series here in Virginia) that I started doing near the end of last season. It was so fun I decided to shoot for running the whole schedule in ‘21. Well, here we are going into the third race this weekend and I plan to try and document them as we go along, hopefully make it through the season....
Race #1 - Joe Loyd Memorial - gloriously dry and fast - documented here...
viewtopic.php?f=136&t=23217&start=340#p214851
Race #2 - CVTR @ Charlotte Court House, VA - it was a mudder...
With plenty of rain saturating the course late in the week this tight and flatter course proved to be a real handful. I ended up with a decent mid-pack start with about 25 guys in our 50+ C row of the morning event. I was daydreaming when the flag fell, and was a beat short on my reaction time,but the engine fired first kick and away we went and made it into the woods without going down.
The sloppy conditions dictated a focus towards just not making mistakes and trying to stay upright. I told myself in the first mile of the seven mile lap that my goal was to be conservative and look ahead for the bottlenecks and just be consistent. I saw a lot of guys getting thrashed by attacking really hard, just wasting energy.
The rut proved to be the best line with consistent traction so I tried to pick the ones in front of me that didn’t have bikes in them and made a lot of passes that way. If I had to opt for a non-rut ride around it was like riding on ice. Mostly it would work but sometimes it would screw you up.
Choosing those lines outside of the rut was a risky proposition as it was like hitting a greased pan and you could be sideways in an instant. More than once it sent me into the shrubbery for an unwelcome entanglement.
In one of the fast straightaways I overcooked a dogleg and ended up surfing into a clear cut and got stuck off the trail parked on a huge stump. Overall though I managed to progress while conserving my energy and by the end of the lap found myself in third. Would like to have seen the white flag then, but we were scheduled for three laps. This next one would be a real bear - or rather a greased pig!
Knowing you are in third is a mixed blessing. You feel the pressure of twenty other guys behind you that want that position and you guess that the guys in front are beyond reach. It’s sort of a tenuous position really because you have more to lose than to gain. But somehow I managed to hang in there and made some strong moves in the bottlenecks that really paid off in places where I made errors on the other side and didn’t get passed.
The bike ran great - just saw a little steam towards the second half of the second lap. Just after I noticed this my son passed me on his KTM 144 SX and he was still flying. I watched his start in 200 C and he was second into the woods and I knew he was having a good race. Could we both earn a podium? I tried to follow him but stalled her on a root in a rut that I had just cleared and ‘POOF’ he was gone. Inspired though by seeing him I redoubled my focus and kept her moving up the trail with leaders passing this might be my last lap.
As I finally neared the scoring tent I crossed my fingers and looked up to see the checkers. The scoring screen had me still in 3rd place too. My best ever finish on a dirt bike. 68th overall for the morning out of 165 finishers (about 68 DNFs). I was pretty smoked and glad not to be heading out for another brutal lap where they might find me late in the night. My son, Henry finished 2nd in class and earned a 6th overall for the morning event. This was his last race on the 144, he’s moving onto a 200 for the next race. Everyone is pushing me to takeover his 144. It is lighter, turns faster and is super quick, but I really dig my green KDX. His ‘08 KTM 200 XCW is a BEAST though. During the race I snapped the plastic mounting fins on my headlight fairing, so I’m planning to replace the bolted mounts with the Acerbis rubber straps to give some flexibility there. I have rewelded the fins again and hopefully they hang in there. Last night I swapped in a JT 49 tooth sprocket (was on a 47 - stock ratio) and added a Jeff Fredette chain guard. Chain is still pretty dang new and went on fine. Was concerned I’d be too short but it measured right and should have to tighten it up after shakedown today.
After the race I met a guy from the 200 C class who was racing his KDX, he’s been at it awhile and loves his KDX. He has his GoPro videos on YouTube.
Race #3 - Knockdown @ Charlotte Courthouse ... coming up this weekend.
Race #1 - Joe Loyd Memorial - gloriously dry and fast - documented here...
viewtopic.php?f=136&t=23217&start=340#p214851
Race #2 - CVTR @ Charlotte Court House, VA - it was a mudder...
With plenty of rain saturating the course late in the week this tight and flatter course proved to be a real handful. I ended up with a decent mid-pack start with about 25 guys in our 50+ C row of the morning event. I was daydreaming when the flag fell, and was a beat short on my reaction time,but the engine fired first kick and away we went and made it into the woods without going down.
The sloppy conditions dictated a focus towards just not making mistakes and trying to stay upright. I told myself in the first mile of the seven mile lap that my goal was to be conservative and look ahead for the bottlenecks and just be consistent. I saw a lot of guys getting thrashed by attacking really hard, just wasting energy.
The rut proved to be the best line with consistent traction so I tried to pick the ones in front of me that didn’t have bikes in them and made a lot of passes that way. If I had to opt for a non-rut ride around it was like riding on ice. Mostly it would work but sometimes it would screw you up.
Choosing those lines outside of the rut was a risky proposition as it was like hitting a greased pan and you could be sideways in an instant. More than once it sent me into the shrubbery for an unwelcome entanglement.
In one of the fast straightaways I overcooked a dogleg and ended up surfing into a clear cut and got stuck off the trail parked on a huge stump. Overall though I managed to progress while conserving my energy and by the end of the lap found myself in third. Would like to have seen the white flag then, but we were scheduled for three laps. This next one would be a real bear - or rather a greased pig!
Knowing you are in third is a mixed blessing. You feel the pressure of twenty other guys behind you that want that position and you guess that the guys in front are beyond reach. It’s sort of a tenuous position really because you have more to lose than to gain. But somehow I managed to hang in there and made some strong moves in the bottlenecks that really paid off in places where I made errors on the other side and didn’t get passed.
The bike ran great - just saw a little steam towards the second half of the second lap. Just after I noticed this my son passed me on his KTM 144 SX and he was still flying. I watched his start in 200 C and he was second into the woods and I knew he was having a good race. Could we both earn a podium? I tried to follow him but stalled her on a root in a rut that I had just cleared and ‘POOF’ he was gone. Inspired though by seeing him I redoubled my focus and kept her moving up the trail with leaders passing this might be my last lap.
As I finally neared the scoring tent I crossed my fingers and looked up to see the checkers. The scoring screen had me still in 3rd place too. My best ever finish on a dirt bike. 68th overall for the morning out of 165 finishers (about 68 DNFs). I was pretty smoked and glad not to be heading out for another brutal lap where they might find me late in the night. My son, Henry finished 2nd in class and earned a 6th overall for the morning event. This was his last race on the 144, he’s moving onto a 200 for the next race. Everyone is pushing me to takeover his 144. It is lighter, turns faster and is super quick, but I really dig my green KDX. His ‘08 KTM 200 XCW is a BEAST though. During the race I snapped the plastic mounting fins on my headlight fairing, so I’m planning to replace the bolted mounts with the Acerbis rubber straps to give some flexibility there. I have rewelded the fins again and hopefully they hang in there. Last night I swapped in a JT 49 tooth sprocket (was on a 47 - stock ratio) and added a Jeff Fredette chain guard. Chain is still pretty dang new and went on fine. Was concerned I’d be too short but it measured right and should have to tighten it up after shakedown today.
After the race I met a guy from the 200 C class who was racing his KDX, he’s been at it awhile and loves his KDX. He has his GoPro videos on YouTube.
Race #3 - Knockdown @ Charlotte Courthouse ... coming up this weekend.