Lost Valley harescramble 7/9
Posted: 03:50 pm Jul 12 2017
I know y'all are prob getting sick of hearing about these by now, hahah...... but I've kinda got the bug here lately so I'm still a little excited, lol. Anyways, the KDX and I did our 4th race this past sunday, and first with NCHSA and first time here at Lost Valley Motorsports Park (formerly known as Rockhouse.... they've been doing races here for 20+ years). They're supposed to be opening up to the public here before too long.... I'm anxious to go and ride there some more. I've always heard from others that this was a really fun track.... and they were right! Conditions were great.... there were some muddy spots but they were quick and you were right through them without much fuss. And even still there was good traction even on the muddy stuff... it was tacky. Nothing at all like Pea Ridge last weekend... OMG 
The track was fun as hell..... very tight and technical in a lot of spots, but still flowed very well and was still pretty fast for the most part (even though I'm still slow). There was an MX track as part of the course as well, and I am very much NOT an MX guy, lol (nor is the KDX an MX bike)..... first lap through I did fine, just kinda hopped the jumps, nothing big and all was well. 2nd lap I guess I was moving a little faster and had a complete mis-judgement of speed on my part, and apparently was going a little faster than I thought I was. I wasn't wanting to actually jump them, just kinda wanted to do like I did the first lap, but ended up jumping it instead. But wasn't going quite fast enough to clear it (you see where this is headed?? 
). Soooo yea.... landed HARD, I felt and heard my bikes suspension bottom out, it pogo'd back up in the air, bars went full lock to the right then came back down.... with the bars still turned full right...... BAM!!! I went splat with a quickness. Not fun, but luckily I wasn't hurt at all other than my pride (kinda embarrassing doing that right in front of where there's literally like 100 people watching and taking pics). And it didn't hurt the bike at all.... picked it up, started right up and went and finished the 3rd lap before getting the checker flag
Not too many pics from this one.... it was the same day as the John Penton GNCC race so I think a lot of people were at that. My buddy (and co-worker) Alan is on the KTM #69. We both rode Unlimited C 25+
From the start.... obviously by the clean bikes, lol. Turns are my weakness.... I'm slow as molasses. Practice, practice..... and more throttle
So yea, I was even laughing at my little bunny hops
But whatever.... I'm not a jumper, I fully admit it, lol
Made it back in one piece..... actually still felt great at the end of the race, I could have gone another lap no prob
I ended up doing 3 laps and finishing 9th out of 14 that finished, and 1 DNF (my buddy Alan.... he gave up after a half a lap.... again). Overall I was 106 out of 145 that finished, and 7 DNF's. Not great, but not last.... I'll take it
Video..... beginning is the start and the entire first lap, then a few highlights, since I doubt anybody wants to watch all 41 mins, lol.... There were some pretty good bottlenecks on the first lap, with people just sitting in the middle of the trail blocking the entire thing. First one at about 3:30, another at 5:45, and then a big one at 19:40 that lasted several minutes (dudes were just standing there with bikes in the middle of the trail on a hill, and would not move.... IDK what they were doing). Took me 3 tries to finally get up and past them, but when I finally did it was awesome...... I was pretty much completely by myself, lol. Got a little cheering from my buddy Ron at 16:55 (he did the pro race in the morning), haha. Hit a muddy spot that got me a little sideways and ended up hitting a log around 37:40, and then my gnarly MX track crash at 38:56, with a slo-mo replay after at the end
Had a GREAT time...... I thought it was a really fun track. It was technical and you had to pick good lines, but still pretty fast and flowed very well I thought. I felt great, not crazy fatigued like last week.... I could have gone another lap. And as always.... the green tractor ran flawless and didn't miss a beat the entire time
And I know some of you seasoned racers are prob shaking your head.... "WTF are you doing?!?!" haha. I know I still have a lot of stuff to work on and def still learning.... just going one step at a time and trying to focus on one or two things at a time. I know one thing I really need to work on is not stopping and waiting at the bottlenecks, and just trying to find another way around. I always forget you have 20 feet either side of the trail to legally get around it. And also just passing people instead of riding behind them for awhile. Completely different riding style than what I'm used to. Just need to keep at it I guess
[youtube][/youtube]
The track was fun as hell..... very tight and technical in a lot of spots, but still flowed very well and was still pretty fast for the most part (even though I'm still slow). There was an MX track as part of the course as well, and I am very much NOT an MX guy, lol (nor is the KDX an MX bike)..... first lap through I did fine, just kinda hopped the jumps, nothing big and all was well. 2nd lap I guess I was moving a little faster and had a complete mis-judgement of speed on my part, and apparently was going a little faster than I thought I was. I wasn't wanting to actually jump them, just kinda wanted to do like I did the first lap, but ended up jumping it instead. But wasn't going quite fast enough to clear it (you see where this is headed?? ). Soooo yea.... landed HARD, I felt and heard my bikes suspension bottom out, it pogo'd back up in the air, bars went full lock to the right then came back down.... with the bars still turned full right...... BAM!!! I went splat with a quickness. Not fun, but luckily I wasn't hurt at all other than my pride (kinda embarrassing doing that right in front of where there's literally like 100 people watching and taking pics). And it didn't hurt the bike at all.... picked it up, started right up and went and finished the 3rd lap before getting the checker flagNot too many pics from this one.... it was the same day as the John Penton GNCC race so I think a lot of people were at that. My buddy (and co-worker) Alan is on the KTM #69. We both rode Unlimited C 25+
From the start.... obviously by the clean bikes, lol. Turns are my weakness.... I'm slow as molasses. Practice, practice..... and more throttle
So yea, I was even laughing at my little bunny hops
But whatever.... I'm not a jumper, I fully admit it, lolMade it back in one piece..... actually still felt great at the end of the race, I could have gone another lap no prob
I ended up doing 3 laps and finishing 9th out of 14 that finished, and 1 DNF (my buddy Alan.... he gave up after a half a lap.... again). Overall I was 106 out of 145 that finished, and 7 DNF's. Not great, but not last.... I'll take it
Video..... beginning is the start and the entire first lap, then a few highlights, since I doubt anybody wants to watch all 41 mins, lol.... There were some pretty good bottlenecks on the first lap, with people just sitting in the middle of the trail blocking the entire thing. First one at about 3:30, another at 5:45, and then a big one at 19:40 that lasted several minutes (dudes were just standing there with bikes in the middle of the trail on a hill, and would not move.... IDK what they were doing). Took me 3 tries to finally get up and past them, but when I finally did it was awesome...... I was pretty much completely by myself, lol. Got a little cheering from my buddy Ron at 16:55 (he did the pro race in the morning), haha. Hit a muddy spot that got me a little sideways and ended up hitting a log around 37:40, and then my gnarly MX track crash at 38:56, with a slo-mo replay after at the end
Had a GREAT time...... I thought it was a really fun track. It was technical and you had to pick good lines, but still pretty fast and flowed very well I thought. I felt great, not crazy fatigued like last week.... I could have gone another lap. And as always.... the green tractor ran flawless and didn't miss a beat the entire time
And I know some of you seasoned racers are prob shaking your head.... "WTF are you doing?!?!" haha. I know I still have a lot of stuff to work on and def still learning.... just going one step at a time and trying to focus on one or two things at a time. I know one thing I really need to work on is not stopping and waiting at the bottlenecks, and just trying to find another way around. I always forget you have 20 feet either side of the trail to legally get around it. And also just passing people instead of riding behind them for awhile. Completely different riding style than what I'm used to. Just need to keep at it I guess
[youtube][/youtube]
