October 27th, 2004

Woodland MX, WA

First race back in the saddle. 14 guys signed up, I finished 11th... Cool!

Raced Woodland yesterday, had a great time, didn't even fall off! Very unusual for me; I must be getting old. Never been there before, so had two laps of practice and had at it. Didn't like the jumps, landing areas were too steep for this old man, I like the new style 'saftey' jumps. And I wanted to race, like, the 50+ C class, but the oldest slowest class they had was the 40+ B class, so I got smoked. 10th of 14 in the first race, and probably worse in the second. (Didn't hang out to check the results; just didn't matter) Made passes in both motos, so I wasn't last!

It was exciting though. First moto, the front wheel lifts (stupid concrete launch pads!) and I have to chop the throttle. The guys to my left and right close the door, and I figure I've already gotten to last place. So I follow them to the first turn and start to slow. BAM! I get hit from the rear, pretty hard. I guess I wasn't in last place after all! I'm just trying to not fall off (again) when I realize that I'm having to gas it to continue towards the first turn, and the rear wheel is tracking off to the left. By about a foot. Then I realize I'm DRAGGING somebody!! Before I could let off the bike pops back straight. I'm already turning to look back, so I get a glimpse of some yamaha blue sort of tumbling down the track behind me. Sorry, dude, didn't mean to drag you!! Check the pic, mashed my rear fender pretty good. Also scraped up my pipe on the other side, no dents, just surface stuff.

Mostly the rest was the usual stuff; make up time on a guy, then he jumps something I'm not comfortable with. Pass someone, then take the rest of the race catching the next guy... Pretty fun.