FTR hare scramble # 3 report page.
October 21-22 2006
Do I ride?
Up until the Friday before the race I was still not sure if I could ride for two hours with my injury.
After missing the 2nd race at Madison last week I was eager to race round #3 at Boggy creek.
I had not ridden for a month due to tearing my medial ligament in my knee and had only been out training on my mountain bike a couple of times.
I decided to risk it and we set off early Saturday morning for the 4 hr journey to the Lake Nona located track.
The weather was supposed to be cool but as it tuned out Sunday was in the mid 90`s and bone dry.
Photo by Paul Merritt of me during during the morning practice....
I took my practice lap real easy and made sure I drank plenty of fluid from my camelback. The course was dry and pretty fast in places but the worst part was the palmetto bushes which would kick you off if you were not loose and standing up. I found the tight woods sections to be easy and tried to flow with the turns.
The trick with sand riding is not letting the sand steer the bike, you have to force the bike where you want it to go, never letting off the power.
It was good to follow the faster riders and watch their bike swap from side to side as they rode through the palmetto roots.
The start
In moto cross I love the starts, I have the reaction times of a fighter pilot who just downed 3 cans of red bull, and very rarely do I ever get a bad start.
In hare scrambles I hate the starts, to be honest I suck.
Picture a 48 year old rider with two bad knees and a limp trying to sprint 15 feet to his bike, now picture him trying to kick start a CRF450R faster than the guy next to him with the electric start button.
It took me 5 kicks to start my bike... and the only other guy left on the start line barely got a jump on me, (he started his with 4 kicks)
so I was again last off the start.
Nothing fires me up more than being in last place, I hate it, I now have to decide if I risk re-injuring my knee or to try to get a move on.
I decide to ride fast and smooth with my feet up as much as possible, I overtake about two thirds of the riders by lap one and I think picked off a couple early on lap 2.
Race photo courtesy Paul Merritt photography
Then disaster... I stub my foot in a turn and the pain in my knee is killing me, I ride slowly for the rest of the race and just try to finish.
As the blisters on my hand get worse I actually started to feel less pain in my knee so I picked up the pace and got to finish my 3 laps with some dignity.
This is how much my knee hurt...
I hate to think what's in my lungs...
Florida dirt doesn`t taste of oranges...
Well I did what I wanted to do, finish the race in one piece and be well enough to race next week (and some practice at Seminole)
A big thank you to my family, FTR, EMS, and all the helpers.
|
Place |
Name |
Brand |
# |
Laps |
Elapsed |
Point |
Adv |
| 1 |
Scott Wood |
Honda |
138B |
4 | 1:59:24 | 50 | 10 |
| 2 |
Mark Bordelon |
KTM |
115B |
3 | 1:32:04 | 47 | 5 |
| 3 |
Joel Coscia |
Yamaha |
12B |
3 | 1:32:26 | 45 | 4 |
| 4 |
Charles Storey |
Yamaha |
60B |
3 | 1:34:25 | 43 | 3 |
| 5 |
Glenn Gardner |
Honda |
288B |
3 | 1:34:29 | 41 | 2 |
| 6 |
Les Evans |
KTM |
61B |
3 | 1:34:51 | 40 | 0 |
| 7 |
Richard Edwards |
KTM |
222B |
3 | 1:36:46 | 39 | 0 |
| 8 |
David Francis |
Honda |
26B |
3 | 1:36:48 | 38 | 0 |
| 9 |
James Rowland |
Honda |
23B |
3 | 1:37:17 | 37 | 0 |
| 10 |
Randy McCann |
Yamaha |
144B |
3 | 1:37:54 | 36 | 0 |
| 11 |
Gordon Decou |
Yamaha |
21B |
3 | 1:38:22 | 35 | 0 |
| 12 |
Terry Long |
KTM |
320B |
3 | 1:47:33 | 34 | 0 |
| 13 |
David Thompson |
Yamaha |
7B |
2 | 1:05:13 | 16 | 0 |
| 14 |
Jay Grimes |
Honda |
68B |
2 | 1:06:17 | 16 | 0 |
| 15 |
Randy Rash |
KTM |
19B |
1 | 0:29:25 | 8 | 0 |
| 16 |
Dan Lichtenwalter |
KTM |
16B |
1 | 0:30:06 | 8 | 0 |
| 17 |
Steve Mitchum |
KTM |
529B |
1 | 0:31:20 | 7 | 0 |
| DNF |
Tom Wilson |
Honda |
9B |
0 | 0:00:00 | 0 | 0 |
Dave
