The track looked awesome (John Day and his crew rock), the
woods had great flow to it, the MX track looked like it could be one of my
favorites (sandy with great ruts), and the extreme section seemed like it would
be super fun, littered with lots of logs, a sand pit, a tire jump, and a
culvert pipe jump. It was a sunny day with the temperatures in the mid 80’s, so
conditioning would be a big factor. Over 1500 spectators, and over 400
racers…what an event this set up to be.
Moto 1: Since I have had a heck of a time with my starts and
1st lap this year, my goal was to get out of the gate and stay close
enough after lap one so I could be in position and pounce on everyone and
outwork them by the end of the 30+ minute moto. Unfortunately the plan did not
work. I got a mid pack start and then proceeded to crash in the 3rd
turn on the MX track…so here we go again…I was in dead last, talk about a “DÉJÀ
VU” all over again. I picked my bike up, and decided to just have fun and see
how many guys I could pick off. I rode well, though I had a few more small
crashes, but before I knew it I was back in the top 10. I figured I had about 2
more laps to go, so I went into all out sprint mode, after all, I came here to
race, not to trail ride (like my dad J).
I managed to work my way up to 4th place, not very exciting but it
kept me close enough to at least have a shot at it for the afternoon.
Moto 2: I had the same goals as in moto 1. Dad kept
reminding me of the things I was taught by my coaches in Wisconsin (Speedy
Pete, John Strangfeld, JD Friebel & all the other guys from WRD) about
starts. I lined up all the way to the outside right, thinking I could pinch
everyone off on the left hand first turn and come out in front. I took a deep
breath, let go of the pressure that I put on myself, and when the flag dropped,
it was “on”. I never let off the throttle through turn 1 and 2. This felt
awesome. The YZ was screaming! I got pushed wide by the other racers and had to
almost ride off the track…but I never let up. I used a kicker to transfer back
on the track (felt a little like Kevin Windham) and came out of turn 2 in 3rd
place. By the 2nd lap I passed for 2nd place and figured
that I had plenty of time to reel in 1st place. What a fun battle.
At some point I lost 2nd place to a guy on a KTM – I made a small
mistake, but that didn’t last long, I passed him back and was now right on the
leader. The woods started to get really “bony” and beat up, rocks, mud, wet
roots, etc., but again, I seem to find a way to really like the nasty stuff. By
lap 3 I decided to go for it, passed for 1st, and opened up a decent
gap of about 15 seconds. As I went through the extreme section I saw my pit
crew (dad) giving me the sign that I have a racer closing up on me to within 5
seconds. No way was I going to let this one get away from me, no sir, not this
time. This is why I train, I’m stronger than these guys...head down, all out
sprint, catch me if you can… let’s take this thing all the way to the finish. I
rode without major mistakes, and felt really relaxed, the Kenda
Washougal/Triple combo hooked up so well in the extreme section, it was almost
like cheating…things just seemed to click, and I ended up finishing moto two at
33 : 51 with about a 30 second lead on second place.
With a 4 & 1 for my motos I ended up 2nd
overall. Considering the level of competition here and my not so hot moto 1,
this is quite satisfying for me…a Wisconsin kid hanging with the East Coast
boys on their turf. Glad I was able to put one together, especially since mom
and my sister came out to watch too…love having an awesome pit crew under our
Moose tent. Next up is the Red Fern GP in New Hampshire on June 3rd…
A huge “Thank You” to my sponsors, Moose Racing , Kenda
Tires, Summit Clothing, mom & dad and a shout out to the Wisconsin Crew!!!
Braap
Hunter “747” Neuwirth
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