Finally…race season is back! I could not
wait to get out and race…even though I haven’t had a lot of seat time on the
bike yet this year, I just needed to get on a starting line somewhere! I
convinced dad that we should hit the Steele Creek GNCC in Morganton, NC. This
worked out awesome, we were going to head down with our truck and trailer but
we lucked out and hitched a ride down with Gerry and Andrew Savage in their nice Class A
motor home, with our trailer filled with 4 bikes (tight squeeze) . After 13
hours of comfortable riding in the RV we rolled into Steele Creek with perfect
70 degree weather, the rains cleared out, the dirt looked prime for some good
racing.
We hung out all day Saturday watching the
many 4-wheeler classes duke it out and got a chance to inspect the course a
little bit. Andrew and I mountain biked
some of trail and it was pretty wet red clay which was pretty slick, I was just
hoping it would dry up some more for the race on Sunday. 
On Saturday night I had spaghetti with
Andrew Delong and his whole family. The
Delong family is one of the nicest race families I have met. I had a great time
talking with them and can’t thank them enough for everything! On top of all that Andrew hooked me up with
one of his jerseys that he signed for me…HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me J…..oh yeah…race
day was my birthday too…never thought I’d be spending it at a GNCC race.
Anyway…moving on to race day. Dad decided to go out for the morning race…he
felt the need to beat himself up a little, so I was sort of on pit duty, but he
didn’t need anything anyways. When he came back he was grinning ear to ear,
telling me how awesome the course was. I could not wait.
I went down to the starting line, picked
my spot and then just hung out and waited until race time. Dad showed up and we
joked around for a while, he threatened to get the entire line to sing happy
birthday to me…didn’t happen…thank goodness, that would have been wicked
embarrassing. It was so cool to see Mat Herrington and Joe Barr from Wisconsin
at the starting line, Mat helped me quite a bit a while back and he and Joe are
doing the entire series in the XC2 class, I hope they find their groove and
kick some butt!
I went down to the starting line, picked
my spot and then just hung out and waited until race time. Dad showed up and we
joked around for a while, he threatened to get the entire line to sing happy
birthday to me…didn’t happen…thank goodness, that would have been wicked
embarrassing. It was so cool to see Mat Herrington and Joe Barr from Wisconsin
at the starting line, Mat helped me quite a bit a while back and he and Joe are
doing the entire series in the XC2 class, I hope they find their groove and
kick some butt!
Race Time: A 250 Lites started in the 3rd
row, XC1 Pro was 1st as always, the XC2 pro, and then us…I got
pretty fired up, 1st race of the season, 1st ever A class
GNCC race for me, 1st time being in one of the front rows, 1st
time racing in NC. I tried my best to stay relaxed on the line, but I’m not
going to lie… Being in the A class on a national level gets a little
intimidating, but then you think to yourself, “I deserve to be up here,” and it
helps calm the nerves…here we go. My bike started as planned (I used the
e-start), the mad dash began. I got a decent jump at the start and hit the
first 2 turns somewhere mid pack. When we got to the first hill where lots of
classes got all bunched up, we all made it through pretty clean and started to
spread out a little bit. I settled in, found a nice rhythm, and things started
to flow pretty good. I wanted to push hard in the 1st lap to see if
I could hang with the guys up front, that was a tall order. I saw Craig Delong
at some point (aside from me he is probably the only other 16 year old in this
class), I really wanted to stay close, but I also knew that this was my 1st
time out this season and I needed to figure out a way to ride for 3 hours,
plus, he’s just really really fast. 
I decided to settle down and just really focus on consistent, smooth laps. Remember when I told you about how dad said the course was awesome? He was right…the uphills were really steep and long, but the traction was actually really good, the downhills were pretty beat up and rutted up from the morning race, but still big fun. They routed us through the river under a pretty low bridge and then through a culvert pipe, no biggie, just something different. I had a decent 1st lap, no show stoppers, but on the exit of a nasty mud pit, I got tipped over by another dude on a husky (so it’s ok)! My left hand was hurting pretty bad. It turns out my new gloves must have gotten wet and bunched up and my hand developed some nasty blisters…the glove was white originally, it is now red….As the race went on it got harder and harder for me to hang on to the bike with my hand, especially on down hills.
The course had developed really big breaking bumps, it was almost
like riding town a stair case with each step being 3 foot tall. For those of you who have hit your hand on an
oven top, that was how my left hand felt for 3 hours. I went into “management mode”…no way was I
going to quit, but I had to find a way to last the full 3 hours. When I pitted, I didn’t take new gloves, I
was worried that taking the old ones off might rip things open even more. I
topped off my drink system, dad gave me some electrolytes, fueled up the bike,
and back out I went. I had 2 or 3 little tip overs during the rest of the race,
but over all I rode pretty well. My lap times really didn’t look all that good,
but that’s ok I had flashes of good riding and I now know that I can last 3
hours. When I got the pit board from dad telling me I had about 35 minutes left
I tried to dig and see if I could make another push, but my hands just wouldn’t
hold up, so I focused on trying to finish. I was ok with my ride, 16th
wasn’t what I set out to get, but this does put me right in the middle of the
pack, and I know I have a lot more in me already. By the end of the season I
really hope to be able to pull a top 10.
I decided to settle down and just really focus on consistent, smooth laps. Remember when I told you about how dad said the course was awesome? He was right…the uphills were really steep and long, but the traction was actually really good, the downhills were pretty beat up and rutted up from the morning race, but still big fun. They routed us through the river under a pretty low bridge and then through a culvert pipe, no biggie, just something different. I had a decent 1st lap, no show stoppers, but on the exit of a nasty mud pit, I got tipped over by another dude on a husky (so it’s ok)! My left hand was hurting pretty bad. It turns out my new gloves must have gotten wet and bunched up and my hand developed some nasty blisters…the glove was white originally, it is now red….As the race went on it got harder and harder for me to hang on to the bike with my hand, especially on down hills.
The course had developed really big breaking bumps, it was almost
like riding town a stair case with each step being 3 foot tall. For those of you who have hit your hand on an
oven top, that was how my left hand felt for 3 hours. I went into “management mode”…no way was I
going to quit, but I had to find a way to last the full 3 hours. When I pitted, I didn’t take new gloves, I
was worried that taking the old ones off might rip things open even more. I
topped off my drink system, dad gave me some electrolytes, fueled up the bike,
and back out I went. I had 2 or 3 little tip overs during the rest of the race,
but over all I rode pretty well. My lap times really didn’t look all that good,
but that’s ok I had flashes of good riding and I now know that I can last 3
hours. When I got the pit board from dad telling me I had about 35 minutes left
I tried to dig and see if I could make another push, but my hands just wouldn’t
hold up, so I focused on trying to finish. I was ok with my ride, 16th
wasn’t what I set out to get, but this does put me right in the middle of the
pack, and I know I have a lot more in me already. By the end of the season I
really hope to be able to pull a top 10.
I do realize that I need to train harder…3
hours of racing is considerably longer than what I am used to at this point.
Now that the weather is turning, I’ll be able to get some seat time in, on the
dirt bike as well as on the mountain bike. Boy I wish I could ride year round…
We got hooked up with some Hammer
nutritional products from Dr. Eric at the Active Health Clinic in Michigan to
try and help me with my stomach issues (looong story – not important). I
followed the directions as per Doc and dad, and it seems like it worked, I had
no stomach issues what so ever - all day, and that’s a really big relief for
me.
Thanks to all my sponsors...Kenda Tires, Fly Racing, Leo Vince, EKS Brand goggles, Halls Cycles, mom & dad, my grandparents
Thanks to all my sponsors...Kenda Tires, Fly Racing, Leo Vince, EKS Brand goggles, Halls Cycles, mom & dad, my grandparents
