So this weekend I decided to test my ankle and see how it would hold up under race conditions. It has only been 3 weeks since my injury, so I haven’t been able to train much or spend any real time on a dirt bike, what better way to get back into it than to go racing. Dad and I decided to head to the JDay in Greenfield, MA. This was a new course, and we heard there was going to be a killer endurocross extreme section!
I signed up for 2 classes, Junior and 250 A. The junior class is fun for me because I get to be out there with kids my age and my dad is out there running the senior class at the same time, plus I can build my stamina by racing four(4) 30 minute motos instead of only 2. I hit my start pretty well in moto 1, and was in the top 3. I made pretty quick work of the 2 guys in front of me and jumped into the lead by lap 2. Things felt great and my ankle did not bother me one bit. Unfortunately as I was entering the woods on lap 2 my bike started revving really high and I had to pull off with a stuck throttle. I didn’t want to blow the bike up so I nursed it back to the pits, and went to go watch dad tear it up in the old man class! It looked like he had one heck of a battle going with a couple other old guys.
After that we fixed the throttle (turned out the enrichener lever cable had jumped out of the throttle body housing, this took exactly 10 seconds to fix) and I went out for my A 250 moto. My start wasn’t good at all, and it was so dusty, I just could not see anything to try and get upfront quickly. This was the exact same situation from 3 weeks ago where I crashed out and got hurt, I decided to play it safe and back it down a little. I felt off, and my arm pump got really bad. When I hit the extreme section I was in about 12th, but hanging on to the bike was rough. I just could not find a grove, crashed a few times and ended up finishing this ugly moto in 12th or something like that.
I went back to the pits to re-focus, and get ready for my next Junior moto. It just started to rain, so the dust wasn’t going to be an issue, but it was going to be slick. This time I wasn’t going to mess around, I took the hole shot and got pumped and just ran away with it. By lap 4 I had about a 30 second gap, and I maintained that to the end, I finally won a moto. It’s been a long time, and I almost forgot how good it feels. As an added bonus I lapped dad!!! He almost ran me off the course too, man he rides a wide line J.
I went back to the pits to get some food and drinks, my second A 250 moto was up next. I got a mid pack start and worked my way up through the pack. My goal for the A250 class has been to get a top 10, anything beyond that would be an added bonus. So as we came around into the extreme section for the 1st time I hit all my lines, made no mistakes, and got through it about as good as I could wish for. I looked up at the score board and found myself in 10th. Nice.
I
pushed hard for the next 2 laps and got up to 8th place trying to
pass for 7th, when I slid out on a left hand turn and tweaked my
already busted ankle again. That was the end of the day for me. I just couldn’t
put any weight on my foot, never mind ride or shift a dirt bike. I was bummed
because I knew I was close and had a chance to mix it up with the top 5, but
this one was not to be. So my numbers for the day weren’t that great…4 motos:
DNF, 12th, 1st, DNF…I did learn a lot and gained a lot of
confidence. I had way more fun racing this weekend than I did in a long time.
Now I need to let my ankle heal up, or at least do a better job taping it so I
can trust it.Hopefully I can ride next weekend, the Crow Hill JDay GP is up next and I absolutely love that race…a motocross sand track, and if I remember right, another enduro cross style extreme section…doesn’t get any better than that.
Thanks for all the support to
my sponsors Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, X-Brand Goggles, Halls Cycles, Panic Rev, Mom
& Dad, My grandparents, and lately Ibuprofen and Tylenol and the ice maker
in our fridge
Thanks for reading...
Hunter "Braap" Neuwirth
