JDay GP, Lanesborough, MA

 

This Sunday we went to the JDay Mohawk GP race in Lanesborough, MA. I was excited to get out and race again, I’ve been riding and training quite a bit and felt confident. Going back to Lanesborough meant a lot to me as that is where we I broke my ankle at the season opener this year. The weather was awesome…perfect fall day, not too dry so dust would not be an issue. I signed up to race Juniors and – since dad is still hurt from his last race – I decided to ride his bike in A250.

A couple of fast kids from  from the Netra series showed up and signed up for juniors as well, so this was going to be a tough/fun race

Moto1 Juniors: I got a mid pack start (not ideal) and it took me half a lap to work my way up to 3^rd. Unfortunately the top 2 guys had checked out by then, and frankly, I didn’t have enough speed to reel them back in. I settled into a comfortable pace and just focused on being smooth and learn the course as best as I can so I will be ready for the remaining motos. The extreme section was really no big deal…a couple of logs and a few rocks and a fun downhill. The rest of the course was really flowy and fast, with the exception of one off camber section that turned out to have a few good lines to make some passes.  Anyway, I finished the first moto in 3^rd place and felt good about my ride…time to get ready for A250

Moto 1 A250: Since I was riding dad’s CR 250 for this one (enduro computer and all), I was really wondering how hard I could push and how comfortable I would be on it. I haven’t logged a lot of hours on it yet, so I was really nervous. I got a mid pack start and by the time we got around to scoring I saw that I was running in 14^th. Not good. I was not happy. It was time to get going…my goal for A250 is to get consistent top 10’s, I’d be happy with that. Passing in this class is hard, they are all fast and no one gives it up easily. I found a good rhythm, and made some good line choices in the extreme section, which allowed me to get up to 10^th place by lap 3. Dad’s bike felt awesome and with every lap I got more confident. I ended up in a battle with a guy on a Kawasaki. I’d pass him and hold him off for a little while, then he would get me back, we swapped spots just about every other turn. When all was said and done I ended up in 9^th for the moto…not a bad morning and I was still in it for the afternoon.

 

Moto 2 Juniors: I got a much better start this time and came out in 3^rd after turn 2, right behind the 2 Netra guys. I really wanted to hang with them, but I have to admit, they were faster than me that day. I just could not quite get them. I’d have moments of brilliance where I would work my way back up, only to make a few silly mistakes. So I ended up in 3^rd again for the moto, and 3^rd overall for the day in the junior race. I felt good about my ride though and was ready for the A250 moto 2.

Moto 2 A250: I really needed to get a good start so I wouldn’t have to work through the pack again, and maybe I could improve my result. When the flag dropped I got a good jump and going into turn 1 we were about 5 bikes wide, all going for the same spot. Unfortunately the guy on the inside washed out, starting a little bit of a chain reaction and we all went down hard, I would have been top 5 if I would have gotten out of there clean. By the time I picked the bike up I was in dead last…seriously? Come on…here we go again. Funny thing was…I still felt great!!! I rode as hard as I know how, things just seemed to click.

By lap 3 I had caught up to 8^th place, and was able to make the pass pretty easily. I stayed in 8^th for a lap or so, but then I think I must have lost focus and made a few small mistakes. I spun out on a flat right hand turn, which allowed the guy in 9^th to catch up to me and make the pass. I ultimately finished the moto in 9^th, securing a 9^th overall in A250.

I am pretty happy with that, as my effort was pretty consistent all day and I had no major mishaps.   

 

This pretty much closes out my race season for the year, we are going to be moving  over the next few weekends, so I doubt that I will be able to hit the final Jday race in 2 weeks.

It’s been a great year for me, I learned a lot and am getting closer to getting this New England stuff figured out. Next year we’ll hit a few more Netra’s and nationals in addition to the JDay series just to keep it interesting. The Honda CR 125 is for sale, I am switching over to 250 racing full time for the season, so if anyone is looking for a sweet race ready bike, let me know.

 

Thank you to my mom and dad for getting me to all the races and supporting me the way you do, thank you to my grandparents for the help, thank you to my sponsors – Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Panic Rev, EkS Brand Goggles, Magical Gogo…

 

Next up….I have to get my driver’s license, and then I need to buy a van so I can travel more!

 

Thanks for Reading and taking an interest!!!

 

Braaaap

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

 

JDay Crow Hill GP, September 2013

Time for another short blog…I haven’t done one in a while as we’ve been awfully busy over the last few weeks. Since my last blog we hit a GNCC race, and a couple other events, but I just haven’t had time to write about them…school got in the way…ha!
Anyway, we decided to head to the JDay GP race at the Crow Hill track in Baldwinville, MA. This is the track that Robby Marshall and his family own/operate, and apparently Robby did a ton of work on this JDay course layout. 

I decided to focus on racing my CR 125 in the A200 class and not worry about the junior class this time around. Dad had to swap out a leaky head gasket the day before, so I just wanted to make sure the bike held up for 2 motos.
The track looked awesome, the extreme section had a rock garden, a few double logs, and some culvert jumps. There was a RAM TRAX sand section in the woods, and of course the Crow Hill MX track…this was going to be huge fun.

 Moto 1: My start was not so hot…while the bike started right away, I just could not get to the front, so when we entered the super fun and flowy MX track I was towards the back of the pack. It totally reminded me of riding in the Midwest…sandy, smooth jumps, and lots of lines to pass. By the time we got to the woods I worked myself up a little ways and put myself in a decent mid pack position. After quite a bit of dicing in the woods and the extreme section, we came back out to the track and I found myself in 4th. Luke Yanke was in front of me, so I figured I’ll stick with him and see if I can get him. Unfortunately even though I grew up riding sand, I proceeded to drop the bike twice in a sandy corner on the MX track, then once in the extreme section, and ended up working awfully hard just to stay in 4th for the moto. Not bad but I definitely gave that one away. I was happy though…over all I felt good, the bike felt awesome and I knew I had something for moto 2.

Moto 2: This time my start was way better…I came out in 3rd and immediately started charging to get to 2nd. First place was a little further ahead, I could not quite catch up to him at that point and I really wasn’t worried about it. My tires (Kenda Triple sticky) hooked up incredibly, I don’t know if it was the changing track conditions or the small suspension adjustments dad made, I felt like I was on rails this time. I really just focused on smooth lines and smart choices. I made the pass for 2nd and was starting to get my flow. I did not want to drop the bike for any reason and give up another freebee. But I took a digger on lap 2 in some nasty woops before the extreme section. I kept the bike running and I lost 3rd and 4th position in the process of getting up but I quickly made the pass for 3rd and then it was once again me and Luke duking it out for 2nd. I made the pass and it was a battle for the whole race. When we first started battling we were about 1 minute behind 1st place but as the race went on it turns out, we made up time each lap and by the end we were only 10 seconds off the leader. When it was all over, I ended up taking 2nd for the moto which put me in 3rd place for the day – I’m good with that. This is my 1st podium in A200…I am super pumped, especially since I know I made lots of mistakes in moto 1 and left quite a bit of room for improvement. The Honda ran awesome (I love racing 125’s), the suspension was dialed in! I can’t wait for next week’s race to do it again.

As always, thank you to my awesome sponsors: Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Magical Go-Go, EKS brand goggles, Panic Rev, my grandparents, mom and dad, and a quick shout out to the Wisconsin Crew – you guys would have loved this one :)

Thanks for reading and taking interest in my racing progress!

“Braaap”       

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

NETRA HS, Indian Ridge, Eastford CT

Got One:

Since the JDay series is still on summer break, we decided to hit another NETRA Hare Scramble, this one was at Indian Ridge in Eastford, CT…just about 45 minutes from home.

We have never been to this venue, so I was a little anxious as I just didn’t know what to expect. This place was cool…the start was at the bottom of a sand pit, kind of in a bowl…reminded me a little bit of the start at Erzberg. I was excited, finally a place with sand, something I was actually familiar with. The heat was going to be a factor again, but it wasn’t as humid as last weekend, so I wasn’t too worried. I did my work during the week, my confidence was high.

I had to sign up for 250 B again (same as last week) since I don’t race enough NETRA to point up to A and they don’t recognize the JDay series points. No worries though…I was racing the same guys I always do…we are all in the same boat as far as that goes…so you have at least ½ of the B class loaded with JDay A class riders.

 

Race time. I hit the starter button on my Husky and yet again…for the second time in a row…my bike started pretty well. No, not a hole shot, but close. The first right hand turn was wide and sandy, and I was on the outside of the pack and no one seemed to want to come near me. I put my best Wisconsin ice riding face on and simply flat tracked it, never letting off the throttle. It felt great to be able to hang it out for a change (I haven’t gone sideways in a long timeJ). This moved me up to 3^rd place, as we entered the mogul field and then the woods. I was pumped. I worked my way up to 2^nd pretty quick and settled in. The course had 3 really cool rock gardens (I’m starting to dig rocks), an extreme section (that one was actually pretty easy), and some really nice flowy trail where you could open it up a bit and it made for good passing.

The first 3 laps went well for me, I was in 2^nd when I got the sign from dad to come in for a pit stop. Dad had things lined up awesome. My friends Nick D. and Matt C. were handling goggles & water, Dad handled the fuel. This was probably our best pit stop ever. I think I got in and out in 15 seconds or less, and I had the leader in sight, as he had pitted right in front of me. I went back out to enter the extreme section when I made a little mistake…actually it was a big mistake. On a drop off I grabbed a too much front brake and went over the bars…that was a pretty good get off (wish I had that on video)….I was lucky I didn’t get hurt. I picked my bike up, fired it up and couldn’t help but laugh about this stupid mistake.

When I went through scoring on this lap I was about 40 seconds behind the leader, still in 2^nd. Good. Throughout the race dad gave me the lap times and distance off the leader, I knew exactly what I had to do. I caught up and set up for a pass for 1st when I hit his rear tire (he had gotten stuck) and I tipped over, no biggie, but the pass didn’t happen right there, and I broke my right hand guard in the process. I threw it to the side (let me know if you found a hand guard with a red shield), and pushed hard to try and catch up and after 2 hours and 40 minutes of battle, on one of the most fun courses I have raced so far here in New England, I finally saw the checkered flag.

 

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what happened, when I went through the finish I thought I was in 2^nd, but because of something along the lines of Highpoint B and some rules I don’t really know, I ended up in 1^st place….I’ll take it.

 

The biggest lesson I learned from this event is that I do need to get stronger yet. I think the mountain bike will see a lot more use and I might need new running shoes…

 

Thank you to the hosting club (Tri State)...what an awesome course and event!!!!

 

Thank you to my awesome sponsors, Kenda tires (the Washougal was the perfect choice for this race), Fly racing for the “cool” gear, Panic Rev for keeping me safe, EKS brand goggles, mom & dad, my grandparents, and of course my sister for coming out…as I said in the past…it is cool to have family support!

 

Thanks for reading and taking an interest – if you would like to help, please share my blog….my sponsors like the exposure!

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

Crest Whitening commercial - audition

 

NETRA Cherry Bomb Run, Chaplin, CT

This weekend we decided to hit another NETRA Hare Scramble, the Chaplin Cherry Bomb run, hosted by the CT Ramblers. This race location was only about 45 minutes from our house, so I didn’t even have to get up early.

We got to the site, set up our trailer and the “Fly Racing” EZ UP to get some shade, and the sweating began. It was in the mid 90’s before noon…this was going to be tough.

Since I don’t race enough NETRA events to accumulate enough points to move up to the A class I signed up for 250 B…and…raced against a lot of the same guys I usually race in the A class at JDays…apparently we all have the same issue. After much joking around at the start, it was time to get serious. I picked a spot on the very left of the line as the starting straight was super short and there was a 180 hairpin turn at the end. Considering my recent struggles with starts I figured I can either squeeze everyone off if I do get a start, or pick a good line to avoid the anticipated turn 1 pile up. The flag dropped and drum roll…I got a start. I was in 2^nd going into turn one, then I got stood up a little bit by a guy on the inside and had to back out of it (hello fence post), but I still came out ok and settled in in 6^th or 7^th place. I was happy…this is a 2+ hour race, I have plenty of time to make some moves.

We got to the back section of the course and everyone had talked about how nasty it was…no kidding…that section was rough. The mud, rocks and roots made it a little bit of a gamble every time through….for everyone. I was lucky, my good friend Steven was back there to help. He likes mud, and it shows. He was awesome…helped me out of this mess several times and saved me lots of energy…Thanks buddy!!!

Anyway, back to the race…I had worked my way up to 5^th place and was about 40 seconds behind the leader. I found a great rhythm things really started to flow – I know…”NETRA” and “FLOW” are 2 words you usually don’t associate with each other. I got up to 4^th and even 3^rd place over the next 2 laps when it was time to pit. I had no issues, the bike ran great so this was an easy pit stop…water and fuel and I was out of there.

Of course it wouldn’t be a good race if it wasn’t for problems…the back section got me. I got stuck badly, and needed all of Steven’s help to get out. In the process my goggles got all messed up, so I threw them to my sister and mom, they were both back in mud section cheering guys on.

Once I got out of the mud and back on course I flew into the pits for goggles. Dad was ready, not sure how he knew, but it was a 5 second stop at the most. I went back out but had dropped back to 5^th again. This was a little past the half way mark of the race, I figured I had 3 laps to go. Dad kept telling me to trust my conditioning and sprint to the end! So I did. I hit the mud section again, and got through ok, but I must have hit a rock in the process…my chain guard got bent badly. I tried to ride with it, but it pulled the chain right off. Somehow I got it back on and jumped off the track and on to a service road, hoping it would take me to the pits. I rolled in, and dad and a couple of guys went to work…I was lucky, someone had a big enough crow bar with him to get things straightened out, so I could go back and continue the race. I had to ride back to where I jumped off course, so I wouldn’t get DQ’ed. When I came through the pits again, the entire pit row cheered for me. These guys were cool…first they helped us out with the bike and then they gave me some “magical gogo” to push hard for another lap. I had dropped to 7^th because of my troubles, and really wanted to get back a spot or 2. I was super motivated and pushed my bike and my body to the edge and was able to make up over 2 minutes to make a pass for 6^th, with 5^th place only about 20 seconds in front of me. I was pleased with this. Yeah sure, a top 3 would have been nice, but that would have been easy…I got a 6^th place…the hard way. I’m good with that.
 

Thank you to my sponsors, Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Panic Rev, Halls Husqvarna, EKS Brand goggles, my mom and dad, and my grandparents…Thanks sis for coming out (loved the sharpie numbers)…its cool to have family support.

Thank you all for reading and taking an interest, as usual, please share if you would like to help…my sponsors like exposure J

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

Steven and my sis

 

River Rush II - JDay GP

This weekend we got to go back to Huntington, MA for the River Rush II JDAY race. I was looking forward to this as I had some “redeeming” to do from the last showing at this venue.

The course looked awesome as usual, the extreme section looked doable, the temperatures were brutal. Man was it hot. Regardless, I decided to sign up for 2 classes anyway and test my endurance and willpower.

My 1^st moto was the Junior moto 1.

We’ve been working on the Husky to try and figure out how to get it started better so I don’t have to come from dead last every time. Unfortunately we still have some work to do on that as I didn’t get a good start. I had to come from behind and work my way through the pack to get up front. Fortunately the course layout allowed for great passing, so when it was all done I ended up in 2^nd place for the moto. Good enough, I felt confident and comfortable on the bike and was ready for the first A250 moto.

Maybe I’ll get a start this time?....nah…my Husky decided to decline to start right away and I took off in dead last.

The Husky is apparently really bad at starts, but it is really good at catching up! I worked hard, ignored the heat and arm pump and started picking people off. On the last lap I was in 10^th place when we entered the xtreme section, and 9^th was right in front of me. I decided to pressure the guy into making a mistake, and on the last turn when we exited the log infested sandy section I got by him to take a 9^th place for the moto. My goal has been to get a top 10 in this class, I was on the right track and felt great about it.

Photo: Roger Cameron from magicalgogo.com

Back to the trailer – time to cool off! I went down to the river and jumped in, trying to get my body temp down and get ready for Junior moto 2. I had about 40 minutes to get ready. Dad worked on the bike, loaded me up with electrolytes, a little bit of food, and kept me on schedule. Time to go.

I lined up in the same spot I did for moto 1, and….drum roll….got a last place start again. Ok, same story. Work your way through the pack and see if you can catch the front guys. I got up to 2^nd place and had 1^st in my sights when I got caught behind some lappers in one of the few spots where it was just not possible to pass. With only a half lap left, there was just not enough time to catch the leader, so I settled for another 2^nd place, taking 2^nd overall in the Junior class.

Back to the truck, cool down again and get ready for moto 2 A250. I started to feel the heat a little bit, and the track was getting rough. The breaking bumps started to get huge, the roots and rocks got nasty, and now it started to rain to make things nice and slick. By the time I went up to the line for my last moto, the rain stopped and the humidity was awful, I could not wait to get this thing going so I can get some air flowing J. Come on Husky – let’s get a start!!! Almost…not ideal, but this time at least I wasn’t last off the line. I rode the 1^st two laps hard to see if I could find my groove, but had to start to back off here and there as I was starting to get tired. I worked as hard as I could and figured that if I can maintain my speed, I should be able to get close to the top 10 at the end. Mom kept writing motivational stuff on the pit board, and dad kept encouraging me every time I went by. On the last lap dad pointed to the guy in front of me…he was in my class, and just as in moto one I decided to try and pressure the guy with a last effort on my end, hoping he would make a mistake and open the door for me to get him. It worked out, he fell on one of the logs trying to keep me behind him and I passed him for 10^th place. With a 9^th in moto1 this gave me 9^th overall…so far my best result in A250 here in the east. I was exhausted, but felt great…off into the river…

 

Thank you to my sponsors Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Panic Rev, EKS brand Goggles, mom & dad and my grandparents.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Hunter “747” Neuwirth

 

 

JDay, Greenfield, MA

Win some, lose some
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

 

Steele Creek - GNCC

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!

Race Time: A 250 Lites started in the 3^rd row, XC1 Pro was 1^st as always, the XC2 pro, and then us…I got pretty fired up, 1^st race of the season, 1^st ever A class GNCC race for me, 1^st time being in one of the front rows, 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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, 16^th 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

What's new in my world...

Well, it is winter and I don’t get to spend much time at all on my dirt bike, so I’m trying to keep myself busy with a bunch of other stuff.

2013 racing season is just around the corner, and I want to make sure I’m physically ready to go. I am still working on getting my back as strong as it was before, never thought that last year’s injury would hang with me for so long. Lesson learned….no more back breaking J

I’ve been skiing quite a bit and am spending quite some time on my snow skate, I’ve also been riding a little bit of BMX with good friends of mine, but all of that really just keeps my mind occupied and distracts me from constantly thinking about how much I want to ride my dirt bike and get back to racing.

I am working very hard in the gym….err…nah…we don’t use a gym. Dad put together a training program for me that requires rocks, a bench, some logs, a snow covered hill, a bunch of other stuff you won’t find in the gym; I provide my blood, sweat, and (t)ears. It’s been awesome. I currently train after school, 4 days on, then 1 day off…boy do I like my off day. My back has not acted up at all since we started this program – if anything it has gotten stronger than before my injury.

The bike is going to get some attention over the next few weeks as well. Some suspension work is in order, the engine will get a full exam, and we’ll pretty it up so it will look awesome and represent my sponsors well. Speaking of sponsors, I have been fortunate to get hooked up with Fly Racing as my gear sponsor for next season, Kenda tires will again provide the traction, Leo Vince will handle my exhaust gases J, Engine Ice will cool my engine, and Panic Rev will keep me safe.

I am so fired up for the next season…bring it!!!!!!!!!!!

Braaap!!!

Hunter "747" Neuwirth