JDay Season Finale at Southwick! …a little long…for good reason
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| Mom with some last minute advice |
As it turned out John Day was able to secure the legendary Southwick motocross track for the JDay season finale (www.jdayoffroad.com)…That made my choice simple…I had to be there. How many times can you ride or race at the “Wick”? No way were we going to miss that. Dad and I prepped the bikes Friday night…tires, oil, filters, and some miscellaneous repairs and we were good to go. We rolled through the entrance at 8 in the morning and wow….the place was already packed! We had to park a long ways away from the start, something that would pose quite the challenge for dad. Since he was not racing, I had the chance to sign up for 3 classes…6 motos, 3 hours of racing. I wanted to close out the season with a bang. That meant that I had 2 motos back to back, which meant dad had to have 2 bikes ready pretty much at the same time.
It was cold, and rain and possibly snow was in the forecast, but that didn’t matter…the mood at the track was awesome. Everyone was just super excited to be able to come to Southwick and race. I heard a rumor of over 1000 riders…I believe it.
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| Superfun log section |
Moto 1 Juniors: I won’t bore you with a long write up…bottom line…I got a decent start on the YZ250 and worked my way to the f
ront, put in a short sprint to build a gap and then just cruised home in 1st and tried to conserve energy. Track conditions were prime…the sand was actually pretty tacky and provided decent grip…and…I really do like sand.
Moto 1 Pro 125: Things got a little hectic…I jumped off the 250 and switched bikes with dad who had the YZ 125 ready for me at the start. What a difference…totally different feel, different steering, different everything. I decided to ride it around in the start area to get a little better feel for it, but I really only had about 2 minutes to play with it, then it was go time again. My start wasn’t horrible, but I got shuffled to the back pretty quickly in turns 1, 2 and 3. When I came through scoring I was back in 20th…not cool. I pushed hard and made a lot of things happen in the woods and in the extreme section. I was able to close the gap and work my way back into this thing….a top 10 was my goal in this 30+ rider stacked class. The motocross guys were really putting it to me on the MX track (I need to work on that), I was able to return the favor in the woods. When all was said and done I accomplished what I set out to do, I finished 10th. Not bad. Now back to the truck where dad was working on getting the 250 ready for my next moto.
Moto1 A 250: The YZ250 seems to agree with me on most starts today, I did ok and got into turn 1 somewhere mid pack. I knew the track quite well (heck, I’ve already been on it for over an hour), and I was able to make passes pretty quickly. I knew the hot lines in the woods and pushed pretty hard, trying to catch the leaders. Unfortunately the gap was a little too big and I had to settle for 3rd, but I was ok with that. After all, I am in it for the long haul today.
I had a little bit of time (about an hour) to regroup, eat something, get re-hydrated and re-focused for the afternoon.
Moto 2 Juniors: Again the YZ 250 and I got a decent start. I settled in at about 3rd or 4th or so and decided to cruise for a bit, as I planned to sprint once the field spread out a little bit more and it was easier to get around the lapped riders. That’s when my crash for the day happened (someone have that on video?). This was not my fault at all, there was nothing I could do. I hit one of the jumps on the MX track and as I was flying over it there was a bike laying there from a lapped rider. The flagger on top of the jump must have missed that and never pulled out the yellow flag, so I pretty much landed on this guy’s bike and went sailing over my handlebars. I thought my day was done, and then some. Thank god for sand…it cushioned my fall. How I got away with just bumps and bruises and nothing more than a broken brake lever I will never know…my guardian angel was looking out for me.
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| Photo: Art Pepin, www.offroadpaparazzi.com |
Needless to say I wasn’t happy…with the flagger or the situation, but I felt blessed to walk away from this and even more blessed to not have hurt the other guy. I brought the bike back to the starting area where dad had the 125 ready for me for the next moto. We talked for a while and after checking things over on my body, I decided to tough it out and get back out there for the next moto. Dad gave me clear instructions to come right up to the truck after this moto so he could take parts off the 125 to get the 250 race ready again.
Moto 2 Pro 125: With mom and my sister as my crew I got re-fired up. My start rocked, I went into turn one and 2 in 5th or 6th place. I did feel my back tightening up from the crash and was just altogether a little shaken up, so I fell back a little bit, but that didn’t last long, I was there to race, not trail ride. I pulled myself together and fought back into the top 10 battling with Poacher (Paul Goyette) for a bit. He is just so darn smooth on the MX track (I watched and learned), and he ultimately got me, I settled for 11th giving me a 10th overall. Back to the truck….dad was ready with tools in hand. We needed to swap over the rear brake to the 250 so I could ride my 6th moto of the day.
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| Photo: Art Pepin, www.offroadpaparazzi.com |
Moto 2 A 250: This time I think I was just a little too sidetracked by what hurt and what didn’t…I blew the start and ended up at the very back of the pack. Man…I knew that this would take some serious pushing to get back into this race. So that’s what I did. I was still feeling pretty good, my muscles – while tight from the crash – were still willing to fire and I certainly wanted to race this one all out and see if I could get back to the front. With no reason to hold anything back I took some calculated risks, kept thinking positive and just let it all hang out. When I came through scoring half way through the moto I looked up to see if I made progress…7th…nice….and I still had some time left. I kept jumping the logs in the extreme section which allowed me to make short work of a few riders and it got me closer and closer to the front. Heading into the last lap I was in 4th…not enough…I wanted at least 3rd. Dad had made it to the scoring area and let me know I was closing the gap fast. I made the pass for 3rd and was able to see 2nd, but there was just not enough time left, so I finished 3rd for a 3rd overall. I was pumped…that one wasn’t easy.
Once I got back to the truck things started to hurt…the less I moved the stiffer I got…3 hours of racing is tough….3 hours of JDay GP racing is gnarly, but I am pumped I got to do it. Thanks to all involved…dad…thanks for keeping me rolling. Mom, thanks for the motivation and the help at the start. Haley – best pit crew ever. My grandma and pops came over from Michigan to watch this race too…hope you had fun and thanks for all your help!!!
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| Photo: Art Pepin, www.offroadpaparazzi.com |
Thank you again to my sponsors…
Fly Racing – love the gear…used a lot of it today!
Kenda Tires – It rocks when you can show up to a race with new rubber.
Magical Gogo – The lubricant that lubrican #superfastgoodtime
Eks Brand goggles – I needed all the sets today
Panic Rev Ministries – my guardian angel was with me big time today
STS Motorsports – check out my bikes…Steve makes it happen every time
Renthal – Thanks for the chains & sprockets…especially in these sandy conditions
FMF Racing – power to the 5th
www.offroadpaparazzi.com thanks for the awesome pictures
Again thanks to my grandparents, here and in Austria!
Since you are still reading, here is another little news flash as a reward J I will be racing at the Erzberg Rodeo www.erzbergrodeo.at in Austria next June. This will be my first attempt at “Hard Enduro Racing”…and I think I picked the hardest one there is. More details to follow….
Thank you for reading, and more importantly, thank you for taking the next 20 seconds of your lives to share my blog with your friends!!!
This really means a lot.
Bring on 2015!! I’ll be ready.
Hunter “747” Neuwirth
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| Reviewing the start video |
