Race Write-up from Callisburg, Texas (TORN series)
#1
03-25-2012, 02:57 AM
Race Write-up from Callisburg, Texas (TORN series)
Yesterday, the TORN series brought another exciting day of XC racing to Texas, and I'm so glad that I made the LONG trip to Callisburg to take part in it. Below is my race write-up.
WHERE:
Callisburg, TX…it’s a tiny town roughly 80 miles north of Forth Worth, TX. This track was on a beautiful property with lots of trees, small rolling hills and and green pasture areas. Admittedly, I almost skipped this race b/c it is a 4 hour and 45 minute drive from my house. Luckily, I have family residing less than an hour from this track and I was able to drive up/stay with family the night before (rather than driving up and back all in 1 day - which is what I normally do).
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was just gorgeous! It was sunny and blue skies with a high temp around 83 degrees during my afternoon race. Despite the picture perfect race day weather, mother nature did have one trick up her sleeve for our race...she drenched the area with approx 4 inches of rain earlier in the week. That rain left the creeks with plenty of water and the trails with plenty of a slippery mud in several places. The good news was the previous rain kept the dust down for the most part. The ATV track was 4 miles in length according to my quad's odometer and was mostly made up of tight wooded trails, creek crossings (several with fairly steep/slippery downhill/uphill routes) plus some rocky terrain thrown in occasionally to keep things interesting. Compared to the first TORN race this season, this race was much more technical.
QUAD SET-UP:
In the first TORN race this season, my KFX700 gave me fits b/c the carbs kept stalling out whenever I made a sharp left turn/braking manuever. Before this race, I made some changes to the carbs in hopes of resolving that issue.
OVER 40 B CLASS:
When we lined up, I counted a total of 9 quads in the Over 40 B class. Half of the line-up were 450cc sport quads including 1 Can Am, 2 Hondas, 1 Yamaha and 1 Cannondale 440 (I haven't seen one of these in forever!). The rest of the line up included 1 Yam. Raptor, 1 Yam. Banshee, 1 Polaris Scrambler 500 4wd plus my KFX 700. We are a motley crew to say the least.
PRACTICE LAPS:
I arrived at the track in the morning so that I could put in a few practice laps. On my first practice lap, I realized that my tires were filled with too much air for this track (rode too stiff over rocks, logs, etc.), so I went back to the truck and adjusted the air pressure before doing the 2nd practice lap. That adjustment felt alot better.
SURPRISE!!! While my quad ran ok on the 1st practice lap, it decided to act up for the 2nd practice lap by stalling out at the bottom of 2 downhill sections and taking long periods (15 to 30 seconds) to re-start. My recent carb changes apparently eliminated the left turn stalling problem, but it reappeared as a downhill stalling problem. I couldn't help but think about the potential of stalling out at the bottom of a steep/slippery creek crossing with several racers close on my tail. This concern was a big confidence buster, and I actually considered dropping out of the race for a split second. However, I wasn't about to spend $150 on fuel to drive all this way and then go home without a race experience. So I quickly decided to stick it out and see what happens during the race.
THE START:
When we lined up, I was third from the left and we were facing a short uphill run to the first turn (hard left turn). At the starting line, several of the racers in my class (including myself) were curious to know how much the track may have changed since we had our practice earlier that morning given the fact that the UTVs practiced on the same track following the ATV practice...of course, we would find out soon enuf.
Finally, the green flag when up and away we went. For this race, I was determined get a good start without pulling a big wheelie/letting off the throttle (like my last race)... so I feathered the throttle and then rolled into it. I'm happy to report that I won the holeshot and made the left turn in 1st place. However, my lead was short-lived b/c I made the turn too wide and then had to back off the throttle and try to work my way on the main trail before we came into the first wooded section. The next thing I know 5 quads flew past right me before I could find an opening. Doh!
LAP 1:
This ATV track began with some trails that winded thru a hilly pasture area and included a 1 foot drop off to keep you on your toes...then it led us into the tight, twisty wooded trails. While going thru those wooded trails, I found myself following the Scrambler 500 and that turned out to be a blessing in disguise!
LUCKY BREAK!!! Approx 1.5 miles into the 1st lap, I noticed that the Scrambler was slowing down and there was a bottleneck just ahead. As we got closer, I saw roughly a dozen sport quads trying to get unstuck from the muddy mess that leads to a short, sloping uphill trail. Apparently, the UTVs softened up this section alot since our practice this morning. There must've been a half-dozen quads on the main trail and no one was going anywhere. From what I recall, the lead quads were stuck/spinning their tires in a hopeless effort to get out of the deep/muddy ruts. A few other sport quads had tried to go around the bottleneck and make their own trail towards the right...however, they were stopped a few feet shy of the trail (not sure what obstacle kept them from moving forward). A few seconds later, I watched the Scrambler (which has 4wd) cut a new path between these 2 groups of quads. He made it fine, but it appeared he ran over some obstacle in the process. I decided to give that path a try and hope I could make it over whatever obstacle was there (which was hidden in thick brush/weeds). I never saw it, but it felt like a big log and made it over the obstacle and up the hill without incident.
After clearing that bottleneck, I had absolutely no idea what place I was in. However, I knew that whoever was left behind in the muddy quagmire would soon be free and coming after the Scrambler and me...so I didn't dare let up.
I closely followed the Scrambler as we made our way thru several wooded trails and in and out of slippery/muddy creek crossings. I recall one particular creek crossing had some water in the bottom along with several large, sharp rocks sticking out of the water. I was careful not to puncture a tire here.
LAPS 2 - 4:
Luckily, the course officials re-routed everyone on the 2nd lap so as to avoid the bottleneck area and another area that was pretty rutted up. I later found out that the Scrambler got a flat tire sometime after finishing the 1st lap and he pulled out of the race. That left me in good position, however I didn't know what position exactly. As I later found out, I was actually in 2nd place at this point in time.
Just when things seemed to be going my way, my carb troubles re-appeared and I started having several stall-outs at the bottom of slippery creek crossings on laps 2 thru 4. With each successive lap, I had more and more stalls...each stall taking at least 15 to 30 seconds to get re-started.
Near the end of the 4th and final lap, I stalled out at the bottom of a creek that had offered a choice of 2 routes that came out of the creek. A few racers passed me on the other route before I had a chance to get my quad started, but I had no idea which classes they were in. Soon thereafter, I was relieved to find the checkered flag.
RACE RESULTS:
When the results were posted at the track, I was happy to discover that I finished 3rd out of 9 in my class. As happy was I was with that finish and also taking the holeshot, I was frustrated to discover that I finished the race only 12 seconds behind the 2nd place finisher. He finished the last lap more than 2 minutes faster than my last lap...meaning that I could have easily finished in 2nd place if I had 1 fewer stall out on the last lap. Grrrr...but I know that is part of racing and so I won't dwell on that other than to let it motivate me to cure my carb problems before the next race. All in all, it was an exciting, fun-filled day of racing and well-worth the long drive!
I hope you enjoyed my write-up.
WHERE:
Callisburg, TX…it’s a tiny town roughly 80 miles north of Forth Worth, TX. This track was on a beautiful property with lots of trees, small rolling hills and and green pasture areas. Admittedly, I almost skipped this race b/c it is a 4 hour and 45 minute drive from my house. Luckily, I have family residing less than an hour from this track and I was able to drive up/stay with family the night before (rather than driving up and back all in 1 day - which is what I normally do).
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was just gorgeous! It was sunny and blue skies with a high temp around 83 degrees during my afternoon race. Despite the picture perfect race day weather, mother nature did have one trick up her sleeve for our race...she drenched the area with approx 4 inches of rain earlier in the week. That rain left the creeks with plenty of water and the trails with plenty of a slippery mud in several places. The good news was the previous rain kept the dust down for the most part. The ATV track was 4 miles in length according to my quad's odometer and was mostly made up of tight wooded trails, creek crossings (several with fairly steep/slippery downhill/uphill routes) plus some rocky terrain thrown in occasionally to keep things interesting. Compared to the first TORN race this season, this race was much more technical.
QUAD SET-UP:
In the first TORN race this season, my KFX700 gave me fits b/c the carbs kept stalling out whenever I made a sharp left turn/braking manuever. Before this race, I made some changes to the carbs in hopes of resolving that issue.
OVER 40 B CLASS:
When we lined up, I counted a total of 9 quads in the Over 40 B class. Half of the line-up were 450cc sport quads including 1 Can Am, 2 Hondas, 1 Yamaha and 1 Cannondale 440 (I haven't seen one of these in forever!). The rest of the line up included 1 Yam. Raptor, 1 Yam. Banshee, 1 Polaris Scrambler 500 4wd plus my KFX 700. We are a motley crew to say the least.
PRACTICE LAPS:
I arrived at the track in the morning so that I could put in a few practice laps. On my first practice lap, I realized that my tires were filled with too much air for this track (rode too stiff over rocks, logs, etc.), so I went back to the truck and adjusted the air pressure before doing the 2nd practice lap. That adjustment felt alot better.
SURPRISE!!! While my quad ran ok on the 1st practice lap, it decided to act up for the 2nd practice lap by stalling out at the bottom of 2 downhill sections and taking long periods (15 to 30 seconds) to re-start. My recent carb changes apparently eliminated the left turn stalling problem, but it reappeared as a downhill stalling problem. I couldn't help but think about the potential of stalling out at the bottom of a steep/slippery creek crossing with several racers close on my tail. This concern was a big confidence buster, and I actually considered dropping out of the race for a split second. However, I wasn't about to spend $150 on fuel to drive all this way and then go home without a race experience. So I quickly decided to stick it out and see what happens during the race.
THE START:
When we lined up, I was third from the left and we were facing a short uphill run to the first turn (hard left turn). At the starting line, several of the racers in my class (including myself) were curious to know how much the track may have changed since we had our practice earlier that morning given the fact that the UTVs practiced on the same track following the ATV practice...of course, we would find out soon enuf.
Finally, the green flag when up and away we went. For this race, I was determined get a good start without pulling a big wheelie/letting off the throttle (like my last race)... so I feathered the throttle and then rolled into it. I'm happy to report that I won the holeshot and made the left turn in 1st place. However, my lead was short-lived b/c I made the turn too wide and then had to back off the throttle and try to work my way on the main trail before we came into the first wooded section. The next thing I know 5 quads flew past right me before I could find an opening. Doh!
LAP 1:
This ATV track began with some trails that winded thru a hilly pasture area and included a 1 foot drop off to keep you on your toes...then it led us into the tight, twisty wooded trails. While going thru those wooded trails, I found myself following the Scrambler 500 and that turned out to be a blessing in disguise!
LUCKY BREAK!!! Approx 1.5 miles into the 1st lap, I noticed that the Scrambler was slowing down and there was a bottleneck just ahead. As we got closer, I saw roughly a dozen sport quads trying to get unstuck from the muddy mess that leads to a short, sloping uphill trail. Apparently, the UTVs softened up this section alot since our practice this morning. There must've been a half-dozen quads on the main trail and no one was going anywhere. From what I recall, the lead quads were stuck/spinning their tires in a hopeless effort to get out of the deep/muddy ruts. A few other sport quads had tried to go around the bottleneck and make their own trail towards the right...however, they were stopped a few feet shy of the trail (not sure what obstacle kept them from moving forward). A few seconds later, I watched the Scrambler (which has 4wd) cut a new path between these 2 groups of quads. He made it fine, but it appeared he ran over some obstacle in the process. I decided to give that path a try and hope I could make it over whatever obstacle was there (which was hidden in thick brush/weeds). I never saw it, but it felt like a big log and made it over the obstacle and up the hill without incident.
After clearing that bottleneck, I had absolutely no idea what place I was in. However, I knew that whoever was left behind in the muddy quagmire would soon be free and coming after the Scrambler and me...so I didn't dare let up.
I closely followed the Scrambler as we made our way thru several wooded trails and in and out of slippery/muddy creek crossings. I recall one particular creek crossing had some water in the bottom along with several large, sharp rocks sticking out of the water. I was careful not to puncture a tire here.
LAPS 2 - 4:
Luckily, the course officials re-routed everyone on the 2nd lap so as to avoid the bottleneck area and another area that was pretty rutted up. I later found out that the Scrambler got a flat tire sometime after finishing the 1st lap and he pulled out of the race. That left me in good position, however I didn't know what position exactly. As I later found out, I was actually in 2nd place at this point in time.
Just when things seemed to be going my way, my carb troubles re-appeared and I started having several stall-outs at the bottom of slippery creek crossings on laps 2 thru 4. With each successive lap, I had more and more stalls...each stall taking at least 15 to 30 seconds to get re-started.
Near the end of the 4th and final lap, I stalled out at the bottom of a creek that had offered a choice of 2 routes that came out of the creek. A few racers passed me on the other route before I had a chance to get my quad started, but I had no idea which classes they were in. Soon thereafter, I was relieved to find the checkered flag.
RACE RESULTS:
When the results were posted at the track, I was happy to discover that I finished 3rd out of 9 in my class. As happy was I was with that finish and also taking the holeshot, I was frustrated to discover that I finished the race only 12 seconds behind the 2nd place finisher. He finished the last lap more than 2 minutes faster than my last lap...meaning that I could have easily finished in 2nd place if I had 1 fewer stall out on the last lap. Grrrr...but I know that is part of racing and so I won't dwell on that other than to let it motivate me to cure my carb problems before the next race. All in all, it was an exciting, fun-filled day of racing and well-worth the long drive!
I hope you enjoyed my write-up.
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