My XC Race Write-up from Bridgeport, TX (TORN series round 2)
#1
03-24-2014, 01:52 PM
My XC Race Write-up from Bridgeport, TX (TORN series round 2)
Last Saturday, I drove to Bridgeport, Texas to compete in Round 2 of the 2014 TORN series (cross-country ATV races). I was excited to compete in this race b/c I was finally able to ride my KFX700 after it was down for motor work during the past 2 months. Below is my race write-up.
WHERE:
Bridgeport, TX…it’s a tiny town about 45 minutes north of Ft. Worth. This track had diverse terrain to conquer, including large pasture areas with lots of stutter bumps, twisty wooded trails, rocky areas to test your tires, small man-made jumps (that made for cool photo ops) and a fairly steep hill climb near the finish line. Most of the trails were wide and fast, just the way I like it! It reminded me of the Frost, TX race from the 2012 TORN season...another fast and fun track.
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was chilly (56 degrees) and overcast at our 2:30pm race time. The track was dry and dusty in some places. However, the morning weather forecast predicted a chance of thunderstorms around 3:45pm...so I was concerned about the chance of rain during this race.
The ATV track length was 4.2 miles long according to my quad's odometer. The track layout included plenty of wide, fast trails with bumps or tight turns being the only things to slow down the riders and the biggest challenges for this race was hanging on over the bumpy stuff and avoiding tire/rim damage in the rocky areas.
UTILITY CLASS:
There were 5 quads in the Utility class. The line-up included Chris R. on his new Polaris Scrambler 1000, Keith on his Can-am Renegade 1000, Chris H. on his Polaris Scrambler 850, Fred on his Outlander (800 or 1000cc?) and me on my KFX700.
PRACTICE:
After making the 4 and 1/2 hour drive to Bridgeport, I had sufficent time to get in 3 practice laps. On my first lap, I noticed 2 things...the track was extremely bumpy in many places and there were several points in the track where the rider could choose a trail on the left or right, both of which met up again further down the trail. To help absorb the bumps, I decided to lower my tire pressure after the first lap. This helped a lot, but also increased my chances of tire or rim damage over the sharp rocky areas. That was a trade-off that I was willing to make b/c this track had MUCH more fast, bumpy areas than jagged rocky terrain. As for the alternate trails, I took both during my practice laps to determine which ones seemed faster.
THE START:
When we lined up, the utility class was approximately 75 feet to the first turn, which was a large electric transmission pole. At this first turn, everyone had to make a 180 degree right hand turn. I was lined up 2nd from the right side of the line and sandwiched between two 1000cc 4x4's (Pol. Scrambler 1000 on my right and Renegade 1000 on my left). Being the smallest quad on the Utility class starting line, I kinda felt like I was on a kid's quad next to those big boys! )
Finally, the green flag went up and off we went. At the first turn, everyone seemed to reach the first turn at about the same time and Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) took the inside turn and came out first. I ducked in behind him and managed to pull out of the turn in 2nd, followed very closely by the rest of the pack.
LAP 1:
After the first turn, I tried to hang with Chris R. on the Scrambler 1000 as close as possible. However, this was tough due to the thick dust. Soon, we entered a large open pasture area. For this section, the racers zig-zagged around small trees and over several harsh bumps. I tried to hang with Chris R. as much as possible in this area, but the bumps made it a real challenge just to hang on to the bars.
In this pasture, we encountered a few man-made jumps about 1 to 2 feet tall. My heavy KFX is a lousy jumper and lands like a rock, so I usually roll over most jumps. However, I found these small jumps to be fun when I hit them at a moderate pace.
Just before exiting this pasture area, there was one bumpy straight-away that was longer than the others and I could hit 42 to 43 mph on my speedo before making the sharp right turn around the tree. Somehow, I was able to keep Chris R. within eyesight as we exited this pasture, but Keith (Renegade 1000) was following close on my heels.
Next, we entered the woods and had several forks in the track where riders could choose between two different trails...some alternate trails where very short and others ran for a 100 yards before meeting up with the other trail. At the 2 mile marker, we encountered one of these forks. I chose to go right and put the hammer down on the throttle to try to make some distance between me and Keith. A hundred yards later (give or take), I could see Keith on the other alternate trail and he was gaining ground on me. In fact, I just barely beat him to the point where the two trails meet up again. Based on this close call, I decided the left trail at the 2 mile marker was the faster route.
Soon, the trail turns rocky and there were several large rocks/small boulders strewn about the trail. I tried to ease up in this area because I didn't want risk tire/rim damage that might end my day of racing. Soon after the rocky area, we took a winding trail down a hill. The trail had a few offcambers, but nothing scary. However, it was covered with fine, loose gravel making it easy to blow past the turns as we wound our way down to the bottom of the hill.
Next, the trails took us over a flat and smooth area that resembled a dry lake bed. I hit 50 mph on this short stretch before making a hard left turn and then hitting a 2 foot jump and then turning right again towards a small pond. Soon after passing the pond, the trail ran up an embankment and crossed a dirt road, then dropped down about 10'. From this point, we hit the last section of woods which takes you to the final challenge of the lap...a large sand hill approximately 25' or 30' tall. I found this hill was no problem as long as you hit it with plenty of momentum...you didn't want to find yourself need to accelerate half-way up this loose sandy hill as traction could be a problem.
LAPS 2 - 5:
After topping big sand hill, I soon ran through the scoring shute. I looked into the large open field ahead of me and much to my surprise, I could see Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) in the distance. That was encouraging b/c I wasn't expecting to see Chris at anytime between the starting line and the finish line. As I continued racing through the pasture area, I could see Keith close behind me (maybe 100 feet or so)...so I continued to push onwards as fast as possible.
About half-way into lap 2, there was a small, dry creek crossing with a large, flat boulder at the bottom of the creek. Immediately after you climb out of the dry creek, the racer has to squeeze between 2 small trees. After lightly tagging the right tree during the first lap, I tried to avoid the right tree on this pass. However, I pulled a bit too far to the left and my front end suddenly rose up as my left front tire tried to ride up the tree! Luckily, my tire bounced off that tree and I was able to continue down the trail without further incident.
In laps 3 through 5, I could still see Keith close behind me in the open field. So I continued to press on hoping he wouldn't catch me.
RACE RESULTS:
Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) took the win, I finished in 2nd place, Keith (Renegade 1000) came in 3rd soon after I finished, followed soon thereafter by Chris H. (Scrambler 850) in 4th and Fred (Outlander) in 5th. Those guys had a funny story to tell. It seems that Chris H.'s seat broke loose during the race and he had to sit on it and/or hold it between his legs for the rest of the race to keep from losing it. Fred told how he suddenly lost all brakes during the race and had to do an evasive maneuver into the bushes to avoid hitting the back of Chris's Scrambler. The rest of the race, Fred putted around the course with no brakes at all. I really enjoyed my day of racing with this crazy bunch of Utility racers and look forward to the next one.
As always, I have to say a big THANK YOU to TORN for putting on another FUN event!
Hope you enjoyed the write-up!
WHERE:
Bridgeport, TX…it’s a tiny town about 45 minutes north of Ft. Worth. This track had diverse terrain to conquer, including large pasture areas with lots of stutter bumps, twisty wooded trails, rocky areas to test your tires, small man-made jumps (that made for cool photo ops) and a fairly steep hill climb near the finish line. Most of the trails were wide and fast, just the way I like it! It reminded me of the Frost, TX race from the 2012 TORN season...another fast and fun track.
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was chilly (56 degrees) and overcast at our 2:30pm race time. The track was dry and dusty in some places. However, the morning weather forecast predicted a chance of thunderstorms around 3:45pm...so I was concerned about the chance of rain during this race.
The ATV track length was 4.2 miles long according to my quad's odometer. The track layout included plenty of wide, fast trails with bumps or tight turns being the only things to slow down the riders and the biggest challenges for this race was hanging on over the bumpy stuff and avoiding tire/rim damage in the rocky areas.
UTILITY CLASS:
There were 5 quads in the Utility class. The line-up included Chris R. on his new Polaris Scrambler 1000, Keith on his Can-am Renegade 1000, Chris H. on his Polaris Scrambler 850, Fred on his Outlander (800 or 1000cc?) and me on my KFX700.
PRACTICE:
After making the 4 and 1/2 hour drive to Bridgeport, I had sufficent time to get in 3 practice laps. On my first lap, I noticed 2 things...the track was extremely bumpy in many places and there were several points in the track where the rider could choose a trail on the left or right, both of which met up again further down the trail. To help absorb the bumps, I decided to lower my tire pressure after the first lap. This helped a lot, but also increased my chances of tire or rim damage over the sharp rocky areas. That was a trade-off that I was willing to make b/c this track had MUCH more fast, bumpy areas than jagged rocky terrain. As for the alternate trails, I took both during my practice laps to determine which ones seemed faster.
THE START:
When we lined up, the utility class was approximately 75 feet to the first turn, which was a large electric transmission pole. At this first turn, everyone had to make a 180 degree right hand turn. I was lined up 2nd from the right side of the line and sandwiched between two 1000cc 4x4's (Pol. Scrambler 1000 on my right and Renegade 1000 on my left). Being the smallest quad on the Utility class starting line, I kinda felt like I was on a kid's quad next to those big boys! )
Finally, the green flag went up and off we went. At the first turn, everyone seemed to reach the first turn at about the same time and Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) took the inside turn and came out first. I ducked in behind him and managed to pull out of the turn in 2nd, followed very closely by the rest of the pack.
LAP 1:
After the first turn, I tried to hang with Chris R. on the Scrambler 1000 as close as possible. However, this was tough due to the thick dust. Soon, we entered a large open pasture area. For this section, the racers zig-zagged around small trees and over several harsh bumps. I tried to hang with Chris R. as much as possible in this area, but the bumps made it a real challenge just to hang on to the bars.
In this pasture, we encountered a few man-made jumps about 1 to 2 feet tall. My heavy KFX is a lousy jumper and lands like a rock, so I usually roll over most jumps. However, I found these small jumps to be fun when I hit them at a moderate pace.
Just before exiting this pasture area, there was one bumpy straight-away that was longer than the others and I could hit 42 to 43 mph on my speedo before making the sharp right turn around the tree. Somehow, I was able to keep Chris R. within eyesight as we exited this pasture, but Keith (Renegade 1000) was following close on my heels.
Next, we entered the woods and had several forks in the track where riders could choose between two different trails...some alternate trails where very short and others ran for a 100 yards before meeting up with the other trail. At the 2 mile marker, we encountered one of these forks. I chose to go right and put the hammer down on the throttle to try to make some distance between me and Keith. A hundred yards later (give or take), I could see Keith on the other alternate trail and he was gaining ground on me. In fact, I just barely beat him to the point where the two trails meet up again. Based on this close call, I decided the left trail at the 2 mile marker was the faster route.
Soon, the trail turns rocky and there were several large rocks/small boulders strewn about the trail. I tried to ease up in this area because I didn't want risk tire/rim damage that might end my day of racing. Soon after the rocky area, we took a winding trail down a hill. The trail had a few offcambers, but nothing scary. However, it was covered with fine, loose gravel making it easy to blow past the turns as we wound our way down to the bottom of the hill.
Next, the trails took us over a flat and smooth area that resembled a dry lake bed. I hit 50 mph on this short stretch before making a hard left turn and then hitting a 2 foot jump and then turning right again towards a small pond. Soon after passing the pond, the trail ran up an embankment and crossed a dirt road, then dropped down about 10'. From this point, we hit the last section of woods which takes you to the final challenge of the lap...a large sand hill approximately 25' or 30' tall. I found this hill was no problem as long as you hit it with plenty of momentum...you didn't want to find yourself need to accelerate half-way up this loose sandy hill as traction could be a problem.
LAPS 2 - 5:
After topping big sand hill, I soon ran through the scoring shute. I looked into the large open field ahead of me and much to my surprise, I could see Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) in the distance. That was encouraging b/c I wasn't expecting to see Chris at anytime between the starting line and the finish line. As I continued racing through the pasture area, I could see Keith close behind me (maybe 100 feet or so)...so I continued to push onwards as fast as possible.
About half-way into lap 2, there was a small, dry creek crossing with a large, flat boulder at the bottom of the creek. Immediately after you climb out of the dry creek, the racer has to squeeze between 2 small trees. After lightly tagging the right tree during the first lap, I tried to avoid the right tree on this pass. However, I pulled a bit too far to the left and my front end suddenly rose up as my left front tire tried to ride up the tree! Luckily, my tire bounced off that tree and I was able to continue down the trail without further incident.
In laps 3 through 5, I could still see Keith close behind me in the open field. So I continued to press on hoping he wouldn't catch me.
RACE RESULTS:
Chris R. (Scrambler 1000) took the win, I finished in 2nd place, Keith (Renegade 1000) came in 3rd soon after I finished, followed soon thereafter by Chris H. (Scrambler 850) in 4th and Fred (Outlander) in 5th. Those guys had a funny story to tell. It seems that Chris H.'s seat broke loose during the race and he had to sit on it and/or hold it between his legs for the rest of the race to keep from losing it. Fred told how he suddenly lost all brakes during the race and had to do an evasive maneuver into the bushes to avoid hitting the back of Chris's Scrambler. The rest of the race, Fred putted around the course with no brakes at all. I really enjoyed my day of racing with this crazy bunch of Utility racers and look forward to the next one.
As always, I have to say a big THANK YOU to TORN for putting on another FUN event!
Hope you enjoyed the write-up!
#3
03-24-2014, 03:51 PM
Thanks for the kudos. Yes, I agree that the lighter weight advantage of my KFX700 put me right up there with the 1000cc 4x4's as far as acceleration. The sprint from the starting line to the first turn was a good indication that I could keep up with them...at least from 0 to 75 feet. I recall that the Scrambler 1000 (the guy who won and started the race on my immediate right) left the starting line a tad early (right before the flag was waved) and I'm guessing that little advantage was the only reason he got to the first turn (slightly) ahead of me and the Renegade 1000 (on my immediate left)...it was a close race for the holeshot, that is for sure.
Of course, the KFX700 will be a disadvantage in a muddy XC race and I will probably be the last one in the utility class. LOL So we'll see how the rest of this year goes...hopefully we'll have more dry races than muddy races.
Of course, the KFX700 will be a disadvantage in a muddy XC race and I will probably be the last one in the utility class. LOL So we'll see how the rest of this year goes...hopefully we'll have more dry races than muddy races.
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