What is a camelback? Do i need a drink during the race? I am racing my first harescramble this weekend and just wanted to know. thanks.

 

a camel back is a smaller back pack type with a bag inside it that you fill with water, then it has a line comming out to your mouth, Probably very helpful if your mouth gets pretty dry, i've seen some for about $60-$170 and they are very light.

Also, some one said something about racing in eastern wa? i live in vancouver and am looking into getting into some racing, thanks a lot.

 

Wow, that was great for your first time and on a utility quad agaist sport bikes. I would say the utility bike did help you out at times in the rough stuff, didn't it. I'm 29 and when I can properly fix up my z400 I'm goint to try my luck also. Congradulations and good luck next time.

 

Sm0k3d- i sent you a PM ... re: washington racing

 

Well if it was anything like that GNCC I did last weekend, the utility quads had the distinct advantage! It was such a mudfest that the utilities owned that race.

 

So Mark how did it go Saturday? Expected a full report by now [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I think its great that you are getting into racing and age doesn't mean anything. I have done a few GNCC races in the novice class and the first one I tried...I got smoked by a 60yr old farmer in overalls on a Banshee. In the tech line I was chatting with him and he asked me what I rode. Back then it was a Warrior and when I told him that he said "my wife rides a warrior". It wasn't funny then but it is now.
One thing nobody mentioned in bike setup was a twist-throttle. I guess since you did so well it wasn't a factor for you but I had a tough time my first race. I noticed nobody was using a stock thumb throttle when I got there and after an hour or so I figured out why. My thumb just refused to work anymore. I don't like to quit so I tried using the palm of my hand and then even my elbow. Really! I refused to quit but it got pretty difficult without a working thumb. I finally stopped by a group of spectators and had one of them get my tool kit out. I asked him to loosen the throttle. After he did, I spun it around so that I would be pulling the throttle with my fingers instead of pushing it with a thumb. I thought I was a genius. This was at Loretta Lynns GNCC in Tennessee with some really serious uphills. The first hill I came too I hit WOT in 2nd gear. Worked pretty good until I got a little air and wanted to let off the gas. I couldn't! Letting off the gas meant letting go of the handlebar and that seemed like a bad idea. I screamed up the hill pretty much on one back wheel or the other and caught air off every rock. The "catchers" on the hill were running away from me and that unnerved me a little bit. The funny thing is they all thought "man, that guy can ride". All was well until I remembered I had to do that hill one more time in the race. The next time around I slowed at the bottom to see which route I wanted to take. There were some riders tangled on the hill to my left, straight was the steepest, and there was an "Expert" rider on a Banshee going to the right(orange sticker on helmet). I decided to follow him and all was good until he went over a log and got hi-centered.......I knew if I let off I was probably gonna tumble end over end down this hill. I slammed into the back of him and it pushed him far enough that his tires grabbed traction on the log and he had the presence of mind to gas it and go. I went up the hill slamming into the back of him over and over. It sounded terrible. When we got to the top he pulled over and motioned me by. I stopped next to him and said "no, you don't understand". He gave me a puzzled look and took off. I was hoping he wasn't gonna come looking for me after the race! I bought a twist throttle the next week.

 

Second Race Results for Summer Sweat Race (west of Little Sahara, Utah)

ATV Field size: 27
Loop Length: 13 mi. (Organizers said 16mi. but my GPS said 13)
Time: Min 1hr.
Dead Engine Start hare scramble format desert race
My Avg Speed: A little over 16 mph (GPS) for 26 miles
Temp: mid 70s - low 80s

The ATV class ran at approx. 9:30 a.m. after the 3 mini motorcycle classes. I met a couple of forum members there, 3TV and a young guy from West Jordan, Utah (Sandgod??) Anyway, they both beat me. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] Maybe they'll post their race impressions here too.

There were about 5 pros in the field on Saturday. I didn't really know they were pros until I looked in a few of the ATV magazines at published race results and saw their names in the pro class and even a picture of one.

Well, the holeshot was something to see. It was extremely dusty. I bought a V-Force and put Elka Elite shocks on it Thurs. night before the Saturday race. I didn't have time to adjust them so I rode them with the factory setup. Since I hadn't tinkered with my carbs' idle mixture, it took a couple of turns on the engine to fire it up. Needless to say, I was in the middle of the pack at the start right after the banner was dropped. The V-Force wheelied on takeoff so I had to let off the throttle to get the front end back on the ground. The first turn was about 60-70 yds away. After that the pack rode maybe another 60 yds before a pile up of about 4-6 bikes occurred due to limited sight distance because of dust.

Luckily I wasn't involved. I rode into the dust cloud slowly and had to stop because a bike blocked my path. The rider was on the ground. He got up and moved his bike and I took off...... I was leading the second pack!!!! Ah, but it didn't last long. After about a mile, the course went uphill and took a sharp left into the cedars where it zig-zagged up and down the hills. There were 4-5 riders right on my tail. The big V-Force and my inexperience (read slow speed) caused the pack to bunch up. Well, I missed a turn and the guy right behind me followed me. I stopped, he stopped. 3-4 bikes went zipping by never to be seen again. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I couldn't back up because the guy behind me didn't have reverse. So I went forward and found my way back on course and hammered as hard as I could.

This course was not as difficult or as long as the Cherry Creek Nat'l race last month. It was primarily equal parts huge whoops, and tight trees. There were two or three smooth (relatively speaking) stretches where you could open the throttle. But that was about it. Throw in a few steep climbs and descents, off-camber 150 degree turns, dry wash crossings (appropriately marked with danger pie plates, thanks!) and there you have Saturday's course.

Advice on dust:
Someone gave me advice on putting oil on the top and bottom of the goggles foam to trap the dust. I used PAM (vegetable oil) and it worked like a charm. Not one eye problem during the whole event. This was also helped by the fact that my sweat drenched the foam too.

Advice on fogging goggles:
I went to an auto parts store and bought some stuff that goes on interior glass and put a very small amount on the inside of my goggles - no fogging problems, even though I must have lost 3 pounds of sweat during the 1 1/2 hours I was on the course. My clothes were soaked.

Advice on Camelbacks:
A must-have. It saved my bacon. Everytime I felt I was fading, I'd take a few hits and feel refreshed. A definite must-have. I tried the hip reservoir vs. the backpack type because I didn't want to strap it to my body armor. It also lowered my center of gravity by wearing the water around my waist. Water weighs about 8 lb/gallon so the extra weight is probably negligible. I saw that most riders wearing the backpack type strapped them over the top of the back of the body armor. I saw one rider with the Camelback underneath.

The course ran through the pits so you had to ride slowly just slightly off idle and no passing was allowed. I didn't need to pit after one lap but would have after the second lap if I hadn't run out of time.

I felt my second lap was faster. I caught another rider about a mile before the finish. I was after him the whole second lap. Having him in front of me and being able to see him made me ride faster. One of the pros flatted the first lap. He fixed his flat and caught and passed me right after I passed the rider I was chasing. I finished 20th out of 27.

Things I learned:
The first lap I wasn't looking far enough ahead of the bike. This kept me from anticipating the terrain quickly enough, seeing more of the course, and picking a good line. I was focusing more on the next whoop, rock, obstacle, etc. directly in front of me instead of looking further ahead. Once I began looking further ahead, I could see the course better, and subsequently handled the obstacles better. I'm sure once I get more experience, I'll get better at it. I had to quickly guage whether the next whoop would require a speed increase, braking action, direction change or whatever. I could look ahead I could pass judgement on four whoops at a time instead of one at a time. It's hard to explain but looking farther ahead worked.

The whoops were way too big to jump. I learned to lighten the front end going in, throttle hard coming out, and let the suspension, my legs, and arms soak up the bottom. After a while, I got into kind of a rhythm. During the second lap, I became more comfortable with the suspension characteristics and was riding more confidently.

Observations:
I controlled the adrenaline much better. I was only close to hurting myself once or twice. I was in better shape than the first race and am not nearly as sore.

The bike ran flawlessly. More than enough power for my skill level. I checked the plugs last night, both were showing a rich condition. The air filter was clogged with dust in 3 large areas. But after taking it off to clean it, the area under it was spotless. The filter did it's job.

3TV may disagree, but I thought a smaller quad would have done better in the tight stuff than the V-Force. We talked afterwards and he thought his V-Force was great in the tight tree sections. It's probably once again my lack of skill. I plan on getting better by going to the local MX track and practicing.

Bike Damage:
Minimal. I dinged the skid plate over the rocks 3-4 times. The left front rim is dinged. I bottomed the front suspension once. Tie-rod ends are in good shape. I accidentally smacked the front wheel of a tipped over Raptor on the first lap in the tight trees. Scratched the h@ll out of my brand new plastic. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

What a blast. Lots of fun and nice people willing to help each other.

Next race is 8/9 in Eureka, UT. Then the High Desert National in Wells, NV in September.

Mark

 

Wasn't me there. My back has been in bad shape for three weeks. Good story. How'd 3TV do?? I don't have desert tires, just small mx tires and dune tires.. Hey if you're having fun, that's what counts...

 

Here is the race report from the one I ran:

There were 248 ATVs in the morning session and another 253 in the afternoon session. The weather was rainy and chilly... and the track was so muddy and slippery you couldn't steer on it very well... there were lots of people getting stuck and so there were lots of traffic jams. The creek crossings were a little tricky, but the hardest part of the whole thing was keeping the momentum going to get up some of the bigger hills.. Going down some of them also got pretty tricky because like I said before steering was a problem and keeping your quad going the direction you were pointed was just as big of a problem. You definitely did not want to touch your brakes coming off some of theose hills because if you did your back tires might end up trying to pass your front tires on the way down the hill (easy way to end up off your quad)... I rolled mine this way...

OK here is what they had to say about the race... I just pasted all of this from the GNCC website instead of typing it all out..

Millfield, OH - Rain has been a constant on the 2003 ATVA Grand National Cross Country tour, and when the skies opened up at the start of round seven of the series, the Wiseco John Penton GNCC in Ohio, the riders knew they were in for another tough one.


And what they got was more of the same: slick soil, mud stuck to their ATVs, and Bill Ballance taking the win. But even Ballance, the three-time series' champ, admitted it was tough. "This thing was awful, it was the worst one this year," said the Klotz/LRD/Maxxis/Moose-backed Ballance. "That's cross country racing though. You need to be there in all conditions."

Ballance has been this season, taking six overall wins in seven races. At the Wiseco John Penton GNCC, he battled the conditions, as well as Four-Stroke Tech's Chad DuVall, before winning again. "I told my mechanic before this started it was going to be a real long day. I'm just glad it's over," said DuVall. "Billy and I battled it out all day, even on the last lap. But the better man won today."

Ballance won the overall and the Pro Class, while DuVall claimed second overall and the Pro Production win on his Four-Stroke Tech/Maxxis/MSR-backed Honda. Third overall went to Open A Class rider Joe Kish, who rode the race of his life to beat a host of pro riders on adjusted time.

"We've had so much bad luck," said Joe's dad, Joe Sr. "It finally went our way. He got through a lot of bottle necks and made up time."

Kish's strong result was totally unexpected, even though the mud always makes the races a strange affair. Several top contenders, like Team Safari's Matt Smiley, East Coast ATV's Chris Borich and Duncan's Brad Page were nowhere to be seen at the finish of the race, all victims to the mud's brutal nature. Regardless, Kish has proven himself to be a contender when the going gets tough.

Yoshimura/Roll/Nac's/IMS-backed William Yokley grabbed the holeshot on his Suzuki LT-Z400, but before long Ballance had moved to the front on his two-stroke machine. His lead was short-lived too, when HMF's Johnny Gallagher, a noted mud specialist from Ohio, took the spot from him.

But Ballance wasn't worried about speed; he knew it was a race to just survive. At the end of the lap one he pulled into the pits for a change of gloves and goggles, while Gallagher sped by and tried another lap. His vision was soon gone though, and he took so much mud in his eyes on lap two that he eventually had to pull off and have his vision checked.

"When you get a scratch on your eye, and it's that bad, your eye just shuts down," said Gallagher's father John Sr. "He will be okay now, but it looked like we were going to have a really good weekend."

With clean equipment, Ballance got back to the front, while DuVall was left battling for third with Greg Trew, the East Coast ATV rider from Florida. Trew was riding well, coming up from a bad start to pass DuVall and Ballance in the pits on the second lap. Trew could have had his first career GNCC podium, or even a win, in the bag, but vision problems and bottlenecks (what else?) began to wreak havoc on him.

At one point, DuVall and Trew collided hard, and the hit was so bad that DuVall thought he had broken his leg. He was able to recover though, keep his vision clean and ride smart. He even tried to track down Ballance, and with new bottlenecks and lines opening up he had a shot at it.

"You would try a line that worked one lap, and then the next lap it was three feet deep," said Ballance. "These guys were all over me. It was back and forth."

Behind them, Sport Rider Polaris's Steve Holbert, a former winner of the Blackwater 100, moved from the second row of the pro start grid into third on the track. "The bottlenecks were bad, but as long as you kept your momentum up the rest of it was okay," said Holbert, another mud specialist. "On the second lap I got to a huge bottleneck and got out first, I think I made up my time there."

At the finish, DuVall decided to go into survival mode, allowing Ballance to take another win. Kish's strong riding put him into third overall based on time, while Holbert and Four-Stroke A rider Jeff Stoess rounded out the top five overall.

"I'm just glad it's over," said Ballance on the podium.


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ATV Amateur
Kish dishes it out

As mentioned above, Ohio's Joe Kish was the top GNCC Amateur at the John Penton, nailing an amazing 3rd overall out of the Open A class. That's just ridiculous, and once again congrats to Joe on one amazing ride!

Jeff Stoess also put in an incredible ride to claim fifth overall out of the Four-Stroke A class. If it weren't for Kish's incredible performance, we'd all be talking about Stoess right now. Actually we are. Congrats to Jeff too!

Kish basically ran away from his Open A mates, as Glen Coreill put in a strong ride to come from deep in the pack and get second in the class. But get this, he was nearly a half-hour down on Kish at the finish! Coreill rode well, Kish was just on another planet while everyone else was just at Millfield.

Brian Schmid was third in the class, while Todd Krupinski and Jarred Yoder rounded out the Open A top five.

Stoess also made the rest of his class look slow, even though they were actually quite fast. He beat second place Brian Binkley by 20 minutes, and Binkley was a strong 16th overall. This is a situation where the racers start to ask "What more do I have to do?"

Behind the Ohio-based Binkley came Ryan Wuebbling on the big Kawasaki V-Force 700 (he says the clearance, traction and power of the Kawi helped out bit in the mud). His 17th overall was his best result of the season.

Ryan Lane and Jared Graves, both Indiana boys, were fourth and fifth in the class.
The 250A class was topped by Todd DeMaree, who battled hard all day with Casey Fox to score the win. Fox was second and Dirk DeCesare third. Fourth and fifth went to Darrell Maples and Shane Wears. There were a ton of 250A quads that didn't make it to the finish in Ohio. Did we mention it was muddy yet?



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Morning
Kilby's a Killer
Well, if it was muddy, you can expect the utility quads to dominate, right? Well, yeah. Scott Kilby, who has been hawking the wares of four-wheel drive for a long time, used it to his advantage by winning the morning overall on his Team Green Kawasaki Prairie.
Scott also won the Utility Mod class over Trevor Rockwell and Ken Robey.

Second overall in the morning was John Wright, the four-stroke stock winner. Riding a Honda, the Ohio native scored his first win after a pair of third-place finishes earlier in the season. Team Green's Adam Howell was second on his V-Force 700, and Brian Robey was third on a Suzuki.

In the Utility Stock Class, Darrell Thomas took a win on his Honda, beating Dan McConnaughey and good old Mike Penland. The Utility Unlimited class was without points' leader Brock Parker, who separated both shoulders in a crash a few weeks back at Rausch Creek. In his absence, Doug Henke, William Howell and Mike Angry went 1-2-3.

Traci Lenig Cecco got back on the board in the Women's class at Millfield, taking the class win and eighth overall on her Alba Suzuki. Troy Racing's Stephanie Parton took second after leading early. Angel Atwell, Nicole Pennycook and Heidi Landon completed the ladies' top five.


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After a lot of ATV clean up time, we hope to see everyone back next weekend at the all-new Patriot GNCC in Virginia. It should be a fun and unique new event, so get ready to have fun. And maybe get a little dirty.
At least we're used to it.

We'll see you at the races.