The Tweetybird Chronicles Round 3, Va. Championship Hare Scrambles Series, Budd's Creek, Budd’s Creek, Md.
The series moved to Budd’s Creek for the annual Blue-Gray Challenge Hare Scrambles. This was a series points-paying event for both Virginia and Maryland riders, and the site was the famous MX track. What Jonathan Beasley (the owner) does is kind of run this like a GNCC, in that you ride both the MX track and a woods course. It’s a treat for us old time MX’ers to ride the course again and usually the course is only as difficult as you make it which means for us slower guys (and the faster guys), it can be a lot of fun.
In the past, whenever we Virginians took on Maryland riders in Motocross or Hare Scrambles or whatever, they tended to whip us baaaad (after all, Travis Pastrana is a Maryland boy), but I believe our Hare Scrambles riders have turned the tables on Maryland, and I was looking forward to riding against some new talent.
For this race, Bobby (my son) and I invited our motorcycle buddy Randall (Malcolm Smith) Parker up from Wilmington, NC up for the race. Naturally, we had to insult his manhood and pick on him a little, since he only does one or two hare scrambles a year, but he was game and we made plans accordingly.
Those of you that have been following my adventures know that I had planned on putting heavier fork springs in this week and Randall had just gotten new handle bars and a tall seat kit installed on his bike, so we made plans to all meet on Saturday at Slade's raceway (scene of last week’s hare scrambles) for some practice.
Saturday turned in to be a beautiful day: we put in a good two hours of practice on the hare scrambles course; and we were stoked about riding Sunday’s hare scrambles as we headed back to Richmond for the night.
The Main
When we awoke Sunday morning, we realized that it had been raining most of the night—not a good sign. And, as we got closer to Budd’s Creek, Bobby kept pointing out all the standing water. At the track, we found out that it had poured for nine hours the night before. The course was a muddy mess; possibly made all the worse, as Jonathan had disced it up the day before.
However there was s a good turnout of riders and we were gung-ho to get going. If you remember, I had vowed not to ride two classes again (and torture myself for three hours), so I decided to just ride the Senior B (45 and older) and only torture myself for two hours. Randall signed up for the C Class of 201cc and up class (a huge class of 250’s and open class bikes). Bobby signed up for his usual class of 250B. Bobby really likes this course, even through he has had to deal with some stupid scoring problems on a couple of occasions, but the course really suits his riding style because it is so wide open. On tighter woods courses, he sometimes doesn’t do as well (but I’m convinced this has more to do with bike set-up than ability).
A neat thing was that the starting line was the actual starting line for the national mx races. Not so neat was that we were facing a straight away and course that was buried in about a foot of sloppy mud—the kind of mud that makes your front wheel go wherever it wants to and keeps the rear wheel tractionless (but, you better keep it spinning).
Another neat thing Jonathan does is give you barcodes for your helmet for scoring. It means the race results are posting within a half-hour or so after the race. Not so neat is the fact that if you want to cheat, you can line up with a class ahead of you and take off with them. At least in the GNCC, they give you color-coded stickers that identify your class.
Anyway, we watched the classes take off ahead of us—first all the AA and A classes and then Bobby’s 250B class. He put his Tweetybird Racing/Bob’s Wild Horse Tours/KTM Sportmotorcycles 250 EXC into second place in the first corner and by the second corner he’s gone!
On the starting line I pick the gate immediately to the left of the dog house—the same gate Kevin Windom had for the second moto of the 250GP last year—and you know how that turned out--he got the holeshot and the overall. They had just announced that Windom had won his first Supercross of the year last night. I see a pattern beginning to form here. What would Kevvin do in a situation like this? I start to go over my race strategy for this race in my mind. This is a live engine start, naturally, so my plan is to use second gear for the start (he would). Only the left side of the gate is going off, about 20 riders—the right side is another class and they go ahead of us—and I’m in the perfect position to hold the inside line in the first corner--just like Kevin did. I got the hole shot last week and like last week, my plan is for everyone else to fall down in the first corner (well, actually, a bunch of riders did fall down in Kevin's race). I’m daydreaming to myself, "this is a good plan", when the light goes green and the gate falls… and everyone takes off. The right side didn’t go first! I can’t believe it! I put my Tweetybird Racing/Bob’s School of Motorcycle Maintenance/ KTM Sportmotorcycles 200 EXC in gear and take off--but it doesn’t go anywhere--because of the mud on the concrete. Finally, I’m out into the mud and moving. I just keep the throttle pinned and head for the inside. I’m actually passing guys and gaining on the leaders who are approaching the first corner. By the time we get to the second corner, I’m in 7th place. We slip-slide around the course, I’m hating life because I’ve forgotten how to ride this stuff but then I remember the chapter from my book, "Bob’s School of Motorcycle Maintenance", on preparing your bike for mud and actually riding the mud. I quickly scan pages 234 through 267 in my head and get to the heading… "KIPD—Keep It Pinned Dummy". I take my hand off the throttle to put it on my chin while I’m thinking these deep thoughts. Wrong move, the front end knifes under and down I go. I keep the bike going and since I’m only one turn from the woods, and now know the secret of mud riding, I head down the trail ready to put my mud skills to the test.
Behind me, Randall and the 250+ class had taken off. Except that Randall isn’t in it, because he can tell which class is his (remember no bike numbers or color coordination). He gets up to the line with the next class when he realizes his error. He takes off at the tail end of both the 125 and 250 C Classes.
Randall says he could not stop laughing all the way around the course at all the carnage and littered bikes from the C riders. He’s passing downed riders left and right. He remembers his mud skills and he’s got the perfect bike—a KTM 300 EXC—for riding in this stuff.
The Course
The course was only marginally better than the MX track—but at least it’s rideable. Basically what it was today is an ATV course. Thank goodness, there wasn’t any tight stuff. But what there were some really bad bottom sections. Bikes were buried everywhere. We had three really bad bottom sections on the course. Once again, I recalled Robert Hawk’s advice "Don’t ride the ruts!" He said it to me again this morning. Sage advice. And I remembered my own advice "Keep your momentum!" I only got stuck once and that was on the last lap but it probably took me five or ten minutes to get out.
Randall caught me during the 2nd lap and from then on we pretty much rode together for the rest of the race. We were slicing and dicing, and swapping the lead and having a great time. Each lap, the MX track and the woods course got better and better as it dried out and we had more and more fun. The bottom sections never got better.
Results
I felt really good about how I had done, as the only guys that passed me were clearly faster and obviously A class riders. I finished 5th in the Senior B—my best finish ever! My buddy and distantly related relative, Tim Norris, finished 2nd in my class.
Randall did even better—considering the size of his class and where he had to start from—he finished 7th! You da man!
Bobby came in and said, "I own this course!" He was on the gas and passing A riders in front of him all day. He said he didn’t even ride hard and when he got the flag, he couldn’t believe the race was over. (This is when you know you are in the zone.) He won his class but more importantly, he came in 5th overall! Whoowee!
Next race is our club’s hare scrambles race—the Central Virginia 100. See you there!
Bob White
KTM 200 EXC
40 year-old desire in a 57 year-old body