2008
WORCS Round 4 Auburn/Kent, WA Race Report
I guess I shouldn’t
have closed the Round 3 race report with the phrase
“nothing can stop me now”. Luckily I left for
Washington 3 days early, because outside the small town
of Mina, Nevada, my Ford F350 decided to save gas
mileage by only running on 4 out of the 8 injectors.
I’m all for saving money, but at the top speed of 20 mph
downhill, I’d rather not do it this way. The last hill
I tried to get over resulted with the gas pedal all the
way to the floor, manually shifting to 1st
gear, and coming to a point that I slowly starting to
roll backwards….scary stuff pulling a 30’ race trailer.
After that, I was happy to get a Nevada State Trooper
escort for the next 8 miles. I doubt the trooper would
have offered had he known it would take over one hour to
travel those 8 miles, but a big thanks anyway. So, I
dropped the trailer in a RV park in Mina, and made a 3am
Wednesday morning 20mph drive to a Ford dealer in Carson
City, Nevada to get an urgent repair. Thanks to Capital
Ford and my Ford lifetime power train warranty, I was
heading back 180 miles south to Mina by 5pm to pick up
the race trailer and continue on my trip to Washington.
I learned Friday practice was cancelled, which allowed
me a couple hours of sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I
finally rolled into the Pacific Raceways track Friday at
11am, 5 days after I left Arizona.
The forecast promised
some crazy weather, and Mother Nature did just that.
Friday started with rain showers and cooler
temperatures. I did a track walk and then returned to
the trailer to prep the bikes. Anytime I race in the
Pacific Northwest, in regards to the weather, I hope for
the best and plan for the worst. The afternoon did
bring some snow fall, mixed with a few minutes of hail.
Typical of the Washington, if you don’t like the
weather, wait 5 minutes because it will change.
Saturday morning I went
out for the unclassified race to check out the track.
Since Friday practice was cancelled, this was the first
time I had ridden the MX track that is usually practiced
on Friday. The overall track was fun, a bit tight in
certain areas, but overall nothing that looked too
crazy. The course had 4 major areas, MX, woods,
clear-cut field (lots of tree stumps), and the edge of a
large stone-sorting pit.
Production A entries
was a bit smaller this race with a total of 25. This
was probably due to gas prices and the weather forecast
of rain and snow. I got a great start on this race, and
was fighting for the holeshot with a Yamaha when he spun
ou
t
and slid into the side of me. My front end rode up onto
his nerf bar and rear tire, causing the Kawasaki rider
behind me to tag my rear end. Being stuck between two
riders, I watched as the rest of the field went around
on both sides of us. Once free, I started the race from
dead last. I started picking off riders one by one,
everywhere but the one-lined off-road section. This was
the ‘follow the leader’ section of the track since new
lines had not formed yet. I had made my way into the
top 10 with one lap to go. I took the white flag and
headed out to the MX track for the last time. I was the
last rider to get the extra 5th lap before
the checker flag was flown. I caught a group of three
Prod A riders, and started to set-up for a pass. The
woods section was very narrow, but had a couple of new
lines that could be used if you could get a wheel on the
other rider. My opportunity came and I went for it.
Halfway through the pass, my front tire caught an
exposed root, turning my wheel to the right and up the
side of the bank. I believe they call it the barrel
roll, often seen on the Duke’s of Hazards, but I managed
to pull one off on a race quad. Being the last rider to
take the white flag meant there were no riders behind
me. Luckily for me the WORCS sweepers don’t heed to the
checker flag because I was pinned under my quad, and had
to wait for help. By the time I flipped the quad over
and got it started, the race was over. I had to suffice
to a 12th place finish in Production A. This
was enough to qualify for the Pro-Am, so I headed back
to the pits to prepare for tomorrow.
The
Pro-Am race was again full with 23 riders. I was 6th
off the line and settled in for the 90-minute race. The
single line sections and obstacles proved to be too much
for 20+ Pros and 20+ Pro-Am’s only a minute behind.
Bottlenecks were everywhere, holding up several groups
of 10 or more riders for several minutes at a time. The
amount of clear-cut stumps prevented cutting a new line
to go around the stuck rider, as some anxious riders
found out. The first time through the Pro section I
tried an alternate line to go around a stalled and stuck
rider, only to find myself hung up on the same log for
several minutes. By the time I was out of the Pro
section, I had lost a handful of positions. I was lucky
enough to do this same thing on another lap. The
remainder of the race was uneventful until my front
wheel decided to lock up due to a rock in the rotor in
the woods section. I jumped off, stood the quad
vertical, and proceeded to wiggle the tire back and
forth in hopes the rock would fall out. I did not have
the tools onboard to remove the wheel, and my pit was
too far from my current location to go get the needed
tools. Wiggling the tire back and forth is a trick that
usually works, but takes some patience. If putting a
round peg in a square hole isn’t hard enough, try
giggling the round peg out of the square hole, purely by
gravity. Since I can’t see the rock, rotating the tire
by feel is all I have. Once the rock dislodges, I
always hope to see it the size of a boulder. If I’m
going to lose 10 minutes in a race, the larger the size
of the rock somehow makes me feel better about it. Of
course, the size of the rock that usually falls out is
what most people would call a pebble. I was finally
underway after almost 10 minutes, but would be forced to
finish this race with an 18th place.
The next WORCS race I
will be attending is in Olympia, Washington. Mike
Kelley of Fife Sand & Gravel was nice enough to provide
storage and safety for my rig and bikes until I return
in August. A special thanks to the Kelley family for
their kindness and assistance to allow me to save the
time and expense of a 1400 mile round trip back home to
Arizona. I will be sure to wave to my new friends in
Mina, Nevada from my window seat of my Alaska Airlines
flight home with orange juice and pretzels.
Best Wishes,
Kramar
