Jimmy dicing with Yamaha rider...
Jimmy dicing with Yamaha rider Kevin Foley.
Since the Honda CRF450X is my long haul bike, I wanted to know how it works in every condition, so I decided to race it in the Industry Class at the GNCC. A legitimate excuse opposed to having to race the brutal 3-hour afternoon race. Basically the bike has been trail ridden a few times since its Dirt Rider 24-Hour test and had a service. Luckily I made friends with Pirelli's Jeff Adams while eyeing the new sand tire. See, Florida is all about sand and you can see when a sand tire is going to work. I could see I need this tire on the back of my CRF. Problem was that the Pirelli is only available in 19" sizes. No problem I brought the CRF250R along as a moto bike and I could steal the wheel from that. Traction!
My wife Heather was signed up in the women's class on our CRF250X and DR Publisher Sean Finley rolled up at the last minute, threw the 450X wheel on the back of the 250R, and signed up in the Industry class.
A Pirelli sand tire and the...
A Pirelli sand tire and the CRF450X was ready for Florida sand.
My race went really well; I was surprised at how well our stock California CRF X performed in the sand. I threw in four clicks of compression damping to both front and rear suspension and it worked great in the sand whoops without ever feeling wallowy. Sure it wasn't as light as the 250cc two-strokes, but it got the job done. In fact, on my first lap I worked my way into second place racing with Kevin Foley. He's won something like 200 amateur MX titles and rides a GNCC every year. Well, I got a few titles that aren't that impressive, too! So I was going to show him what's up.
We swapped the lead back and forth a few times on the first lap sizing up each other's speed. I had him covered in the really fast stuff or the few miles of single track they added to the mostly open trail sections. They had run a grater over a lot of the course from the quad race the day before so, during this first lap, it was mostly smooth. Then we competed the first lap and rejoined the course after the start area. It looked like a war zone and the whoops were winning the battle. Worse yet, Foley found another gear, got over the back of his YZ250 and took off. I decided it was going to be a survival race and went out of my way to pick smooth lines, hoping he'd bonk on energy later on.
The CRF X California model...
The CRF X California model was practically stealth at 82 decibels.
I was having a lot of fun in a sadistic way, sneaking up on guys on the whisper quiet CRF and then roosting away. The third lap was a bit more beat and the fourth was worse yet. "Shouldn't this be the last lap?" I thought. And then they showed the 2-lap sign. About halfway through that lap I heard someone on the gas behind me. And then a YZ250 goes blowing by, pounding through the whoops on the rear fender, just roosting. At first I thought it was Foley, but it wasn't. This guy was short and stalky, riding way too fast to be riding like that after four laps. He pulled away and completely demoralized me. I told myself it was just some guy sneaking in a little suspension testing on the course before the afternoon race, but it wasn't.
When I crossed the finish line in second place, I learned that Foley had run out of gas and the guy on the YZ was none other than Jan Hrejor, a Slovakian friend of Randy Hawkins who used to race the GNCC series in the mid 90's. He was over here on vacation and decided to race on one of Randy's bikes. Immediately I was looking for the AMA officials to see if Jan had his proper release from his federation and needed to know exactly what part of the industry he was working in. I've never seen Hawkins hire someone so quickly!
Publisher Sean Finley, with...
Publisher Sean Finley, with a last-minute race effort, finished 5th.
It didn't really matter that I got beat, but at least I didn't get beat by a girlsomething former quad racing phenom Sean Finley can't claim, even though he scored fifth place in the Industry class. Heather finished her first ever GNCC in sixth place in the women's class. Ad guy Damian Ercole was denied the chance at racing our KTM 85, but did a stellar job pitting us. All in all it was a pretty successful day and a truly amazing race to watch in the afternoon (Click here for results from the afternoon pro race). It made me want to head north to Georgia for next weeks' round. But first, I've got an Alligator to slay!