Bellpuig, Spain April 20 2008
Spain's region of Catalunya was in a drought that had Olive and Grape farmers praying for rain. No worries, the FIM MXGP is coming to town and along with it relentless rains. The paddock was hopeful Saturday morning as rains had subsided and the track was perfect for timed practice and qualifying. There was really no previous measurement as to how I would stack up with the best 40+ riders in the world, but I was about to find out. I was getting inspiration from the First American story of Jim Pomeroy. Jim was the very first American to win a FIM World GP not far from here at the 1973 250 Spanish GP.
CAS Honda's semi had arrived Friday morning with CAS Manager Neil Prince pulling out a new 2008 450 CRF complete with CAS Monster Graphics and Leo Vince exhaust. Neil appointed Brit mechanic Steve to pitch in on the #63 Honda for the weekend. Steve quickly mounted the Ohlins suspension and R & D Powerbowl for the 9am Veterans timed practice. I had walked the track but was a little tentative on the 75ft. cliff drop off that was followed by a 100 footer that even had Mike Brown stiffen his suspension to handle the landing. I paced myself with another rider for the right speed dropping off the edge of the world! What a rush to make it! 20 turns, 10 jumps on the hilly 1 mile course made Bellpuig's track a blast to ride. I was a little shocked when I stopped into the mechanics area to have Glenn inform me that I was running around 10th! Every team had an ez-up with time monitor's that updated the quickest times which ran a little over 2 minutes. On top of the time sheets was Iven the Terrible. That is in terribly fast! Peter Iven retired from GP's just 4 years ago with consistent placing between 8-15th place and was running within a few seconds of a MX1 qualifying time! Thorpe was within a few tenths and I was about 6 seconds back. If you are still racing at 40 in Europe you will be racing against the young guys. Age brackets are limited. In the second session I was determined to improve and ran as high as 3rd before settling into 9th. This is just practice and at 6pm was the 30 min. qualifying session where all 50 Veterans would shoot for the top 30 and gate pick. Another 50 entries were denied as the class was limited to 50. Another pretty cool thing was at least 7 riders that I know of had represented their countries at the MX DeNations over the years. This included 2007 FIM 50+ Champion Tony Cooksley of New Zealand. Tony was recalling the last mud race that was this ugly at the 1987 Unadilla MX DeNations he was a member of. We both apparently have good fitness as we were both looking for more speed during the 30 min. qualifying. We both did 12 laps with my 12th lap being my quickest edging out Mr. Cooksley by a tenth of a second to qualify in 11th place. Gap to the leader had closed to 5 seconds so I had made some progress. It was a great relief to be in the program and was looking forward to running hard for the 20 minutes plus 2 laps on Sunday.
How do European tracks compare to the U.S.? FIM GP Motocross tracks require a 1500 meter length (1 mile) over about 20 turns. This is so TV cameras and cables can be managed. I had the good fortune of riding exhibition laps at National race ready tracks at Mt. Morris and Red Bud this last year to compare. US tracks may have a few more turns creating a slightly tighter course, but not a huge difference. The greatest difference is not between continents but between local tracks and fully prepped National and GP courses. Big events are heavily watered and deeply disked that create long multiple ruts through the turns and deep rough chop. Conditions like these are hard to find when preparing for a GP. I'll be making more trips to Glen Helen's REM track as it gets rough with the hilly terrain and disked track.
Sunday morning the Veterans were in the staging area listening to music over the PA which was kinda funny. I think it was Bob Marley "Don't Worry Be Happy" and with my 10th place lap times and the muddy conditions creating a crap shoot I had little choice but to follow the Rastafarian's advice and just have some fun. At 11am sharp, the horn sounded for the sighting lap. Just 4 riders opted to have a look at the brown slop. All I could think of was holeshot! Nearly pulled it off but Iven the Terrible held it on and plastered everyone with brown spackle. I made it through the 2nd lap running in the top 5. I was barely able to see, peeking out between the mud on the goggles when I lost traction at the beginning of one of the very steep uphills. It was like trying to stay on a greased pig! David Thorpe was a couple ruts over trying to re-start his Honda at the same time. I lost 3 laps wrestling the bike out of the rut on the side of the hill and getting it to a place where I could give it a good kick. I did finish, but out of the points. Prescription glasses is what I was protecting with tear offs over rolloffs. Between mud and fogging I couldn't see a thing.