For many of us riding is just a hobby. It's something we do casually on the weekends with our friends in the desert or the woods. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we can jet to the track on a weekday and burn in a few laps. And if we're luckier still (or determined enough), we might enter a race or two in hopes to live out our secret dreams of being a big name rider. I'll admit, I've had those "how cool would it be..." dreams just like anyone else, but whether it was a fear of failing or a lack of know-how, I never entered a race. That all changed one afternoon after reading an e-mail from Jimmy Lewis.
Team 55; thanks Lori and Breanna...
Team 55; thanks Lori and Breanna for an awesome experience! (and for putting up with me!)
It was Friday, and I was getting ready to go ride for the weekend with my family and meet up with some guys and gals from the DirtRider.com forums. I signed into my e-mail before I left for one last check. There was a message in my inbox titled "Riding GH 6-Hour GP" from Lewis, Jimmy. I opened it thinking I had received it by mistake, when I saw the opening:
"Courtney, Would you like to ride on an all-girl team at the Glen Helen 6-hour GP on the Dirt Rider CRF250X from the torture test?"
My immediate reaction was, "WHAT?!" I wrote Jimmy back with my enthusiastic response explaining that I would love to be a part of the race as long as no one on my team minded that I had never raced before. The panic set in shortly after I clicked "send." I was going to race my first race a week from Sunday; it would be a Grand Prix at a track I've never been to, on a bike I've never ridden, for six hours, with two women whom I've never met. Oh, and they both hold national titles. Just what exactly was I getting myself into?
The women's classes started...
The women's classes started in the fourth row. We were next to some other pretty rad chicks.
Sometime over the weekend, I received an e-mail from Lori Conway, my new teammate. Lori is an expert desert racer with the number one plates to prove it. She is fast...actually, really fast, and clearly knows how to handle herself in competition. Her infinite amounts of knowledge really helped to calm me down before the race. She works for Honda R&D and was the person who orchestrated our whole team. We exchanged phone numbers and proceeded to chat about our riding backgrounds, the race, the course, and our team. Our other teammate was Breanna Jones, daughter of AMA Hall of Famer, Gary Jones. Breanna is also amazing on a bike: fast and consistent. She was the anchor of our team, and rightfully so; she rides Glen Helen often and knows her way around. Did I mention she's Miss Teen California? This girl is multi-talented on two opposite ends of the spectrum. I felt like I had some high expectations to meet.
The week leading up to the race flew by. Before I knew it, Sunday morning had come and I was jumping in the van at five a.m. to get to Glen Helen by seven. I was informed to look for a red F-250 and a black Sprinter van with the red Honda Wing painted on the side. I finally got to meet my teammates and see the bike I would be racing: a Pro Circuit-Honda CRF250X from the Dirt Rider Torture Test. We found our pit spot, signed in, got our transponder, and got ready to race.
While we were unloading, people stared at the new Honda Sprinter van; after all it is pretty cool. With its custom paint job, and plethora of tools and parts, it was difficult not to come and take a look. I started to get really nervous about the whole race: I didn't belong here among these talented women with a Honda van as my pit! It didn't help that Lori kept introducing me to people as "the girl Jimmy Lewis said could handle it." Now I knew I had some big shoes to fill. I tried to relax, but I couldn't help but wonder if the pros always felt so awkward having everyone gawk at their pits too.
At the riders' meeting, we were told that the course was a little over eight miles long and faster than previous years. It started with a short motocross section that led up into the hills for some ridge riding. From there, the course dropped down a steep down hill into a 'corkscrew' designed to slow riders down before attempting to climb a set of stairs up to a bridge. After the bridge there were a few short corners that set us up for a fairly steep climb back into the ridgelines. Once at the top, we would encounter silt beds, silty hills, and some single track through the trees. The trails opened up into some pavement followed by a few tunnels, hills, and pit row. At the opposite end of the pits, there were some flat-track turns, small jumps, and a sand wash. The course ended with the endurocross section, complete with logs and Earth-Mover tires, before restarting.
Watching Lori calmly navigate...
Watching Lori calmly navigate the corkscrew set some of my nerves aside.
The start was Le Man's style and the five teams in the women's class would start in the fourth row of the six. Lori decided to start, I would go second, and Breanna would go third; each of us would ride for about an hour and then we would switch. Lori had a great start and was a head of a lot of people coming into the first turn. Unfortunately, a rider in the row ahead of Lori crashed going over the first jump and broke his leg. By the time Lori came through, flaggers were waving the riders to the right of the jump and a bottleneck started to form. Things only became more congested at the corkscrew when a rider went down trying to climb the stairs. After that it was mayhem as almost every rider trying to attempt the stairs crashed or looped out: any run they had at the staircase was eliminated by the mass mounts of people trying to cram close together. I saw all of this in the first five minutes of the race; she hadn't even hit the logs yet! Just how am I supposed to stay calm when people better than me were crashing left and right?