Before the race I kept checking the weather and it showed rain starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. For an offroad event(especially a desert race) this is like a dream come true. But Friday night there wasn't any rain and the same goes for Saturday. Hopefully tomorrow's race we'll get some nice wet dirt. The course is going to have two loops with the first loop on the faster side (40-miles). Then on the second loop, they should be putting us in the mountains and I believe it's around 40-miles too.
The first thing I did, when I got up, was look out the window to see if it had rained! No such luck, but it was pretty windy which always helps. The race was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., so I headed out there early to get ready. When I got to the bomb, I rechecked the line I had chosen and felt like it was a good line. When the banner dropped, the bike fired on the first kick and I was off. At the end of the bomb (1 miles) I was leading. I was pretty pumped and was riding a good pace. About a mile later I was surprised to see Carl and David off to the right of me, when I was on the course, so I stared to pin it since they probably knew something I didn't. Well I was right, and Carl got by me! About 5 miles out, I took a bad line and was in some big whoops and David had a better line and snuck by. Now I was in third, but still close to Carl and David. At the 20-mile mark, I saw that David had passed Carl and I knew I needed to make a pass soon so David wouldn't check out. I was able to get by and follow David into the pits. We had a great pit stop and I was off. I left the pits about 2 seconds behind David, but got dusted out and backed off. This is basically what kept happening for the next 10-miles. I would get within a bike length, and then get dusted out. I would catch him in the rocks and tighter stuff, but it was too sketchy to stay close in the dust. Luckily the wind was blowing quite a bit and I was able to stay within 10-seconds. On one of the bigger, rocky downhills I finally made the pass and had some clean air. The next few miles I tried to put some time on him so he couldn't key off me, and then I made a bad mistake. I overshot a corner on a downhill, and when I was trying to get back on the course I clipped a rock and high sided and went down. I was ok, but when I was picking up the bike I saw I had broke my whole front brake lever off, and the brake hose. David was nice enough to ask if I was ok when he went by, and I told him I was good. I picked the bike up, but I was really struggling with no front brake. Not too far after this, we went across a road crossing and I was already 55-seconds behind (with about 20-miles left). I started to figure out how to ride again with no front brake and was pushing it pretty hard. I had a few close calls, but I wanted this win! I could see I was slowly catching back up, but it wasn't much. Before I knew it I could see the finish line. I finished the race 29-seconds back! As you could imagine I wasn't too happy. I forgot how hard it was to ride without a front brake, but I did the best I could.
Overall, I was really happy with my speed, fitness, and the way the bike worked. I made one mistake and it cost me the win. I really felt like I should've won, but that's the way racing is. I know I still have a great shot at the Championship and I'll just keep working hard and hopefully it will happen again.
Results (top 10 overall):
1st David Pearson
2nd Destry Abbott
3rd Carl Massenberg
4th Quinn Cody
5th David Kamo
6th Josh Morros
7th Matt Gosnell
8th Brett Saunders
9th Kellon Walch
10th Reese Onay
It was really cool to see Josh Morros (who's 15) put in a great ride for only his second H&H. He was also riding a Kawasaki 250F. Great ride!
I was pretty bummed for Ryan Abbatoye, who came down with mono and wasn't able to race. He's a local and I'm sure he would've done really well.
There were a lot of cool people that showed up to watch the H&H. Goat Breker owns a house not to far from here, and has always helped me out at the races, so he decided to bring his dad and some other friends. One of them was Stephen Gall (5X Australian MX Champ) who was really fast (and probably still is) and the trainer of James Stewart and Matt Maladin. I really enjoyed spending some time with him and hopefully we'll be able to work together here soon. I also had a lot of other friends show up and support me. Thanks guys!
My next race is this weekend for the second WORCS round at 395 Racetown. The WORCS races are always a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.
As far as the course goes, I thought they did a great job on the markings and the first part of the second loop. I wasn't a big fan of the high speed stuff and all the whoops, but I know they don't have a lot of land here to find new trails. The race was a little on the short side and it would be cool to see longer Nationals again. I was pretty bummed with the way the whole bomb run things went down though.
One thing about the AMA H&H series is the fact we have a different club for each race. It seems like some clubs will let you get away with a lot more then other ones. I just wish everyone would stick to the same rules as the AMA does. If the club tells some riders they don't have to funnel down into the bomb, like it was marked, then they should tell all of us we don't have to!
I'm working on updating my web site (I know it's about time), so be sure to check it out. I've just been to busy to do much, besides replying to my message board. I should have some new videos, pictures, and sponsors updated by next week. Thanks for checking in!
I attached a picture of my KX450F H&H race bike.
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