My buddy was there and said it sucked big time. "Puddles" were seat deep in places. Knighter sucked in water and cooked his motor.
Joe, good to meet you in Florida. Thanks for saying hello SETRA doesn't do mid season promotions and that probably contributes to the fast speed of most classes down here. SETRA does produce many fast guys. Heck, half of KTM's 2010 east coast offroad team grew up racing SETRA (Bobbitt and Baylor). Sandlapper was awesome - by far the best race of the three I've done this week. I heard a rumor that it could be a national next year. I hope so because it's a great race that gets low attendance because it's overshadowed by all the bike week activities.
The last section was 10 miles of sugar sand whoops on single track. Very difficult, I busted my butt probably 8 times in that section. I'm not exceptionally skilled at riding whoops so I didn't really enjoy that section. I wanted more palmetto roots. I only recall a bunch of palmetto roots in the first section and I did well there. I know there were more in places but the 1st section seemed to have a bunch. I like 'em, just get up and let the suspension work. I followed Jordan Brandt on his BMW through some and I actually kept up for quite a while. They did run us right beside a wire fence in some places, all whooped out of course. I didn't really like racing right beside a fence but I guess they had to get out of water. Getting back to the pits after the race was the messiest part for some. The powerlines had a couple of good watery mud holes and we had came into the race that way so it was already cut up good. I was dry the entire race then coming back to the pits I ended up in water up to my tank. Soaked my boots. I was pissed. They only gave out trophies for 2 places in the A&B classes. They're known for that. I think that's wrong when you have many A&B classes that are 30 or more people. I won 250C. Gators are hard to come by so I'm glad to win but could have done much better in the final section. I saw one of our members out on the trail, the blue Husky 125 with number 144 on it. If I remember right you were smokin when you passed me. Nice riding. I wrecked waaay to much to say it was enjoyable. Last year's race was much longer and I liked it more. Seemed like they only kept the crappy sections for this year.
I was on row 32 and raced this one for the first time. I have to say I didn't really know what to expect besides what some others had told me. so when i got to the first section I was expecting the rough palmetto roots, stumps, leaves, etc. However I was not prepared for the nasty, swampy, mess I was about to ride in. Test 1 was decent, with a half/half mixture of palmetto roots and swamp. Test 2 and 3 were rough single track but dry so it made for some real good riding. Test 4 was the "A" section that the B and C riders got to skip out on. TRUST ME... you did not want to be in this section. I don't even have a clue why the NEPG thought they wanted to run this section. The whole thing was a swamp. Huge ruts and water holes that made it just seem endless. I was pretty clean with my fresh new Moose gear until that test. I still think i can smell the sewage smell of that water. Got to see David Knight buried and saying some expletive words of frustration. Test 5 was the longest i believe at 10 miles and like others have said it was dry beach sand whoops all single track. Sucked real bad b/c it was just not flowing trail. The only Pros to catch me throughout the first 4 tests were 33 Josh Gaitten, 34 Wally Palmer who was flying, 35 Brooks Hamilton, 36 Jimmy Jarrett. And then there was Glenn Kearney on minute 37 who caught me in the last test, i pulled over as he railed by me (on JJ rear wheel) and wham he nailed this tree so hard and just got up and took back off. Freakin amazing... Had a little incident with a palmetto stump halfway through the last test to slow my day down a bit but overall I had a great ride. Arod, I remember seeing some Huskies on the trail. I hope i was courtious to you as i passed. There were a few KTM's out there that didn't fair so well. Ha Ha
Just got home.......pics and video of most of 1st section to come. The worst was the last bit after the last check out to get back to pits. Water that looked 4 inches deep was 4 ft deep! Club had only 1 member there along the powerlines near the poop water treatment plant (yep.explains the foul smelling gear after) A few ft of ribon would have saved about 25 folks 4 stoke pricey top end jobs. Lots of swearing. I hit water that consumed the front end.....I kiled the engine.....water went past the seat. Drug it out and flipped it.......De comp lever pulled.cranked 10 sec.....flipped back..fired right up....YEAH Husky. Great job everyone.
I guess I just saw you at a reset, because I was on row 37 and I certainly didn't get ahead of you. Oh well, good race.
And this is the dry season, come to one of our enduros in August, last one I attended roughly 200 started less than 25 finished.
I did not even make it to the first check. Seized the 144 in the cold air pined in 6th gear under the power lines. Everything felt like it could be a great day on row 12. 144 Worked great while it lasted The thing was dripping spooge at croom the week before. keep you bikes stock! To cap the the day, I tore off a suspension bracket on the trailer in what they call a national bike race pit. River Ranch went well though, TC450 runs like a charm.
Need to explain picture. Was getting Knight's autograph, a unique one.....asked him to sign the back page cover ad for the 2009 BMW 450! He had some interesting things to say as he laughed and was a good sport about it. Tough to understand but alot of use of the "F Bomb"
Spooge is usually a result from too large a pilot jet. You were on the main. Raise main jet and drop pilot a tad. DR
