My Cannondale failed me (sort of) for the first time, but I'll get to that later.

This race went much better for me than Rd. 1, which I DNF'd due to a sprained knee. The knee was about 80-90% and feeling good and I was ready to race at my favorite place in our series, Goertz Ranch. The course was 8.8 miles with a lot of elevation changes, creek bottoms, high speed sections, more creek bottoms, whooped out straights, rooty uphill climbs, and did I mention creek bottoms? Not much tight stuff and was tailored to big bore bikes. A little rain during the week kept the track prepped with perfect traction, the dust away, and only 1 or 2 mud holes.

23 bikes lined up in my class which was a huge turn out again. Last year we averaged about 8 per race. I hear there were approx. 500 racers this weekend with about 25 making the trip from Monterey Mexico. That was way cool to see all them come up to ride our series. I was working the gate on Sat when they came in and one was driving a brand new 2002 Dodge 2500 Quad Cab which isn't even released here in America yet. Beautiful truck that I'll definitely be looking at next year.

Ok, on to the race. Dead engine start. Green flag flies, bike starts, and I can see I'm one of the first one's moving off the line. Got too excited and popped the clutch and conk, flame out. DANG! Panic mode sets in and I grab a hand full of throttle and push the button again and POP, backfire. DANG IT! (Not what I really said) Deep breath, relax, everyone in your class is already gone. Do it right and I'm off to a dead last start.

I go about a 1/4 mile and there is already a bottle neck. Someone went down in a corner and jammed everyone up. That gets me around 2-3 people. Most of the first lap is a cruise behind some slower riders, but gives me a chance to relax and calm my nerves. I've got plenty of time, it's a 2 hour race. I pick off some more riders by the end of lap one and I'm starting to feel good.

Lap 2 goes about the same. There are 2 sections I was doing most of my passing. One was a long straight that dropped into a creek and launches you out the other side. The famous Goertz creek jump. I would drag race down the straight and when the other riders would slow for the jump I was just keeping it pinned. Gotta love that Ohlins suspension. The other passing place was coming out of a creek section up this really whooped out uphill and on the other side had 2 lines to choose from, the longer smooth way to the left or the shorter whooped out way to the right. I would go right and just pin the throttle and stay on top of the whoops. Gotta love that Ohlins suspension.

Lap 3 was my best lap. Things finally opened up enough that I could really put my head down and charge. I passed more riders on this lap and felt better than I have at any point since last April. Bike is working awesome, I'm feeling great, and having a blast. Go through scoring and the pres. of our club (our club hosted the race) yells to me "your doing great, you've moved way up." Go to the pits to refuel (c'mon Cycra get that big tank ready) and loose one position while fueling. This is where the problems began.

I start lap 4 and get about a 1/2 mile out of the pits and the bike dies. What? I look down and the vent hose on the gas cap is twisted and pinched off. Get that straightened out and she fires back up. Off again through all the up and down hills and back into a fast section and sputter, cough, pop, cough, no power, sputter, (I'm thinking at this point I have overheated it and it went into safe mode) and the bike dies. CRAP! I'm pissed. Sit there shaking my head as another rider in my class goes by. "I don't want this piece of crap if it can't even finish 1 two hour race. The factory better have a fix for this. It's going back to the dealer first thing Tuesday morning. They better fix it. RAH, RAH, RAH" my venting goes on. I might as well limp it around this lap and at least get scored. At this point I've been stopped for only about 30 seconds. She fired back up again and seems to be at full power. I take it easy for a few miles to make sure and it only sputtered once more. By the end of the lap I'm back up to race pace and charging.

Lap 5 and everything is back to normal. Half way through the lap I catch back up to the last guy who had passed me. I'm giving it my all but by this point I (not the bike) had run out of gas and I just can't make that move to get back around him. Not without crashing my brains out anyway! We go through scoring and miss doing another lap by 2:00 exactly. Whew, I'm glad, I don't think I had another lap in me. I don't know where I finished, but I'm really happy with the way I rode. Overall it had been a great day.

Come to find out I had gone from 23rd to 9th, then lost 2 positions and finished 11th. 11th doesn't sound that great, but I'm stoked. I've never been this happy for an 11th place finish before. Checking my lap times I was 1 minute off the pace of the leaders. Take away the bad start, slow traffic to work through, and the small problem I had and I know I can run up front.

THE PROBLEM

Like I said, I thought I had overheated the bike, but then it ran fine the rest of the race. Thinking back after the race I had the problem right after I pitted. Then I remember I had to borrow about a gallon of gas out of a buddies gas can so I would have enough. Well, wouldn't you know he runs race gas in his 426 and I've been running 93 pump in mine. I think the initial shock (for lack of a better term) of the race gas to the sensors confused it for a bit. And after restarting the bike twice I think the computer compensated for it and started running right. So watch that race gas. My bike didn't like it. Anyone else out there running it in theirs?

Sorry this is so long, but I have to brag on my family.

On Saturday my wife (I can't tell you her age) and daughter (age 10) raced in their first race. My daughter raced her XR70 in the 60 C class and my wife raced her TTR125L in the Women's beginner class which also runs on the kids course. Both of them had only ridden 4 times to that point. I am so proud of both of them I'm beside myself. My daughter crashed in a mud hole in practice and didn't want to ride in the race. We told her to just go out there and have fun and trail ride and don't worry about "racing." She did just that and finished the whole 30 minute race. Not only that but she got 15th out of 16 and actually beat somebody! We were both so proud of her for getting back out there and accomplishing (finishing) what she set out to do. In my wife's race she got a last place start and worked her way up to 9th out of 12. I am so proud of her too, and she openly admits how much fun it was and how much she enjoyed the weekend. Now she's wanting to train and practice so she can go out there and "beat those other women." This was literally only their 5th ride ever. But the best part is having my family involved with me in the sport that I love and spending a wonderful weekend together. It was so much more fun for me and them to have us all participating. We are all looking forward to the next race. Heck, my wife wants to know when we can go practice!

So guy's get out there and buy your wife (or girlfriend) a bike and get them involved too, you'll be glad you did.

That's all for now.