Racing with pros today

[guenther]

Get to race with Bill Ballance, Scott Kilby and a couple others in a few hours at the 3rd annual Heartland Challenge:

http://www.heartlandchallenge.com/

It's a 10 hour XC endurance race that you can go iron man, team of 2 or team of 3 and it starts today at 1:30pm. It's on a farmer's land here in my home town and is my home track (not that this will help me at all, LOL). It gets pretty sketchy at night in the woods going all balls out so I'm just hoping these guys don't run me over. We got a 1/2" of rain yesterday and on top of the several inches over the past few weeks, the track is going to be seriously muddy in spots. The rain already washed out several parts the normal track and part of it is under water from a river over it's bank. Last night at the UTV races the rides were caked. Good times, good times.

[honda400ex2003]

Good luck, try to get some pics! enjoy the ride :D steve

[tri5ron]

Sounds like a Blast !

you mention that you hope they don't run you over.
This would indicate that you plan on somehow being out in front of them.
So you KNOW I gotta ask this question......





Have they promised to give you a Headstart or something ?
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/crackmeup.gif http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/rotflol.gif http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/hide.gif

Ride hard, Ride safe, and Keep the rubber side down
:D

[guenther]

I wish they would give me a head start! 10 hours of racing with a track that's over 8 miles long, I'm sure they lap me about a dozen times, LOL!

[400man]

are you going to ironman it or do you have a buddy to race with? a 10hr race, man that will be hell on your bike, thats like doing 5 gncc races back to back :o . better make sure you use some good oil in your motor lol.

[stoopidbot]

Balance is already back from his broken back/neck?

[416racer]

I know a guy up there now and he said ballance wasnt going to race? I seen he was signed up though

[guenther]

I don't think Ballance was there and if he was, I didn't see him. I saw a bunch of other factory guys and they were riding his machine and pulling his Ballance Team trailer.

Here's a LONG recap of the race for my team of 3. We had the GT Thunder race team in our class so we knew we weren't going to win. However we did get second. Oh, I guess I should divulge that there were only 2 teams in our class :D. It was about 92*, no wind and 100% humidity from all the rain with A LOT of mud in some hilly areas. The muddy areas in the woods had humongous ruts and everyone was getting high centered. All the rest of the track was in perfect condition and was a blast to ride. The hills actually got easier as the day went on because people were cutting their own paths to get around people that were stuck. Many of those paths turned out to be the main trail by the time it was all over.

You have to keep all your quads that aren't being run at the moment in an impound area and can only work on them when you are running that quad. No one can enter impound unless they are changing out quads. You are disqualified if you go in there and aren't the rider on the machine swapping. No chance to argue your case for any reason.

Our plan was to do 2 laps (20 minute laps) and then impounding and getting the next guy's quad and riding back to the pits so the next guy could saddle up. The first mechanical failure was my buddy's YFZ450 that took a crap and wouldn't run right so he impounded his and came out with the other guy's 450R for his last lap. Once that lap was over he hopped of the 450R and the 450R owner got on and took off. Next time around when I was done, the YFX450 buddy said he'd take mine for the rest of the lap and get the 450R out of impound and ride that. Well he came screaming by on mine (mods in my sig line) the next time instead of the 450R and even rode an extra lap because he liked it so much, LOL! He has the YZF450 and also a Can-Am Renegade 800 and his exact words when he got off my 400 were, "Holy crap, this f**king thing is a blast to ride. It's got tons of power down low, fast in the open and it's light and nimble. I know my times on this are faster than with my Yamaha or the 450R." He was smiling ear to ear, and so was I :D

Our next mechanical problem came when I bent a tie rod after clipping the corner of a tree. I knew I hit it but it didn't pull my bars hardly at all. I got to a spot where I could stop and it was bent GOOD. This is another great reason to have the CCP steering stabilizer because my wrists would have been jacked up. I finished the lap with barely being able to turn left and changed the tie rod out with a spare that I had. 19mm wrench, BFH and a sawzall did the trick.

At night we were running a 55W HID light that I added to my bars. I knew the stator output would be maxed out and if we didn't use my SPAL fan then we would probably be okay. Well, we needed to use the fan since it was getting hot from running it so hard for so long. The battery in it was the original from 2002 and I've never had a problem with it, ever, and I was hoping I wouldn't still. Wrong. I went out again at about the 7:30 mark (9:30pm) and ended up behind 2 people (1 adult male rider and a younger female rider) that were stuck up a hill. I hoped off to help them up because they were majorly high centered in huge deep rutts and no one could pass. The people behind me were letting me do all the work and just revving their motors :ermm: When I hoped back on my quad my battery was too weak to start. To make matters worse, I was at the bottom of a huge ravine so there was no hill to ride down and pop start :mad:. Several people yelled if I was okay and I would say, "Dead battery, send a track worker!" After about 30 minutes of no one coming by I decided to walk up the hill (used my flashlight from my special Tri5ron tool kit) and found that I was very close to the pits and impound. I couldn't see all the lights because of the huge hills and trees :ermm: I ran back to our pit and the guys turned to me and said, "Sit down and have a beer. If you'd got here 30 seconds earlier we'd try to fix it but now we're drinking." LOL! I sat down, had a beer and then headed back out with a track worker to pull me up the hill, which took about 10 minutes. He pop started me and I rode with only my stock lights and no fan for the rest of the lap to get through scoring. We officially called it quits at that point.

All in all it was a great time and the other guys carried my butt. The pros were amazing to watch. You could hear them coming up so fast and then they were just gone............ I always got the heck out of the way because I knew they'd run me over. I was extremely happy with the performance of my 400ex, especially since we beat on it sooo hard. When my YFZ450 buddy came by the pitts it was smoking a little because I think it was so hot. He didn't have the fan on at that point. We then ran the fan all during the day and at night if it would get hot in the wood, we would turn it on and immediately it would come out of it. We were trying to save a much juice as possible for the lights. That little fan makes a HUGE difference and I will testify to it. This morning when I started the quad up it just gave a tiny puff of white smoke and nothing after that. I might tear it down this winter if I see it smoking any more. We only have 2 races left this year anyway.

Well there you have it. A long recap of the Flat Beer Race Team's day. Now go get me a beer!!!

post some pics if you have them.

[Pappy]

Ballance was there and was registered as a competitor. His plans were to race only in the event of one of his team being injured. Thats a good sign, Bill is getting close to being back in action!

[guenther]

I thought I caught a glimpse of Ballance once before the start but then I didn't see him at the awards so I thought he wasn't there. I'd put up a picture of me after I got done but I'm sure it would get photoshopped into something that would burn my eyes out. I'm crazy but not stupid! :D

[honda400ex2003]

Congrats!!! sounds like a blast to rip like that for a day along side some of the pros. lets see pics, nothing will happen in my stable. steve

[guenther]

Pictures of the event can be found here on the forum:

http://www.atvriders.com/atvracing/heartland-challenge-atv-utv-endurance-race.html

Not one of me in there, not even at the awards as I didn't go to it. I was pooped out in my camper and one of my teammates picked up all 3 plaques. There was one of my teammate on my 400ex though.