racerx573
04-19-2003, 03:34 PM
Well, we finished putting my quad together last night (4/18), because my shocks came that morning. I still didn’t have my nerf bars in yet, so I rigged my old ones on and used some custom nets made by Tom Barry’s dad. We finished the quad around 10:45 P.M. and my dad was like, “Well, aren’t you racing tomorrow?” and went and picked up the trailer around 11:15 P.M. This was definitely not planned since I had only ridden the quad for about 5 minutes around some trails near the house, nothing major though, just to see what it was like since I hadn’t ridden a quad in close to 6 months!! We threw an old ratted out chain on there, and cut out some white numbers from reflective tape since my number backgrounds still haven’t arrived. We decided not to load the trailer and waited ‘til the morning to load up. We woke up around 6 A.M. or so and hurriedly loaded everything, and off we were to Steel City for my first race, well first ride, of the YEAR. We pitted next to the Barrys and Kings. Practice rolled around and geared up, got on it, and got ready to go. I pulled up to the staging area and everyone was pretty surprised to see me since I told most of them I was not going to race yet. My quad also seemed to draw a lot of attention as well, all I heard all day was, “nice quad” from various people I didn’t even know, and all of the other racers. I waited for everyone else to go for practice so I sort of had some time for myself to get used to the new machine. I tried the uphills on the first lap and cased them, but it was not a problem with my new CR500 linkage/Custom Axis rear suspension set up. I got used to the machine fairly quick, and it felt like it hadn’t even been 6 months since I last rode. Of course when I got done with practice there were some adjustments to be made. I lowered my ride height pretty much all the way, turned my compression clicker to “1”, and slowed down my rebound a tad bit. First moto snuck up on us (we were 6th in the race order). I had 4th gate choice out of 6 other “A” Class Racers; Mark Vaia, Tom Barry, Gary King, Jeremy Hollern, and Patrick Porter. I lined up right next to the doghouse on the left side. I was more ready than ever! The gates dropped and away we went. I was about 5th outa the hole, and they started to close in from each side so I cut in sharp on the hard left inside, it was a pretty smart move according to my dad. Since we were gated with the “B” Class there was about 15 quads in our gate, and another 15 in “C” Class on the 2nd stagger. I pretty much held my own during the race, the top runners in B caught me and passed me, which I figured would happen (Doug, Eric Vaia, and Jimmy Artman). I almost lost it on the tabletop section next to Jimmy, good thing I saved it [somehow?!] or else Jimmy probly would have run me over!! I also had some shifting problems since I had some brand new boots on and I had trouble grabbing gears. For example I thought I was in 3rd hitting the uphills but was in 2nd and cased them every lap but the last. I finished the race with sore fingers, but not so much tired or having arm pump. During the break between motos I had heard talk of Gary and Mark hitting the one big double parallel to the tabletop section, so Doug and I went down and checked it out. It looked pretty easy and Tom said he was thinking about hitting it as well. The 2nd moto came, and I thought about trying it…the first lap I rolled it and checked it over. Then on the 2nd lap I grabber 4th and pinned it, and I made it just fine. So I continued to do it each remaining lap, but in 3rd gear instead. Other than hitting the double, it was a repeat of the first moto. In the end I went 5-5 for 5th because Porter broke down and ended up leaving. I wasn’t expecting to do exceptional, but I did do well for it being my first time to ride it. It was also great to see all my racing buds and to have that great feeling you get at the races! Until next race, I’m done..** -Jason #73