Just when the season is winding down, my races are starting to get fun again. Starting a season hoping for top five in every race serves up a harsh let down when the first few attempts are just scratching the top twenty. The 4s are now 3s. The 3’s race is now no longer the limbo that it used to be. A race where the excitement of the day was yet to show up and most of the Master’s had already split the scene. With fields doubled from last year, the 3’s race is now on the card. Who am I kidding we are the purgatory between the big shows. The P1,2,3, where the fastest racers of the day throw down. And the 4’s races where they throw up from whatever they ate on a handup…raw bacon covered in sand, no thank you!

There can be no overestimating how important it is to have a great start. Mine was mediocre, that means you work your ass off to make the rest of the race better than mediocre. And I did. Knowing that the downhill corner that I was entering at just under 27mph was the only easy part for me, every other part of the course hurt. I loved that corner. Almost every lap there was traffic in the area and I just drifted by and carried a ton of speed into that awful little steep pitch with the paved nut punch finish. It was interesting to have some of my cleanest moments(that sweet corner) and ugliest technique (barely getting my bike over barriers and kicking them almost every time) in any race this season in the same day. I can’t stand barriers in the middle of a hill. Put them at the bottom or somewhere else please.

The leaders were in sight for half of the race and then they were not. Al, from the Cuttin Crew put in a blazing fast race and just rode away from me, didn’t really see it happen and then #$#@#$ he’s 15 seconds in front of me and I’m trying to use my ears for eyes in a vain attempt to bridge back up. Later I was told that on exiting my favorite corner at some point in the race, I made Conroy die a little bit on the inside. Sorry, but that is the greatest compliment my riding has garnered all year. So, Al was never caught by me and then Reigl’s brilliant start was equaled by his brilliant explosion. He was only a few seconds ahead in the last lap, and I dislocated my jaw with my pain face trying to catch him but could not. But I still posted up like it meant something.