Return to Off Road

It has been some time since I have done the ol race report. When was the last time? Was it Pikes? After Pikes I do tend to wish to kick back and drink beer for the remainder of the summer but this summer was a lot different than most for me. Now settled in back on the western slope of Colorado in my new dream shop. I figured I had better get back to the off road way. After all out here there are nearly no tracks and plenty of open country. And after all my roots are deep in the land of off road DIRTBIKES! So I pre-registered for the Chimney Rock enduro, less than two hours away in the middle of Utah’s endless desert. Much excitement and anticipation leading up to this as I had not raced an off road event in some years. My 10 year old CRF450X –Molly, didn’t need much dust knocked off as I have been flogging Molly on the closed dirt road hill climbs of the CHCA and even motocrossing her, head light and all (It sure pisses off them young track rats!). I prepped the ol red headed girl proper with new knobbies, mousse bibs and all. And then two nights before the race I split my face clean open on my dirtjumper pedal bike being a complete dumbass, 13 stitches and all. FUCK. “Well, as long as I can get my helmet on- I can still race it” I told myself. The night before the race I tried to slide a helmet over my forehead. No go. No way. So I ate a big plate of rice, steak and peppers and my usual couple of beers, and set my alarm clock. Laying in bed I had the great idea of taking my cheek pad out of my helmet and putting the helmet on and then re-inserting the pad- It worked. I was on row 12. With the extreme dusty conditions and over 80 rows I felt blessed by the moto gods for this and I knew I must take advantage so even though the first few miles were only a transfer section, I pinned it like Johnny mother fucking Cambell to the first special test getting in front of as many racers as possible. I put my head down, or actually up as my swollen eye lid was in the way and focused on focusing. At the end of the desert race/ enduro I had been fastest overall in 2 of the 6 special tests. Not bad, I thought being that over half of the near 300 entrants were desert race regulars welcoming the Colorado mountain enduro boys to race with them. I finished 2nd overall. More important to me is that my aging beer belly carcus was not that tired after the race. Maybe taking a few years off and having 13 stitches in the face is a good thing. That and a few beers!