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Posted by: MikeyBoyesq
Sunday was the last XC race before our summer break. Despite carb toubles, I'm glad I made this race. Like they say, its better to be lucky than good! lol Below is my race write-up.
SATURDAY PRACTICE
Because this race is the closest one to my house for the year (1.5 hour drive each way), I drove up on Saturday morning to do a few practice laps on the track with the plan to return again on Sunday morning for my race at 1 pm. After one lap, I discovered its a short course (just over 5 miles long), including 1.5 miles of nasty/slippery/slushy mud about 1 foot deep in most places! I was GRINNING ear to ear when I saw the muddy section because that meant it would be a utility quad's paradise on race day! lol Most of the trails were wide and flat and occasionally go thru a few tight woods and some wet creek crossings. Nothing too technical except for one fast run down a V shaped trail and a few odd placed stumps/roots in the trail here and there. There were only a few straight-aways, but they were not real long.
ALLTRAKS IN MUD
I was VERY happy with the traction I got in the mud with my alltraks! This is the first time I've ridden in real mud with these tires, and I was surprised at how good they hooked up and held the line on muddy turns, especially while in 4wd. I was planning to use my 26" mud runners for a mud race, but during practice I was thinking of using my all tracks so long as it didn't rain and make the track muddier/deeper.
RECENT MODS / JETTING TROUBLES
My practice laps on Saturday were the first chance I had to do a real test ride since I recently installed 36mm carbs, modified the stock airbox to fit on them and installed a custom (2 lbs lighter) flywheel. I tried to dial in the jetting all week, but never had a good place to go for a test ride except for short and slow test rides up my street. The good news is that my quad ran good from 0 to 1/4 throttle and again ran good at WOT on long straight-aways...but the bad news was it ran horrible in the mid range (the motor cut out during part throttle operation, especially between 1/4 and 3/4 throttle).
That night, I went home and spent 3.5 hours in the garage to prep my quad for the race and re-jet the carbs (removed a shim from each needle). I finally finished at 12:30 pm, but there was no time for a test ride to see if my carb problems were finally solved or not. So off to bed I went.
SUNDAY MORNING...NOT LOOKIN' GOOD!
As planned, my dad arrived at the house on Sunday morning. I was very excited that my dad was finally going to watch one of my XC races...he's watched me compete in an ATV rodeo about a year ago and also in some ATV rodeos when I was just a kid many moons ago (back when I had a 3 wheeler! lol), but this was the first XC race he's seen me race in. So I was feelin' a little pressure to NOT make a fool of myself in front of my dad! lol
Once my dad arrived, I fired up the quad to see if it ran ok following the re-jetting the night before. Within a few seconds of starting the motor, we noticed STEAM was coming out of the front grill from the radiator area! I thought OH SNAP, my dad woke up early on a Sunday morning and drove an hour to my house only to discover my radiator is leaking and I can't make it to the race! L
I removed the plastic side skirts and upon after further inspection, we determined there were no leaks in the radiator and the steam was caused by water dripping onto the hot radiator...it was probably just water left over from when I washed the quad Saturday afternoon. BIG RELIEF. However, I wasn't yet out of the woods b/c I still needed to take my quad for a test ride to see if the motor ran better or worse following the re-jetting from the night before...so I drove my quad up my street and it felt ok. So the race was on for me!
TRACK CHANGES
Not sure if it was the threat of additional rain in the forecast, but for whatever reason the race officials decided to cut out the 1.5 mile muddy section from our race course. Obviously, that was a HUGE disappointment as I was really looking forward to playing in the mud and passing some sporties! That left the track at just under 4 miles long...definitely one of the shortest XC tracks I've ever raced on.
UTE CLASS LINE-UP
When I got to the starting line, I counted a total of 9 utes. In addition to my Twin Peaks 800, there was a P700, a BF750, 2 Grizzly 700s, a Rincon 680, a Rancher 400 driven by Smokin' Willie, a Yam. Bruin 350 and (I think) a Yam. Big Bear. The Pro racer who normally competes with us this year on his Renegade was not there b/c he was competing (in the pro class) at the GNCC race this weekend. The other Outy 800s who normally compete this year were also absent at this race due to another ATV event. So that meant I should have a good chance at winning the holeshot and my dad would be there to watch! I was getting excited, but also a little nervous.
LAP 1
The green flag came up and off we went. My quad started ok, but my rear tires spun quite a bit in the grassy field as I left the line...it happened so fast its hard to know for sure, but I'm pretty sure I was tied with the P700 as we made the first turn together and then I took the lead by myself going into the second turn...at that point, I was feeling pretty good b/c my dad got to see me tie for the holeshot win and my quad was running fairly good so far (my motor stumbled slightly as I accelerated off the line, but it was not bad)!
After the first few turns, I led the ute class into a creek crossing filled with a foot of water. As soon as I hit the throttle to climb up the other side, that is when my carb jetting nightmares returned! The motor sputtered and I had no power...I was thinking, OH NO, NOT NOW!!! With 8 hungry utes close on my tail, now is not the time for the motor to sputter and almost die! The P700 right on my tail heard my motor cut out and he got excited for the chance to make a pass. A second later (felt like a whole minute), my motor finally started to accelerate and pulled me out of the creek and around the next turn. At that point, I realized I had not fixed the darn jetting problem and it was going to feel like a LONG RACE with my motor running so poorly!
I held the lead for the first half or so of lap 1, but I was eventually passed by a Griz 700 as we went thru a slippery/muddy creek crossing (the Grizz took a better line thru the creek) and also by the Rancher 400 who snuck up on me! lol I had just topped a short, steep hill and made a hard right turn that led to a bumpy, slightly off-camber straight-away along a fence line...when out of the blue, I was bumped on the right side by Smokin' Willie and his little Rancher 400. I was startled b/c I didn't realize he was that close to me at the time. We were side by side at this point, but I let him go by b/c my quad was still not running worth a darn and I didn't feel the confidence to challenge him for the lead.
LAPS 2 THRU 6
I think it was lap 2 when I got passed by the BF750 and I was really feeling frustrated by how bad my quad was running. I tried to hold off the BF750, but the motor decided not to cooperate. It seemed like every turn I made, I would hit the throttle and the motor would start cutting out...sounded horrible like I hit the rev limiter. When I found the occasionally straight-away, I hit WOT and the motor would sputter slightly for a ½ second and then run strong...I reached speeds up to 56 mph on one of the straights, but these bursts of speed were few and far between. Most of my race was 1/4 to 3/4 throttle sputtering nightmare!!! It ran so poorly that I considered pulling out of the race, but decided to stick it out b/c my jetting is too rich (as far as I can tell)...I'd rather be too rich b/c a lean condition may cause overheating and damage the motor.
Somewhere around Lap 4, my luck changed...I passed the BF750 who was pulled off the side of the trail on a straight-away near the parking lot area...he was talking with someone, so I thought he was just getting a drink of water, but I later found out he had a bent tie rod. So that put me back into 3rd place and I started to feel a little better about the race. I kept nursing the throttle thru all the sputtering and doing the best I could despite the circumstances. Mid way thru the last lap (Lap 6), I came up on a creek crossing and the Griz 700 that passed me early in the race was on the side of the trail with a broken ball joint on the left front tire! That was good news to me as I found myself in 2nd place.
THE FINISH
I ended the race in 2nd place about a minute or so behind Smokin' Willie. Following me was the other Griz 700 (who didn't break down), the Bruin 350 and the Rincon 680. I was happy to finish the race, but even happier that I didn't make a fool of myself with my dad watchin! lol Now I have 2 months to get my quad tuned and running good before the next race in August.
Hope you enjoyed the write-up!
Posted by: MikeyBoyesq
Thanx!
Posted by: mdebuck
sounds liek you did good considering all the troubles
