My ATV Race Write-up from Crafton, Tx (TORN Round 3)
#1
04-13-2014, 11:13 PM
My ATV Race Write-up from Crafton, Tx (TORN Round 3)
Yesterday, I drove to Crafton, Texas to compete in Round 3 of the 2014 TORN series (cross-country ATV races). Coming off my 2nd place finish in Round 2, I was feeling confident and ready for another strong finish. But you know what they say about counting your chickens... Below is my race write-up.
WHERE:
Crafton, TX…it’s a tiny town about an hour north of Ft. Worth. This property had a flat terrain with a nice mix of woods and pasture areas. Most of the trails were wide except for a few areas in the woods. The biggest challenges of this track included a dozen or so man-made jumps, one knarly whoops section that resembled moon craters and a jagged, rocky section that put your tires to the test.
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was warm (84 degrees at the start) and partly cloudy at our 2:30pm race time. The track was dry and dusty in some places, especially the large pasture area.
The ATV track length was 4 miles long according to my quad's odometer. After the scoring chute, the track took riders through a zig-zag pattern across a large open field that included several man-made jumps ranging from 1' to 4' tall. After exiting the pasture area, the riders entered some wooded trails with a rocky section followed by more wooded trails. About 1/2 way into the lap, the riders had to maneuver over a checker board whoops section that resembled "moon craters." There was just no smooth way across this section, at least not that I was able to find. The end of the lap featured some small table top MX jumps and tight turns around large berms (kinda looked like a kiddie MX track).
UTILITY CLASS:
There were only 4 quads in the Utility class. The line-up included Chris on the Polaris Scrambler 1000, Keith on the Can-am Renegade 1000, Fred on the Outlander 800 and me on the KFX700.
PRACTICE:
After making the 5 hour drive to Crafton, I quickly unloaded and made 4 practice laps. On my first lap, I noticed 2 things: the track was very bumpy (meaning I needed to adjust my tire air pressure) and there were several jumps. If you enjoy MX tracks, this is the track for you. If you hate MX jumps (like I do), this track is definitely not a favorite. MX is not my thing, so I was just hoping to roll the bigger jumps and try not to get run over.
THE START:
When we lined up, the utility class was approximately 80 feet to the first (left) turn. When the green flag went up, I got a lousy start (pulled a small wheelie and let off the throttle). I was in last place and immediately behind Fred as we made the first turn.
LAPS 1-2:
I was following Fred closely as we entered the short MX jump section. Because they watered this section recently, some of the turns were now slick and muddy. Rather than eat all of the mud coming off Fred's tires, I opted to hang back a few extra feet until we passed that section and entered the large pasture area. I caught up to Fred about half-way through the pasture area when suddenly he pulled to the side and let me go around. I was surprised he did that b/c I thought he was keeping a good pace upto that point.
After we exited the pasture, I made my way up the gentle uphill slope over the jagged, rocky section. Another 50 feet up the trail, I came to a section of trail with 2 large, flat boulders and 2 medium rocks across the trail just before making a left hand turn. As I ran over these rocks, I heard a loud "pop" and instantly thought that can't be good. I was hoping it was just my rim making contact with one of the rocks, but I soon realized it was more than that. As I made my way further down the wooded trails, I noticed my steering seemed a bit loosey/goosey and I accidentally tagged a boulder with my right front wheel (good thing I recently installed a steering stabilizer!). Luckily, the tire bounced off and I kept plowing down the trail. When I finished the first lap (in 3rd place), I could see Chris and Keith ahead of me. I pressed on in the open pasture area and tried to make up some ground. However, when I landed some of the jumps, I noticed my quad veered to one side.
As we entered the rocky section on lap 2, I could tell one of my rear tires must be low on air pressure as the rim was definitely hitting rocks. I looked down and could see my left rear tire looked low. By the time I made it to the moon crater area, my left tire was dragging and kicking up dirt...there was zero pressure in the tire and it was practically riding on the rim! Grrrr. It seemed impossible to finish the race at this point...no way I could see myself hitting the jumps in the large pasture with this flat tire.
I realized it was just a matter of time before Fred caught up and sure enough, Fred passed me during the last half of the 2nd lap. I waived him on as I was just crawling along at that point. When I finally got off my quad, I was able to see that the "pop" I heard on lap 1 was indeed a rock puncturing the (inside) side wall of my left rear tire. The tire slime seeping from the tire left a wet mark about the size of a half-dollar around the large gash. There was no hope of plugging it and continuing the race. After I finished lap 2, I headed back to the truck and hit the road for my long trip home.
RACE RESULTS:
Congrats to Chris for taking the win, Keith for placing 2nd and Fred for finishing 3rd. They say nice guys finish last...so I guess that proves I'm a very nice guy! As a closing thought, I would like to say I've had a number of flats over my years of XC racing (as recently as Round 1 of this season), but this was the first time that a flat kept me from racing to the checkered flag. Obviously, this was a very disappointing day for me that was only made worse by the fact that I drove 10 hours (round trip) for this. Hopefully I can turn things around at the next race.
I hope you enjoyed my race write-up.
WHERE:
Crafton, TX…it’s a tiny town about an hour north of Ft. Worth. This property had a flat terrain with a nice mix of woods and pasture areas. Most of the trails were wide except for a few areas in the woods. The biggest challenges of this track included a dozen or so man-made jumps, one knarly whoops section that resembled moon craters and a jagged, rocky section that put your tires to the test.
TRACK CONDITIONS:
The weather was warm (84 degrees at the start) and partly cloudy at our 2:30pm race time. The track was dry and dusty in some places, especially the large pasture area.
The ATV track length was 4 miles long according to my quad's odometer. After the scoring chute, the track took riders through a zig-zag pattern across a large open field that included several man-made jumps ranging from 1' to 4' tall. After exiting the pasture area, the riders entered some wooded trails with a rocky section followed by more wooded trails. About 1/2 way into the lap, the riders had to maneuver over a checker board whoops section that resembled "moon craters." There was just no smooth way across this section, at least not that I was able to find. The end of the lap featured some small table top MX jumps and tight turns around large berms (kinda looked like a kiddie MX track).
UTILITY CLASS:
There were only 4 quads in the Utility class. The line-up included Chris on the Polaris Scrambler 1000, Keith on the Can-am Renegade 1000, Fred on the Outlander 800 and me on the KFX700.
PRACTICE:
After making the 5 hour drive to Crafton, I quickly unloaded and made 4 practice laps. On my first lap, I noticed 2 things: the track was very bumpy (meaning I needed to adjust my tire air pressure) and there were several jumps. If you enjoy MX tracks, this is the track for you. If you hate MX jumps (like I do), this track is definitely not a favorite. MX is not my thing, so I was just hoping to roll the bigger jumps and try not to get run over.
THE START:
When we lined up, the utility class was approximately 80 feet to the first (left) turn. When the green flag went up, I got a lousy start (pulled a small wheelie and let off the throttle). I was in last place and immediately behind Fred as we made the first turn.
LAPS 1-2:
I was following Fred closely as we entered the short MX jump section. Because they watered this section recently, some of the turns were now slick and muddy. Rather than eat all of the mud coming off Fred's tires, I opted to hang back a few extra feet until we passed that section and entered the large pasture area. I caught up to Fred about half-way through the pasture area when suddenly he pulled to the side and let me go around. I was surprised he did that b/c I thought he was keeping a good pace upto that point.
After we exited the pasture, I made my way up the gentle uphill slope over the jagged, rocky section. Another 50 feet up the trail, I came to a section of trail with 2 large, flat boulders and 2 medium rocks across the trail just before making a left hand turn. As I ran over these rocks, I heard a loud "pop" and instantly thought that can't be good. I was hoping it was just my rim making contact with one of the rocks, but I soon realized it was more than that. As I made my way further down the wooded trails, I noticed my steering seemed a bit loosey/goosey and I accidentally tagged a boulder with my right front wheel (good thing I recently installed a steering stabilizer!). Luckily, the tire bounced off and I kept plowing down the trail. When I finished the first lap (in 3rd place), I could see Chris and Keith ahead of me. I pressed on in the open pasture area and tried to make up some ground. However, when I landed some of the jumps, I noticed my quad veered to one side.
As we entered the rocky section on lap 2, I could tell one of my rear tires must be low on air pressure as the rim was definitely hitting rocks. I looked down and could see my left rear tire looked low. By the time I made it to the moon crater area, my left tire was dragging and kicking up dirt...there was zero pressure in the tire and it was practically riding on the rim! Grrrr. It seemed impossible to finish the race at this point...no way I could see myself hitting the jumps in the large pasture with this flat tire.
I realized it was just a matter of time before Fred caught up and sure enough, Fred passed me during the last half of the 2nd lap. I waived him on as I was just crawling along at that point. When I finally got off my quad, I was able to see that the "pop" I heard on lap 1 was indeed a rock puncturing the (inside) side wall of my left rear tire. The tire slime seeping from the tire left a wet mark about the size of a half-dollar around the large gash. There was no hope of plugging it and continuing the race. After I finished lap 2, I headed back to the truck and hit the road for my long trip home.
RACE RESULTS:
Congrats to Chris for taking the win, Keith for placing 2nd and Fred for finishing 3rd. They say nice guys finish last...so I guess that proves I'm a very nice guy! As a closing thought, I would like to say I've had a number of flats over my years of XC racing (as recently as Round 1 of this season), but this was the first time that a flat kept me from racing to the checkered flag. Obviously, this was a very disappointing day for me that was only made worse by the fact that I drove 10 hours (round trip) for this. Hopefully I can turn things around at the next race.
I hope you enjoyed my race write-up.
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