|
|
|
Coalinga Enduro We were able to make it to the first National Enduro at Coalinga this year. We normally do a lot of off season riding at the Creek and look forward to the endruo. It normally runs on good tight trails that we can't even find out there and is usually a good challenge. That is probably why attendance was a little bit low this year. For those of you that didn't go you missed out. The race was really good. It was a little slick in the morning but dried out some and didn't seem as tight as in years past. Brian and I were riding on the same minute because something usually happens to one of our computers that messes us up so we decided to have a backup plan. We also had a friend of ours, Mike Barenbek riding with us. I led off the start and started timekeeping. Not far after the 2.9 mile marker we were already struggling to stay on time so I let Brian by. We weaved in and out of the brush and rode the first special test. Brian tied for the best score of the test only dropping one point while I was a little behind dropping two. From there we had a little reset then got back on the gas for a good long section. Brian smoked the field and dropped a couple less points than everyone else through the section. Unfortunately he also had some problems when his shifter broke off. We thought it had fallen off and I was ready to give him mine since he had a good shot at the overall but we looked and saw that the bolt had broken off in the shaft. Brian continued on and finished the loop with four points lower than anyone else. Many riders ran out of gas on this loop including Doug Blackwell who packed up and went home, and Mike Lafferty who had a good long push back to the truck but didn't loose points while out of gas. We tried to fix Brian's shifter but couldn't so he went out on the second loop in third gear. He was riding amazingly well and truthfully I couldn't really even keep the pace with him even though he was stuck in third. Halfway through the loop he did his clutch in and that would mark the end of his race and the beginning of his adventure to get back to the truck. I finished out the second loop and got ready for the hard third loop. I didn't really feel that good on the first two loops but was looking forward to the third loop and planned on just riding as hard as I could throughout the loop. My computer had stopped working so I went out with Dave Wood who was on the minute in front of me. I had been late to most of the check ins on the day so I figured going out with Dave I may make it on time. There wasn't a check in and Dave let me by only to mess him up on a rocky uphill. I put my head down and rode hard trying not to make any mistakes. I started to ride better and got in the flow of things. I didn't see anyone after passing Dave and was hoping I was riding on the right trail. Ten miles later I made it into a check. I knew there was a reset after the check on the pavement road so I waited a few minutes, still didn't see anyone, then continued on. We went on some good trails behind Spanish Lake and the third loop was a lot of fun. Near the end of the loop I saw Hayden and two other riders and the check crew told me I was the first rider to come in starting from minute 9. The last couple of miles went onto the ramblers property and was a neat section I had never ridden before. Russ Pearson had the lowest score and took his first enduro race win. Randy Hawkins was second, followed by David Lyke, Barry Hawk and Mike Lafferty. Mike had problems all day. He ran out of gas again on the third loop and even rode some of the day with his choke stuck on. He wasn't happy after the race but stayed strong and salvaged a top five. Matt Stavish was sixth, then Robbie Jenks, Brian Spearle, Curt Wilcox, and then myself. My goal for the day was to get top 10 and I accomplished that with a tenth and will continue to improve while coming back. |