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Idaho Qualifer Big Al and I flew up to Boise on Friday and Brian and Billie Russell picked us up at the airport. We drove up to Dave and Elaine Harris's house who were nice enough to put up with us again this year. After we headed up to town to do some bike work, sign in and walk the grass track. By the time we were done with all that it was about 8 at night. G Man took the initiative and signed up Brian and I so all three of us could ride on the same minute. Unfortunately for G he came down with kidney stones during the week and instead of riding he hung out at the motor home trying to piss rocks. We didn't get on the same minute anyways as Brian and G were to be on minute 22 and I was on minute 23. It wasn't a big deal since G didn't ride and the dust would make riding with Brian not possible anyways. As usual we had an early special test on Saturday morning. I was riding a KTM 200 for the weekend and was a little worried I would be down on power but once in a test I knew that the 200 was a good bike for me on the weekend. We had three early test and both Brian and I felt good in the tests. This year the loop is the club's favorite and we headed southeast from the town of Idaho City. At the third check Brian and I saw that was no one was at the check. We looked down at our times and Brian only had about ten seconds to his minute was up so he quickly went through the check and I waited for a little bit before going through. Brian and I have a good trail pace and we were going pretty quickly so I knew quite a few people were going to be late at the check. After getting a refill on gas and food with the help of Rich Caselli and the Pearson crew. The next section was really neat. We had a bunch of tight singletrack that wound at the top of the mountains. The trail was tight and had a bunch of switchbacks. It was a fun section and very long, over an hour long between checks. It was hot and the long day and the heat seemed to be taking its toll on many riders. We stopped by the same gas stop but this time just had a few minutes for gas and we were on our way. We had a few more special tests then ended up at the grass track. The Boise Ridge Riders always do a great job on the grass track. They clear out over a mile of mountainside worth of stick and logs. It is a time consuming project that is well appreciated by all the riders. When the scores came out at the end of the day we saw that everyone had been railed by David Pearson. David won all of the tests, and many of them in convincing fashion. Kurt Caselli was second, followed by Brian, Nick Pearson, Brian Brown, and then myself. Billie Russell was in ninth after the first day right behind Dave Neumeister and Jon Beal. Day two was the same course as Day One but run in the opposite direction. It was a little bit cooler than on the first day which was a relief. The grass track was the first test that we did. I felt a lot better around the grass track on the second day, mostly because I was fresh when I got to it. We ripped off three test right away. When I got to the gas stop Brian said that his bike wasn't right and he thought it was a clutch problem. He had twelve minutes to replace the clutch, which Brian was thankful Caselli had with him. Twelve minutes isn't much time to change the clutch on the four stroke and Brian got the clutch apart then pushed it across the check then put it back together on the other side of the flag. We had the long section right after that so Brian would have a chance at making the next check. In the section we had a couple of special tests. One of them was the longest test of the weekend, also the most technical. The test was run over the tight switchback section of the trail. I had a good time during that test and overall was having fun during the race. Idaho is always one of the best races of the year and this year was no exception. At the end of the day we found out that David Pearson had another good day. He didn't win all the tests on day two though, Caselli was fastest on the grass track, but Pearson ruled the rest. On the long technical test he topped the field by over thirty seconds. Caselli rode to second again but Nick Pearson moved ahead of Brian for third overall on the weekend. Brian was fourth just ahead of Brian Brown. I finished sixth again and was happy with the way the weekend went. Seventh went to Paul Neff, then John Beal, Dave Neumeister, and Bille Russell. |