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Sand Flea For the first time the Kiwanis club up in Eureka were hosting a race on the beach in Eureka. People seemed pretty excited about the chance to race on the beach. My cousin had her wedding on Saturday so Brian and I drove to Eureka after the wedding and arrived at a friends, Bryan Dussell, who has been hiding out in Eureka for a couple of years. Brian was not racing since he broke his collarbone a couple of weeks before so he was just helping out with the pit duties for the race. When we got to the race track it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. The organizers smoothed out a motocross like track right off the start that was about a mile long. It was wide and smooth and everyone was excited for the race to start. I was riding the 450 at this race and Brian gave me the start drill for the four stroke. I didn't do it very well and got off to a bad jump off the line but was on the inside and snuck underneath most of the pack in the first corner and was in about fifth place. I tried to get to the front right away but made a couple mistakes so I decided to mellow out a bit and get comfortable in the sand. When we left the motocross track I was in fourth place. Bobby Myers was right in front of me and he was giving me trouble getting by because he had a hard time going straight in the sand. The leaders weren't too far ahead so I was patient and let an opportunity present itself. Halfway thru the lap I was in second and looking to get into the lead. I was able to make a pass near the end of the lap and gained a couple second cushion. The course started with the motocross section that had a bunch of good sweeping corners and a few small jumps. The sand was deep here and we had to be careful not to swap with all of the lines crossing. When we left the moto track there was a trail winding thru the dunes. The trail was only about five feet wide and was really whooped out. The corners were pretty tight making it nearly impossible to keep a good rhythm thru this section. This was the hardest part of the course and was just over a mile long. At the end of the tight section there was a check and then we came back along the beach. We would pin it along the beach for a bit, then duck into the dunes and whoops for awhile to break it up. This brought us back near the finish to where we wound thru some vegetation before heading out to another four mile lap. On the second lap I put my head down and tried to go fast but I was trying a bit too hard and got my bike hot. It was steaming a bit so I backed it down and finished the lap out without revving the bike too much. At the end of the lap I noticed that Craig Wesner was only about 15 seconds back so I tried to pick the pace up and this time my bike ran fine and was riding better in the sand. About this time I was catching up to a good number of lappers. It was almost funny too watch the lappers swap thru the whoops. In the sand it is best to keep a little speed and make smooth turns. When you are not able to do that your front end knifes and that is what a lot of the guys had happen. Halfway thru the two hour race I pulled in for gas and I had already burned a full tank in the deep sand. Brian gave me a quick fill up and told me that I had a big lead now. I was feeling good at this point and put in a good few last laps. I held it together to the finish ahead of Eric DuCray who came from the vet line for second. I hope that this race takes place again next year. Any chance that we have to race on the beach is an opportunity worth not passing up. |