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Wild Boar Enduro The Wild Boar Enduro hosted by the Timekeepers MC is the second round of the D-36 Enduro series and also the second enduro at Clear Creek. Billy Russell has won the race the last two years and brought back the perpetual boars head trophy that is at least a hundred pounds. I signed up on the minute behind Billy along with the usual Clear Creek crew and we took up all of minutes 13 and 14. Billy had Brian Jelich, Chris from Another Bike Shop, and Shawn Wilcox. I had Craig Hill, James, and his brother Chris. Four miles into the race there was a split that put us into some tight manzanita right off the bat. I was on a new 250 SX for the first time and it was working great. A mile into that section I had the end of my thumb on a manzinita bush and it ripped it back pretty hard, giving me a sprained thumb to deal with the rest of the day. I made it through with a score of two and started cruising down the ridge of Whoop de do hill. We jumped off the road and I looked at my computer and realized that we were still going to be tested and I should get on the gas. The enduro loop had just been graded after about twenty years of being ridden on and it was nice to not have the big bumps and puddles to deal with. I took another two at the next check. At the gas stop at mile fifteen Brian Spearle walks up with a big old grin and asked how I did. I told him two and two. He laughed and said he went in early and zeroed both of the checks. I knew at that point it would be nearly impossible to get four points back on Spearle the rest of the day at a local enduro. Billy had a good ride going 2-1 in the two checks. After gas we had some timekeeping and then got into a good test about 10 miles long. We rode some of the same section in the Quicksilver and I definitely felt better on my 250 than I did when I was on the 300. The new 250 is lighter and has a great motor and is a fun bike to ride. All the top guys carded a three at the check at the end of the special test. From there we timekept down into the hole where we had a reset. They had a check-in leaving the hole and I got caught a couple seconds early for a burn. I was mad becuase I knew I could ride at 24mph out of there and wouldn't be losing any more points on the loop. The third loop was easier than expected. We mainly stayed on main roads and rode at 19mph. We had a short test that wasn't too hard to zero. We came up to a reset and got caught talking and James pointed out that we were already 1:20 late. That made us have our own little special test to the next check but we were lucky enough to be able to catch back up to time. Spearle kept his early advantage all day and won the event and the large trophy with a score of three. Billy was second with a seven, and I finished third with a 9. Brian Jelich rode great all day and all his weekends at the creek paid off with a fourth overall. Dave Wood took fifth overall on his KTM 300. |