SHORT VIEW OF

JIMMY JACK ENDURO

By

Uwe Hale

Ok for those that don't like stories, we got a bunch of first places. Yeehaaww!

Everett(KX300) cleaned up Open C with a score of 55, Keith Grimm(89 CR250) got a 52 which appeared good enough for C overall until one of the Hogan kids turned in a 38 from the 16/Under Large Wheel (KX100) class. Keith was happy settling with 1st in 250C. One of Jim Cooks 2 sons, Brandon, picked up 1st in 200C on a GasGas200 with a 59 to give our group a C Novice sweep. I got 1st in 200 C Expert on my EC200 with a score of 59. Brandon beat me on tie breakers(dang kids).

The rest of our group, Scott Wilson(KLX250), Dave Dude(YZ250), Robert Elliot(CR500), Jim Cook(GasGas250) got stuck in the mud or helped others out of the mud or were going nuts out there. Mark Nelson finished with a 119 or something. Josh Cook got 2nd in 250C on his GG 250. One of Jim's buds, Stewart, probably did pretty good with his GG250 judging from how quickly he passed me. Robert's son, Heath, finished but I don't remember how he did. Did I forget anyone?

For those that want the gritty details, here we go.

We all pre-registered months ago and got on minutes 2, 3, and 4. Jim learned his lesson about the advantages of early minutes during last years mud run when he got a first place finish riding on minute 3.

Josh, Brandon, Everett, Keith and me take off at 8:02. The course takes us down a couple of roads from the campground start to a known control at mile 3. Then the speed gets bumped up to 30mph for the first test section. Even with all the rain we had on Saturday, the course doesn't seem that bad. I'm running behind Keith when we come across the minute 1 riders. Since we are trying to keep 30mph, we don't have any time to waste on passing. The next turn where the min 1 guy, keith, and me are together, I lay on the horn. I think it startled Keith as much as the other guy because I take the inside line and pass both. The first check is a tie-breaker at 6.5 and I card a 5 something. Not too bad so far.

A reset and speed change to 18mph gets me back on time. Now we are in the meat of what enduros are about. The course gets to lower elevation and the mud becomes slimier and more frequent. And if that ain't enough, they through in the occasional rock field. The GasGas just soaks it all up and my worries about deflecting off slimy rocks soon disappear. I test out the traction of a couple of big puddles and find that they have solid bottoms and the S12 rear hooks right up. I think about what those puddles are going to look like for the later minutes and just grin about our row selection. The course is well marked, the ruts shallow, and I'm having me a good ol'time.

I catch back up to Josh only because we are on a fast road and having to keep time. I like running hot so I pass Josh and haul butt, eventually building up a 4 minute lead. I start riding the possibles. I go real slow, peeking around the turns and when I see that there aren't any checks, I wick it up and haul butt for another couple tenths of a mile. Eventually I see some red and white through the trees. I stop and focus and sure enough it's the r&w sign of a secret check. I do a U-turn and go back up the trail(Yes, I rode off the trail) to a more open area to wait. Brandon and me sit for about 4 minutes until Josh comes up with the rest of our minute in tow. Only after he passes and goes right into the check do I realize that my time differential on the computer is off due to my u-turn (wrong mileage) and I should have been looking at the clock instead. I enter the check 45 seconds into my minute. That could have been a stupid point on a good day but doesn't matter much in the mud.

That was the last check I remember. Of course the bike was harder to control in the mud so I wacked more trees than I should have, fell down more than I should have, lost more plastic and got more bruises than I should have. The scary moments increased in frequency. Stuff like hitting top gear down a straight and then when you go to turn, the bike keeps going straight towards the trees. That happened too often. Gotta be REALLY REALLY careful with the front brake. Another spode moment was when I was in front of Everett and saw the rider in front of me go around a turn and come back real close to the trail I'm on. I see an opening and think 'shortcut'. Somehow a limb or something snagged my brake lever and brought me to an instant halt. Then I see Everett go by 2 feet in front of me by not taking the shortcut. Sometimes it don't pay...

After one of my crashes, the forks got twisted in the 3x clamps. I noticed earlier the bike seemed to drift to the left all the time. I figured it was just me not being used to the crooked bars. So at one of the known controls I had about a minute. I was debating whether to take the time to undo the clamps or just continue. After thinking about how many times I went down due to the strange handling, I decided to fix it. I undo the fanny pack, open it and grab the handy little toolset. The one that comes in the yellow plastic clip holder you see in the mags. I insert the hex bit in the ratchet, put in on the 3x clamp bolt and ... STRIP. That ratchet ain't worth crap. Back into the fanny pack to get a real allen key while I notice the seconds count down. I straighten the forks and am still tightening when the row takes off. I get out of there about 40 seconds late but the straight bars feel so much better.

I feel like I'm going pretty quick and I do catch Everett when he dropped his bike. But I never catch up to the rest of the group. Kinda strange considering I caught them earlier in the day when I didn't think I was going as fast as I am now. The bike still feels squirrely but I attribute that to the mud. This is where Everett passed me on that shortcut. I end up the last of our row to make the last check. Yeah, finished.

I compliment the check workers (Carla and Barry Franklin) on the course, how well marked it is and stuff. They ask me about the mud and I tell them that it wasn't really any problem. Of course I didn't know how bad the later minutes had it.

I pick Cindy up on way back at the long course gas stop. She was hanging out with Josh's support crew. Riding back to the truck with Cindy on the back of the bike I notice that the bike is really wobbling bad. I assume it's just the ruts in the ground. I load the bike in the back of the truck and as I lift the rear to stick it in the corner I notice how loose the rear feels. I look down to see one spoke backed out and stuck in position. I check the rest and sure enough, every single one of the spokes had come loose. The brake side was real loose but the sprocket side spokes were loose too. I could wobble the entire rear wheel back and forth several inches. That definitely explains the weird handling and crashes I suffered through. At least it's a good excuse for Keith, Everett, and Brandon beating me. Yeah I know, but it's the only excuse I have and I'm sticking with it.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the empty handed thing. So we're done before noon. I'm in first place so I decide to stick around for the trophy presentation. Let me explain something about the expert classes real quick. They are short course classes like the C except you don't get bumped up to B if you do well. Basically it's for A and B riders that don't want to do the long course anymore. TSCEC figured that those people (and the A riders) already have plenty of trophies. So they give out little stick-on placards and then at the end of the season you get one huge plague to put all the placards on. Sounds good - in theory!

So around 15:30 they finally honk the horn for the protest period followed by another honk for the trophy presentation 15 minutes later. So after waiting around in the cold, damp campgrounds for 4 hours, they start the trophy presentation off by saying that they forgot the placards for the A, expert and other placard classes and they would mail them to us. My jaw dropped and I suddenly forgot how cold it was due to my blood starting to boil. I just turned away grumbling, got in the truck and left. I'm still pissed about having to wait for nothing. Couldn't they have announced that earlier? (Editors note: The Trailblazers had trophies for all classes so if Uwe would have waited he would have gotten a trophy – and I was the one that forgot to bring the TSCEC plates). I wish they would just make it a policy to mail those out all the time anyway because it's pretty embarrassing to trophy and then go up in front of the crowd and get a little placard while your buddies are getting hernias from their hardware.

Enough ranting.

Still reading??? Consider yourself a die-hard enduro fan.

Of course thanks go to Jim Cook at Smackover Motorsports for the GasGas and parts/accessories support. Thanks to LCS, especially Jack, for all the mechanical help. They'll be truing my back rim and spokes this week. Please support those that support us and check out the URL links below.

Uwe Hale - 89 YZ250WR, 99 GasGas EC200

http://www.lcsracing.com
http://www.smackovermotorsports.com