Sidewinder Short View

By

Jim Sally

I had been looking forward to the Sidewinder Enduro for months. Due to events beyond my control, I wasn’t able to make the Renegade race so this would be my first race of the new season.

It was raining in Big ‘D’ Saturday when I left for Austin and I was hoping it would head down South with me. I had heard earlier in the week that String Prairie, my ultimate destination, was extremely dry and a little rain would keep the dust down.

I pulled into camp but unfortunately the rain didn’t. The field, which was converted to a campground, was fairly crowded. This event was a combination of Enduro and Hare Scrambles folks sharing the same campground and trail.

It was a brisk Sunday morning and looked like a great day to race. The start was located at the end of the campground/pasture as in the past. All the Enduro riders would take off as normal and then one hour after the last row the Hare Scrambles riders would leave.

I was on an early row and was getting anxious to start. Row 1 left then row 2 then row 3, etc. While getting all my electronics checked I glanced up and saw row 1 show up back at the start. Then some riders from each row ahead of me started showing up at the start. I thought they all must have not been paying attention and I told myself, "Make sure to watch for the trail". My row left and I made sure to watch the trail along with the rest of my row. The next thing I see is the start again! Oops! Oh well, it was a good warm up.

I headed back down the trail and followed the right trail this time. Apparently the trail a lot of riders were following was from the mini-enduro held on Saturday. By the time I got back to the point of confusion, a club member was putting brush in front of the errant trail. This was a task that should probably have been done prior to the start of the race.

I made it to the first reset and got ready for the check into the first test section. The trail was a blast. Lots of tight woods mingled with sand and whoops. The name Sidewinder is definitely appropriate. I lost minutes in the first few checks but was having loads of fun doing so. A faster rider than myself, but who isn’t, passed me in a whooped out section swapping back and forth but ultimately saving it. I told myself, "Don’t do that". I answered myself by swapping, doing an uncontrolled Superman that would make McGrath cringe, and then taking a dirt/bark sample with my head. Fortunately the dirt was soft, along with my head, so there was no damage to my bike, the poor trees, or me.

After the main gas stop, there was a Known Control just before a special test grass track. I roosted out of the Known and proceeded to prune several branches off of the tree near the first turn. A simple full twist of the throttle untangled me and almost ripped my helmet off. Fortunately it remained connected to my head and my head to my body. The track was big fun and high speed. We did a few miles of open stuff and then darted back into the woods. There was even a little mud crossing up a bank with spectators to boot! The club must have imported the water and mud because that was about all that we rode through.

I motored on to the finish trying not abuse any more of the million or so trees that were trying to knock me down. Overall the race was a lot of fun. I spoke with some Hare Scramble riders who said they enjoyed the race also. Kudos to the club for setting up a really challenging and fun event and coordinating all the land use with all the different factions.