May 20 CORCS Round #3 at RAM Off-Road Park

Had high reasonable hopes for my second race with CORCS at RAM the last weekend, I have ridden RAM before and felt very comfortable around the track.  Arriving at the track early we were able to watch the A/B Class race and the course looked reasonably easy and I was getting pretty excited for the race. 

Sighting lap around the course was pretty event-less, although the course had more surprises for the racers than were visible from the parking lot...  (lots of steep climbs and descents and sand).  Got a good long drink of water, turned on my video goggle cam, and lined up on the starting grid.

I took off slow from the line to avoid the craziness of the first quarter lap, started out well, just hung with the back of the pack until the first obstacle, a downhill tight sharp right in a rut, got through but didn't clutch enough and stalled the bike coming out of the narrow turn.  Ended up stuck there trying to start the bike for over a minute (which feels like an eternity) while everyone was flying past from the waves that started behind the C Open class.

Once I got going again got into a decent groove and felt pretty good for the next couple of laps, minus a couple small crashes/stalls (got cut down on those).

The sand was a bit rough, I also made the mistake of putting a bit too much tire pressure in before the race, I think this affected my confidence in the sand as I was loosing the front tire often which led to many near crashes.  I did though clear my first tabletop (maybe a 10-12 footer) which was pretty fun!

Lap 3 I got tangled up with a faster rider that was lapping me, which led to another crash for me and I burned my knee picking the bike up on the exhaust side, fortunately wasn't too bad.  After this I started getting even more tired and worn out and found myself having more and more close calls.  I took a lengthy break after lap 3 to get some water and just get my head right again.

I went back out on my 4th lap and didn't get too far, on a tight up hill switchback I lost the rear real bad, it came around and launched me off a 3-4 foot ledge!  The bike landed upside down (don't remember how I landed) and broke off the front brake lever and the handlebars were tweaked crooked.  Fortunately there were some safety crew members near by who guided me back to the pits off the race track.  I wasn't too worse for wear, just caught one of the bar ends with my stomach on my way over the ledge which left a nasty bruise/welt on my gut for quite a while, and my hands were a bit tender for a couple days, must've tried to brace my fall with my hands (not smart I know!).

So that ended my race very short, but it was a telling race and I've got some work to do.  Looking at posted lap times the one lap I didn't crash/stall I ran somewhat competitively in the 65-75% range of the C Open Class.  I just need to be more consistent.  I am also looking at revalving my suspension, the MX suspension on the RMZ is so harsh that I believe that contributes quite a bit to my fatigue during the race which leads to sloppiness and ultimately crashes. 

Looking forward to the next race! 

April 22 CORCS Race #2 Fountain Creek Motorsports Park

Well time finally came for my first race in over two years and my first ever race on dirt!  I just purchased my 2005 Suzuki RMZ 250 a month ago with the intentions of racing supermoto only, but saw a CORCS (Colorado Off-Road Championship Series) flyer at the bike shop and figured "Why not?  I have the dirt wheels, might as well try it." 
My dirt riding experience consists of a few trips some local MX tracks and several mountain trail outings on my Kawasaki KDX trail bike, I had only ridden my RMZ once prior to the race.  But I had felt very good on the RMZ the one trip out to the RAM MX track.  I figured with my experience I could easily follow some of the slow guys in the C class...
At the track we were allowed one sighting lap of the 6 mile course at 11AM and then the race would start at 11:30AM and run for 1 1/2 hours, as many laps as you can do.  The sighting lap didn't go to well, someone stalled and crashed in a sandy banked turn, I stopped and stalled behind him trying to avoid him, and the RMZ did not want to start.  Took what seemed like forever to get it kick started again and by then I was way behind everyone and already tired from all the kicking.  I was also not used to the course layout, it consisted of small 3" x 3" signs on trees with arrows and colored ribbon marking the course in some areas, something my eyes weren't accustomed to picking out.  I crashed once and ran way of course several times blowing past turns that I didn't see in time without anyone to follow.  This was not starting out well, I finally made it to the starting grid tired when the race was just about to start, so much for a breather...
A short description of the track:  It is 6 miles through the trees beside Fountain creek.  Of those 6 miles at least 5 miles are tight single track and at least half of those are whoops (I hate whoops).  It also included two 1/4 mile sections of long deep sand washes alongside the creek.

The race of 50+ riders in the C class started out with a huge dust cloud.  I just hung back and tried not to get in anyone's way.  Passing was very rough in the opening 1/2 a lap as is required in tight single track riding, this was a bit of a surprise and a bit unnerving.
The race quickly turned from trying to stay with anyone to just making it to the finish.  I had several miscues including my unprotected brake lever catching thick reeds at least once a lap, lurching me to a stop and me frustratingly pulling the stupid things off my front brake lever (bark busters a must before the next race!).  I also noticed a problem with my throttle I hadn't noticed in my previous ride at the MX track on the RMZ (which was higher speed), the throttle stop seemed to be raised, this caused the bike to barely engine brake and actually accelerate at low speeds in first gear, this would literally push me into the corners as I was easing off the brakes, not a good feeling!  I crashed a couple times due to this.  I was able to resolve it after the first lap by turning down the knob on the carb in the gas/water pit area.  This helped a lot with being able to properly engine brake into the corners.
The next and biggest problem was fatigue, I just wasn't prepared for the physical demands of this type of riding, I had never done any single track riding and never near as many whoops.  After the first two laps I could hardly bear to stand on the bike, which forced me to go even slower...

After the third lap with the running time at 1hr 10 minutes I pitted for a breather and some water.  The bike stalled on me while idling.  I kicked and kicked and would get it for a bit only for it to stall, I was getting so hot I took my helmet and gloves off, but then it would start and stall when I'd take my hand off the throttle to put my helmet on...  After 5+ minutes of this I said "screw it" and pushed my bike back to my truck...
It was a very humbling experience, and I ended up second to last (pitty the poor guy behind me).  But I gained a good understanding of what harescrambles and offroad racing are all about.  I plan to get more practice (and bark busters) and get back out there to the next race!  The next race is at RAM offroad park where I've ridden once, it is a bit more open and few if any trees, so I'm hoping to fare a bit better...  We'll see...