Old Guys Rule Fernley International Old Timers Motocross

This was the second round of the 2016 International OT motocross racing season. The first round was held in Arizona.

A lot of riders showed up Friday to ride practice from 10-3, I was one of them. The weather was far from perfect, the north wind was steady with frequent gusts and it was cold. By the time I got there and did a couple of practice sessions the track was already getting rough. The track set up typically for Fernley is jumps that are safe and fool you into thinking the track is going to be too easy. Well, not true it does get rough and there are lots of sandy corners that are very soft and if you don’t carry enough speed you will wallow around and genuinely look like a squid. 

I was struggling a little with my suspension and was making numerous changes while practicing, without much success. A friend of mine says Doug you know about suspension right, (And of course I puffed up a little) he say’s I’m having trouble with my suspension and I read this article (He reads lots of articles) and in it they said if you’re experiencing this, do this. I say gee that sounds nice and kept going the opposite direction with my settings. After he had made a couple of the changes suggested in the article he tells me, it’s working great now. So after going as far as I could in the opposite direction I decided to try it the article’s way and low and behold it worked great. I did confess to him that I had made a couple of changes. (Big fib I made big changes) 

First thing Saturday morning is practice followed by a riders meeting, our national anthem, then Canadian national anthem. (It’s an International organization and event) then the first moto. Sunday is a repeat of Saturday except there are only two motos instead of the three on Saturday. The weather Saturday and Sunday was great!

Since this was my first race since breaking my back in January I signed up in the really old class. Our race consisted of two gate drops. The intermediates and experts on the first gate and the rest of us on the second gate. My normal class would have been the first gate.  After the first gate the second gate drops about fifteen to twenty seconds later. My first priority was to get the hole shot on my row then see if I could catch any riders who started on the first gate. I had no idea how I’d do since I’ve been off the bike for months healing. I surprised myself with both my speed and fitness. I was able to pass my way up to the top five in the expert class every race and actually ended up passing my way up to third on the last moto on Sunday. I’ll take that especially starting from the second gate.

Sunday’s motos started out different, my plan of getting the hole shots didn’t pan out. The first moto I found myself at the last second trying to decide how I was going to start and promptly got hung up in the gate. I thought to myself “what a rookie mistake.” So the first lap was spent catching and passing the guys on my row. The second moto went better but one of our club members who had been trying to beat me into the first corner on Saturday beat me to the first turn both motos on Sunday.  He was elated to say the least. “That made my weekend” he said. Unfortunately for him he used all his energy trying to stay ahead of me and got caught at the end of the last moto on Sunday by the rider he was competing with for the overall win in his class. He said it was still worth it. 

Our club referee was being pestered all weekend by a rider who wanted to move back down in class because he was so out of shape and was getting his ass kicked. Now this rider is a rather large man with a more than ample belly. When he told the referee he was out of shape I overheard the referee say “How you would know when you were in shape” I had to turn by back so I could laugh. 

My new Yamaha YZ450FX (Electric Start) worked excellent. The bike was very stable and even though the track got rough it handled the deep whoops well, no hint of kicking sideways. The SBB suspension worked great there was no harsh feed back to the hands through all the rough stuff.

The club had a great turnout and did a very good job throughout the weekend. The track held up well from a dust standpoint. I don’t think there were any serious injuries. The club had some nice raffle prizes. And the big news was the dinner, this year’s dinner was very good. They had it catered by a well known catering company. I’m sure they were trying to make up for last year’s dinner which was shall we say poor and leave it at that.  

I think most everyone had a great time. I say most, because there was the rider who showed up on a 2014.5 KTM factory Edition that his son had given him, who after Saturday’s races packed up and headed home. A long drive cursing the bike because it kept stalling. He was determined to ride the bike in third gear all the way around the track. (I don’t know what his skill level was, but I’d bet there were only few who were carrying enough speed through all those deep sand corners to stay in third) anyway he left blaming it all on the bike. 

The next race will be hosted by the Sierra Old Timers MC and held on the Iconic “Hangtown” track at Prairie City on June 11^th an 12^th. There will be an open practice on Friday the 10^th. 

Hope to see you there.

 

Doug 21J