The next to last Texas Desert Racing event of the year was way out west, about six and a half hours driving west of Austin in a place called Notrees, Texas. I had raced there last year and won, but there were only a couple of us on motos that year. One got a pair of tire punctures and I don’t remember what happened to the other one, but it left me as the only one to complete all three 35 mi laps. When we finally got to Notrees, I could see several more bikes and at least one quad which was really exciting!
I met Mark again, he had been at last race at Texana Ranch and I discovered he had raced the Baja 500 both on a team and as an Ironman and had also race a leg at the B1k! I also saw the moto121 guys, Colin had crashed out of the Texana race after a dislocated hip from a crash, but he was back in full force and he was fast.
The course was more or less the same, but its always nice to prerun to get eyes on everything. This year there was a bit more rain ruts, and I really after driving for almost seven hours, I was having trouble focusing and going fast at all. Prerun is not about going fast, but to some extent you need to ride sort of quick to see how the course feels, but I just couldn’t get my head in it and to top it all off I had my ancient Garmin GPSMAP jump out of its cradle between RM-17 and RM-25. I backtracked but never did find it.
After finish up prerun I did an oil change and found a few metallic flakes (NOOO!!!) in there. I had been seeing hints of bronze for a little while, but had been pretending it wasn’t there. Well, It was and it was getting worse. Nothing to do but replace the oil and hope the motor didn’t grenade in the race. Nothing helps you forget motorcycle troubles like food so I, my wife and our 2yo son loaded up and headed to Odessa and after a stop at Lowes to get parts to repair my Leatt hydration set up, we get a burger and a shake which was pretty tasty.
On the way home all heck broke loose. The heavens opened and the rain poured down and there was about a 40mph crosswind on the half hour drive to Notrees. On top of that the milkshake didn’t set well with Edmund and he heaved-ho and it came out the way it went in so we pulled over and Kath changed him into clean clothes just in time for round two… Oh well what can you do?
The rain never really let up so we slept in the van. The moto was sitting outside, but a little rain wouldn’t hurt it. Kath and Edmund slept on the floor on some mats and I swung in a seriously stressed hammock above them. The rain on the metal roof of the van put me straight to sleep even though I was a little concerned the race might be canceled.
Well The motos were set to start at 0700, but after a peak outside around 0530 it was clear that wasn’t going to happen the place was soaked so I went back to sleep for a few hours. I finally got up around 0800 and checked in with the race headquarters. They said we would have a drivers meeting in about 30 minutes. At the meeting we were given the option of no race or a highly modified course that was about 16mi and running backwards from the prerun. We all voted to race.
I set up a handie-talkie for Kath and she managed to wrangle Edmund and drag some gas and food to the finish line/pit area for me. Amazing lady…
There were four Production Class UTV’s starting immediately ahead of me, at Texana this was a small problem because I started 30sec behind them, solidly in their dust, but that was not a problem today .
I was the first moto off and I caught a UTV as it caught a second UTV only about 2 or 3 miles into the lap. I now had two UTVs racing, looking to get around each other with me looking to get around both of them. Chased behind the UTVs for a mile or so waiting to pass. I saw a few spots I “could” have passed but the last thing I wanted was to start a pass on the second UTV only to have them swing into me to try for a pass themselves. Eventually the rear UTV saw me and moved over right as we entered a turn and I was able to make a quick clean, safe pass on both and rocket away.
Kath would radio me with estimated gaps to the motos behind me which rally helps me stay in the groove. I had trouble with staying focused on the prerun, but today I was feeling really good.
As I completed the lap I stopped and TDRA got my number and waved me on. I took off and by-passed the pit electing to trust my fuel range for now. As each rider cam in Kath would let me know. She told me the 121 guys were gassing up and swapping riders. Cool I thought, fresh rider, but i had put a little time into them on the first lap, I’ll just keep it moving and I should be fine. Well, about half a lap later 121 come ripping by on the outside of a turn and tears off. I couldn’t believe how fast they were going and that they had already caught me. It put a little fire in my belly and I really chased hard. I would quickly close the gap in the straights but 121 would be faster in the turns. I chased for a couple of miles and after a 60deg left turn into a long straight 121 got bucked on a rock and came down a bit sideways and after a couple of swaps highsided and he and the bike cart wheeled for what seemed 100yds. We were doing about 60mph when he ate it… I checked up hard, he wasn’t that far in front at the time. As I stopped he sat up and as I got to him after getting off my bike he was saying he just knocked the wind out of him self and he struggled to his bike, sat it up and began kicking. I radioed the race HQ that he had crashed, and took back off since he seemed OK. It turns out he rode the bike back in, but hurt his shoulder a bit, but nothing that wont heal.
Seeing the 121 crash was a bit sobering, but I always try to ride within my limits so I really didnt slow down after that at all, in fact it was after the 121’s crash that I hit 94.6mph (it felt every bit as fast as it sounds).
Kath Gave me some food and gassed me up at the end of lap-3 which is wear I learned the 121 bike was out, its too bad those guys are really fast. after a quick pit I was back out. I have a persistent paranoia of getting caught so I pushed hard for the next two laps.
At about the same place the 121 passed me I started seeing dust and saw the 44(?) UTV. It took a while to catch them and a bout a mile for them to see me sitting on their hip, but as soon as the saw me they swung over, I drilled it and blew past on a fast straight. I but a good bit of time into them on the next couple of sections and when I finished Kath told me I had a really good gap over the next moto and had won!
It’s such a good feeling to win. There may not be as many riders as in a D-37, BITD or SCORE race, but these guys are great riders and some of them like Mark have done several big races in Baja.
TDRA gives out some really awesome awards. I got a nice hefty stainless plaque with a nice easy to read 1st place on it. I still need to find somewhere to hang it.
Edmund was sick, Kath was a trooper taking care of the little vomit monster and I was beat after a race, even if it was shorted to about 80mi. My bike was covered in mud but in the van it went. It was getting late and as I driver through the Midland/Odessa area I decided it was unwise to try to make it all the way home so we got a hotel and slept like a log.
After we got home, the cycle began again. I had major motor surgery to do. I ordered a crank, piston, rings, some bearings, a cam chain since I was in there, an “A” and “B” gasket kits… and I decided to race the 2019 Baja 500! All this maintenance will get me to the finish, but while the motor is open I will be taking a close look at all the guts and make sure it is in top shape for a long 500+ mile race in Baja.
Making Tracks 