2017 NMA Off-Road Series Rd#2 WHITE KNUCKLE GP

Okay, Sunday morning and I am feeling rough.  My body is toast from exerting so much energy into yesterday's race while battling the flu.  Again my heart tells me to go race while my body is really pissed at me.  We head back to Odessa for round #2, White Knuckle GP. 

Apparently this race is typically held somewhere else in Odessa but because of the weather conditions, Stump Jumpers MC decided to hold the race at the same location and use the same track as Frostbite but in reverse direction.  Long Course race was in the morning this time with the Short Course running afterwards.  It was cold, damp, and a struggle to throw my leg back over the bike.  I really got the heart rate going when I found out the race started 30min sooner than I thought.  I raced to get ready and in doing so forgot my goggles on my way to the starting line.  I was now in full panic mode.

Once the blood started flowing I got much more comfortable on the bike.  My start wasn't great but I managed to keep a distance from others to avoid collisions and worked my way through the pack.  My hand guard on the throttle side yet came loose again early in the race, this time without going down.  I had to stop a number of different times to mess with the hand guard as it came out of the bar end and was slapping all around still attached to the bar near the triple clamp.  After messing with the hand guard for too long, I managed to fold it across my front number plate and out of my way.  Little did I know that while pounding my way through the course full of whoops, the hand guard destroyed my upper fork tube.

Aside from the hand guard issues, my body handled this race much better.  I did make a pit stop on my last lap to avoid running out of fuel but probably could have finished without.  I went down once in the endurocross section over a tire section.  I think I bumped into another rider who was stuck in the obstacle which threw me off balance and ended with me and the bike on the ground.  Somehow my bike was tangled in some course rope that when I picked the bike up it went WOT and shot out from me going down again.  It was a pretty good laugh and probably more exciting for the by standers watching me.  One of the bystanders helped me untangle the bike and away I went. 

Overall the course was much of the same condition as the day before.  The race finished before the rain which was a relief.  Although I felt much better my results didn't improve much.  I want to blame that on the hand guard forcing me to stop multiple times to screw with but without that problem I probably would have finished in the same position.  I didn't get hurt and I stayed off the ground, for the most part, so it was a good race in my book.

NMA Off-Road Series Rd #2 White Knuckle GP

Odessa, WA

Open B Class

4th Place