Yeah, it's late...so sue me (caution, Moto content)

[color=blue:53d55]So Thursday night comes, and we strike out for Lakewood, CO, by way of Prescott, AZ. We slept for a few hours, then got up & headed out to CO. About 11 hours later, we rolled into Vail, CO. Super Rat was out working on a Trackhoe, supposedly prepping land for a new build. We figure he probably just borrowed it, so he could look busy when we got there...we didn't buy into it, though. Rat & his super-sweet wife Kyla (who evidently must believe in the whole "love is blind" thing) put us up in a sweet 3 room condo next to theirs. While I'm on the subject, they have a fricken sweet crib going...complete log cabin-style, and sitting right on a river, complete with Trout...and Bears! At any rate, we rested a little, then went into town & took a Gondola ride up the mountain to have dinner. Naturally, we all forgot our cameras, so we don't have any pics...but suffice to say that it kicked ass. Good BBQ, live band, & beautiful weather. The only thing that could have made it better...strippers! We headed back home, shot the bull for a bit, made a few malicious posts as Rat on MD, then hit the sack in preparation for Saturdays journey to Lakewood.
We were up early on Saturday, & hit a little diner around the corner from Rat's house for some grub. Killer food, & $5/glass Orange Juice that they all but shove down your throat. Fat, dumb, & happy, we hit the road headed towards Denver. We pulled into the Lakewood track about an hour later, & were greeted with a pretty healthy crowd for a Saturday. I would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-7,000 people were already there by 11 AM, to check out practice, qualifiers, & the WMA race. The track looked pretty sweet, with a mixture of sand & different flavors of dirt. It had elevation changes, off-cambers, typical Nat'l style obstacles, & even a SX-ish feel to it in some places. The weather was nice & sunny, somewhere in the mid-90's. We walked around a bit, & checked out the best viewing areas. Jay got a call from BobbyM, who broke the news that Bubba would not be riding. A pisser, for sure, but not entirely unexpected. After being robbed of seeing him race in PHX, I was looking forward to seeing him in action. Kids will be kids, I guess. The track started out pretty overwatered & nasty, but at least the dust was minimal, & overall, it got rough but looked fun. Riding got underway, with the WMA chicks drawing first practice & being the first to break in the slop. JP$ set the pace, even with a busted collarbone. Unseeded 125, Seeded 125/250, & unseeded 250 practices followed. In the 250F class, lots of riders looked strong...Short, MAlessi, Langston, & Kiniry really seemed to shine. Walker had a couple close calls...so close, I'm pretty sure he had to run back to the pits for a change of drawers. In the 250/450 class, the usual suspects looked good...RC, Windham, Reed, & even Fonseca...all of which did a gnarly uphill Triple at least once, along with Nick Wey. It didn't seem to make up much time, but it sure looked sick. Some local privateer took a crack at it, too, & damn near wadded big, destroying a hay bail in the process. Ballsy, none-the-less. We watched the first WMA moto, which JP$ took with relative ease. I think it was Whitmore who took 2nd (not 100% sure, though), & Satchwell coming back from an early crash to take 3rd. We stayed for a few of the 125 & 250 class qualifiers, then headed out for some grub in Denver, followed by the trip home & a couple beers then bed. Was a good day that could only have been made better with...that's right, strippers!
Sunday came, & we got a later start than we should have. We rolled up to the track around 9:30-ish, & it was already packed with people, & the good spots were being taken quickly. We chose a spot near the top of the hill by the downhill dbl/dbl section, & could see damn-near most of the track. We all agreed it was the best overall view of a National that we had ever seen. I won't go into the racing too much, since it's covered in depth elsewhere, but I will say this...Ivan KILLED it in the 250F class! The kid has really come a long way & deserves all the props he gets, along with the rumored factory ride for next year. Shorty was also right there, keeping him honest in both motos, & was the obvious crowd favorite. GL seemed to be a bit off & collected soil samples from several different parts of the track in the 2nd moto. Brown never appeared too comfortable with the track, & was never a factor. For a kid two races into his Pro career, Jason Lawrence looked really good, & seems to be living up to the hype. In the 250/450 class, KW looked smooth & solid (especially in the 2nd moto, where he led for a good portion of the race), but was just no match for RC. They gapped 3rd place Reed by two weeks in the first moto. Reed was all alone & took 3rd in both motos. Fonseca looked good, & rode solid in both motos. Le Cobra was kinda the surprise of the day for me, & rode hard all the way to the checkers in both motos. I think he might have swapped moto scores with Fonseca? At any rate, the racing was good in both classes. Trying to get out of the parking lot was not so great. It seems to me that they were all gung-ho about getting people parked, but then they sent everyone home & it was a free-for-all trying to get out of there. That'd be my suggestion for #2 item to address next year...#1 being the addition of some strippers. We were all pretty wiped out after eating dinner & driving home. We were up the next morning @ 4 AM, & the drive home to AZ was a long, uneventful 13-ish hours. Once again, many thanks to Rat, Kyla, & Senna for the hospitality, & Jay, Jim, & Brett for the good times. Maybe this will become a yearly trek for us...but if so, I'm flying! Here are a few pics I took of the racing:

View of the track/crowd from our perch:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/Crowd1.jpg[/img:53d55]

RC:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/RC1.jpg[/img:53d55]

KW leading Moto 2:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/KDubleads.jpg[/img:53d55]

CR:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/Reed2.jpg[/img:53d55]

Fonz:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/Fonz1.jpg[/img:53d55]

Le Cobra:
[img:53d55]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/kx397/LeCobra3.jpg[/img:53d55]

I probably forgot some details, and what-not, but uhhh....who cares? It was a good time & I look forward to going back, especially if they hook up the strippers! Next stop, GH...//TJ[/color:53d55]