Thursday, November 24, 2011

250 video, November

Hey everybody!  This is a little video I put together on my iPhone.  Most of this was on Thanksgiving today.  We got the 250 2-stroke back together on Saturday after blowing it up a couple weeks ago.  All good now!

Not much has been going on lately.  It's getting colder, but I'm still getting out to ride twice a week.  I've also started running more.  You see, I used to hate running a lot.  I thought it was one of the worst things..  But now I started running for some reason, and it's actually pretty peaceful!  So I pretty much made an enemy into a friend. Yay!

See ya, enjoy the video! -Greg

Sunday, November 6, 2011

2011 Club 57 Challenge

Hey everybody!  The Club 57 challenge was today!  And it couldn't have gone much better. 

I knew I was going to have a lot of riding at this race, so some extra rest from day light savings time helped me out a little.  We even got to the track early! That's a little different than usual.  So I had plenty of time to get ready for the sight lap.  Ahh, the sight lap.. Some parts of the track were so slippery, especially the grass track part.  At that point I got a little nervous for the race.

But what was there to worry about, anyway?  This was the first race I've done where we had a dead engine start.  This was good for my 250 races, but not as good for my 450 races. Ok, on to the racing part...

450 moto 1:  Didn't get bike started on first kick.  I was like in 8th place about 3 turns into the race.  Made some passes and then got into a good battle with Malachi Messenger.  I almost got by him halfway through the race, but I missed a line.. That's ok. On the last lap there was someone down, Malachi went to the inside, I went to the outside.  And I just pinned it past him.  Lucky me!  So I got 2nd in my class in that race, but 3rd with the combined classes...

250 moto 1:  Boom, holeshot!  Push push push.  30 second lead. Win! :D That's about it for that moto.

450 moto 2:  Bad start again, hectic first turn with some guys going down in front of me.  But I got by it fine and started pushing.  The guy who beat me in the first 450 moto was right in front of me, and I knew I had to pass him to get the overall win.  And guess what happened on the second to last lap: he fell over!  Boom, I got around and just kept it on two wheels for the rest of the race. 1st overall!

250 moto 2:  Ok, at this point in the day I was pretty tired.  But I had to try and win the overall.  So I started it off good with another holeshot!  About two turns into the race my fingers and my legs started cramping up.  Ouch.  But I got relaxed and kept pushing.  It was on the second or third lap when I stalled my bike, which allowed Scott Zont to get by.  He was right on me, anyway.  At that point there was absolutely no one behind me for quite some time.  So all I had to do was ride out the race to get the overall win.  Well, I kept pushing but I also didn't stress about it too much.  I had to focus on not messing up in some rutted woods sections..

So today was a successful day!  Two 1st place overalls.  So now I'm super tired from the four 30 minute motos...

Have a nice day! -Greg

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Getting colder

It's starting to get colder here in Illinois.  Luckily I've had a good amount of riding lately.  A couple weeks ago I went to a GP race at Sunset Ridge.  That was a kind of weird day because we woke up super late but still had plenty of time to get to the track in time for the 450 class.  Since it was more of an old-school type of race, I put on some UFO retro gear and raced my 250 2-stroke.  I remember that in the first moto I had a good battle with some guys the first two laps and then caught up to first place.  But the leader started pulling away from me in the woods section every lap.  2nd place wasn't too bad!  The arm pump from that race was kind of bad...

The 2nd moto started off good with a good start, but went bad pretty fast.  First lap in the woods I went off the trail and, therefore, had to get off my bike, pull it back, and then get going again.  That made pretty much everyone pass me...  So I started pushing hard and slid out in the grass track part.  That race just wasn't very good for me.  I still ended up passing a bunch of people and getting 4th place or something.  3rd overall on the day wasn't that bad!  That was the first race I did since the Lake County Fair.

The following weeks it started raining a lot more and, therefore, there was a little less dirt bike riding and a little more mountain bike riding at Ray's MTB.  That place is funnnn!  It's not as fun if you face plant in the expert jumps, though.  Yep, I face planted in the expert jumps.  Kind of hurt...  Now I've recovered from those injuries, though.

While recovering from those injuries I decided to go to the last Red Bud practice day of the year.  The track was really soft from the rain.  But it was also really good!  My practices were going really good, I was riding the fastest I've ever ridden there before.  It felt good!  But in the second to last practice I blew up my yz 250...  This was the same lap that I got my fastest lap.  Danggg.  And when I went out for the last practice on the 450, I crashed pretty hard coming out of a turn.  I didn't know it until I got off the track, but I had dislocated my pinkie.  Ouchie.  We got it back in place, though.  It was a pretty destructive day!

Lately there's been more rain and more riding.  The rain has given me a little extra time to do things I haven't done.  Like write this blog.  And apply to colleges.  Yes, I actually started applying to college.  Pretty crazy, I know.

For the winter months my dad and I are trying to make my 1974 CB200 awesome.  I hope it comes out good.  I'll try to keep all of you updated.

-Greg