2nd MX Race, ITP Quadcross, Speedworld, 9-24-06

This weekend the ITP quadcross came to town. It is a quads only southwest motocross series. I decided to make this my second motocross race of my elustrious career. I figured even if I get killed it will be fun to watch the pros race. Jeremy Lovett just bought a 2006 TRX450R 3 weeks ago and his brother has a 2000 400EX and they have been going to the tack with me for 2 weeks and they decided to race too.

Friday we showed up for practice and I immediately noticed the lack of stock quads. Everyone had some really nice, worked machines. In practice I was getting passed by quite a few people and I was only passing a few guys so I knew the competition level was going to be a lot different for this race. I was happy to see they took out the whoops section and added a rhythm section that was killing everyone even the pros. Practice was fun and Jeremy and Nick did well, everytime they get on the track you can see improvement.

Saturday I got there an hour before practice and all the parking was virtually gone. There ended up being 245 quads for this event which was a new ITP record. I was racing in 4 stroke beginner and there were so many of us they split us into two race groups. Somehow I was "lucky" enough to barely make it into the race group that had all of the "beginners" who were in town from CA for the race since they were in the points chase for the overall series.

In my first heat I was the last person to get a gate so I got gate #1 which is the absolute worst place to be. The first corner is a left hander and gate #1 is so far over you have to turn right, into everyone before you can make the left hander. It was a crazy start, I ended up probably 12th into the first corner but after the huge table top section I was in 6th or 7th. I was able to stay with the lead pack for 2 laps and then I fell back and I was holding onto 5th. Oh yeah, we also had to do 5 laps, I have never done 5 laps at a race pace before, most races are 4 laps. On the 3rd lap one of the top riders wrecked so that bumped me up a spot. You can see the end of the wreck in the video somewhere. On the 5th lap I wasn't able to hold of the guy behind me anymore so he passed me and I got 6th. Everyone in front of me was from out of town so I was happy enough.

The 2nd and final heat was only a 4 lapper and I got a decent gate this time due to my finishing position in race 1. Going into the first turn I was in the lead pack and I passed my way from 8th to 4th and for the entire race I held 4th and there was a guy on my ass the whole way. My arms were fried but I really wanted 4th so I was happy to hold him off. The lead pack of 3 riders was a good 25 seconds ahead of me.

So with a 6th and 4th position I ended up 5th overall and got a nice sprocket shaped trophy.

I was only able to watch jeremy and nick's first race. They were towards the back of the pack for the first few laps but then they started picking people off at the end so it was cool to see them doing some passing. Jeremy has only been riding for 3 weeks!

The next race is the Page whiplash desert race which is one of those 3 hour endurance races. My goal is to place in the top 3 three. I have never seen the course so it will be interesting.

Here is the big vid jeremy and his wife took. The first part is me practicing then it has a mix of my race, the pros race and jeremy and nick's final race. It is 42MB but you can just download part of it and it should still play. Oh yeah, the pros do 8 laps! They have crazy stamina.

http://www.godfatheracing.com/othervids/September%202006%20ITP%20Quadcross.wmv