Whiplash Snowflake 2006, 9-3-06

This past weekend I ran my first race in the Whiplash Desert Racing series. The race was up in Snowflake. This race is always their biggest race of the year because it always falls on labor day and everyone makes a vacation out of it. This year was no exception and they had the largest turnout ever. All first time whiplash racers are put into the 900 class. (that doesn't mean they haven't raced before, they just haven't raced with whiplash before) There were over 60 entrants just for this class! In total there were about 140 quads there and 201 motorcycles plus the trucks and buggies who raced on saturday.

The race course is a natural terrain course made up of narrow trails, powerline roads and jeep trails. Each lap is about 29 miles. Since there were so many 900 class racers they split the quads into two run groups. I was in the first run group with the 900's, 600's (40+ intermediate) and 700's (40+ expert). They start you off the starting line in pairs, 20 seconds apart. I was in line waiting for them to start the 600's and 700's and I had to piss badly. I was friggin nervous so I had my dad pull my quad up while I ran to the porta potty in my helmet and gear. LMAO. We were only set to do 3 laps, normally it would be a 4 lap race.

Unfortunately I was gridded behind two retards on two strokes. Apparently two strokes are likely harleys, they don't idle on their own or so their owners would make it seem. So they are constantly revving their pieces of crap. Finally I got to the line, I was next to some guy on a new Suzuki LTR450. I killed him out of the hole and nearly overshot the first corner but I stayed ahead of the guy and never saw him again. Within 3 miles I had caught and passed a few people and about 6 miles in I was hung up behind a pack of slow riders. It was so dusty I could barely see so I had to hang back and wait for a good place to pass. I was stuck behind them for quite a while. At about the 16 mile mark my thumb was dying and my arm was cramping. Finally I made it around and I was looking for my dad and my pit place. I pulled in and got gas. It turns out I only used 1 gallon on the first lap so I didnt need to come back in for the rest of the race because I could easily do 2 more laps on a tank. While my dad was filling the tank Jolea was massaging my arm, my hole arm was as hard as bone. It was killing me.

The second lap I was fighting my thumb the whole way. I was still catching and passing people but it was killing me. I was trying anything to push on the throttle. one guy caught up to me and I let him pass but I was able to pace him for about 10 miles when suddenly he came to a stop. I asked if he was ok on my way by and he said he was fine but his bike just stopped moving for some reason. Turns out he broke his chain. The rest of the lap was uneventful, I passed a lot of the 600 and 700 guys who started minutes ahead of me. I came into the pits again and I had my dad wrap my thumb with duct tape.

The duct tape helped a ton. I was on a mission now and my arm was not killing me too badly. If I got up to a slow person I wasn't waiting for them to let me by, I was making my own way. I never bumped anyone but I sure wanted to. All of the older experienced racers would move over when they saw a faster rider coming up. But these morons in the 900 class would never get out of your way and they would even try blocking a faster rider. It seems they would try to go faster when someone caught them instead of slowing slightly and moving over a foot or two. Finally I made it around to the checker. When I was done my thumb was shaking and I could barely feel my arms. My legs were pretty damn tired too. But it was a blast.

Later in the day they posted the results and I was 6th by 7 seconds. However my 3rd lap was my best lap and it was the 3rd best single lap of anyone in my class. If only I had wrapped my thumb from the start!! I think I might try a twist throttle next time.

The next race is October 13th in Page. There is also an ITP MX race at speedworld on the 23rd I plan to race at. This shit is fun!

Here are the few pics I took: http://www.godfatheracing.com/pictures/whiplashsept06/

and more pics from someone else: http://krockphotos.com/photos.html